David Cronenberg understands more deeply than any other director the absurdity of living with a physical body in an artificial world. And the artifice of our world is increasing – we are a long way from the staticky TV sets and VHS tapes of Videodrome (1983). Cronenberg, to his credit, has kept up with the times, which have provided him no shortage of issues to explore.
In his latest, The Shrouds, Cronenberg takes on grief. Karsh (Vincent Kassel) has lost his wife Becca (Diane Kruger) four years ago. He has since financed a company called GraveTech that allows him, and other clients, to monitor their loved ones’ decomposition in their graves with a video feed connected to an app. One day, the graves are desecrated and the feeds are hijacked. Karsh must uncover who is behind the hijack while also still grieving his wife.
It’s an admittedly great premise, but unfortunately, Cronenberg can’t quite create compelling enough characters to support it. The film is also riddled with bad exposition and some quite preposterous plot points. On the other hand, Cronenberg’s body horror bona fides are better than ever here – including one revulsive technological invasion of privacy that’s a true standout moment. This can make for some whiplash in the viewing experience – a scene that’s laughably bad could be followed by another that’s a complete knockout. But The Shrouds is never boring.
Cronenberg has gravitated towards science fiction in his body horror films, but The Shrouds never strays far from reality. It is set in the present day or near future, with technology that’s very plausible. But just because it is possible for technology to show you your loved ones as they decompose over time, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Cronenberg milks a lot from the imagery of the stages of body decomposition, which never ceases to unsettle.
However, Karsh’s character never really has the internality needed to sell the movie’s premise. We see some surreal dreams/memory sequences of his wife in the late stages of her cancer, but we don’t get the picture during his daily activities that he is distraught or grieving meaningfully. In fact, some of his actions late in the movie are remarkably inconsistent with grief – the idea is dropped, rather than resolved. Grief is an idea the movie has, rather than Karsh’s reality.
Guy Pearce is also mostly wasted, as a character whose schizophrenia is used as a plot device in a particularly egregious way. Diane Kruger is mostly good in three roles: Karsh’s deceased wife Becca, her surviving sister Terry, and the voice of Karsh’s AI personal assistant Hunny. Sandrine Holt is a refreshing presence that grounds the movie in a way that’s badly needed, but she also ends up with pretty little to do.
The central mystery at the core of The Shrouds – who vandalized the GraveTech site – has a lot of infrastructure built up around it, and Cronenberg devotes scene after scene to Karsh having conversations with potential leads and digging up information. But I never really had conviction that the mystery or thriller elements were all that interesting to Cronenberg. There are some twists and turns, and some frustrating fakeouts, and the whole thing fizzles out where it should end with a bang.
So altogether, on just a basic cohesion and storytelling level, The Shrouds is a disappointment. I would think that fans of Cronenberg’s style will find things to like, as he remains a master at body horror and seems attuned to the unique evils of our time. For all but superfans, though, this is one to skip.
