The Shrouds (2024)
I have yet to find a Cronenberg film I actually like, and this wasn’t it either, but I keep coming back because the themes he covers with our relationship with technology should be right up my ally. This is no exception with a rather elaborate plot about a future tech that allows relatives to watch their dead loved ones decay in real time through special cameras in the coffin. Apparently this was originally planned as a tv show, which could maybe have been more interesting if it went a little deeper into the various cultural clashes of how people deal with death, but what remains was mostly a bland TV aesthetic and some odd acting style I had a hard time getting into. There is an early 00s computer aesthetics to whole thing, which just made the whole kind of hokey to me. It is supposed to be about grief, but I wasn’t getting any emotional resonance from Vincent Cassel. Oddly enough, I still want to find whatever Cronenberg film that hits me in just the right spot. I am sure it exists.
Rating: 2