• LIKE on Facebook • FOLLOW on X/Twitter • FOLLOW on Instagram

• SUBSCRIBE on YouTube • BUY ME A COFFEE on Ko-Fi

Stars: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce
Director: David Cronenberg
Distributor: Vertigo Releasing

“How dark are you willing to go?”

David Cronenberg – the Master of Sci-fi and Horror – is back with another disturbing piece of cinematic intrigue. A body horror, of course, but one aided by both surreal and dystopian sci-fi elements. The Shrouds takes no easy route in exploring the horror of grief.

After what felt like a lifetime cycling through studio credits, The Shrouds opens with Vincent Cassel in both physical and mental distress. Such to be repeated throughout the rest of the film as one would naturally expect. Cassel is Karsh, a spooky businessman who is continually haunted by the passing of his wife years before. Karsh’s industry is a hybrid of hospitality and funeral… The invention of GraveTech, is a service that provides 3D imagery of loved ones’ decomposing corpses. Yes, that reads correctly. And with a graveyard restaurant, too. Hence the hospitality.

After an incident at the venue, Karsh goes in pursuit of the aggressors behind the damage. Rather than engaging in official sources and resolution through the police, Karsh, instead, enlists the help of Maury (an erratic Guy Pearce), a tech expert and ex-husband of his former sister-in-law, Terry (Diane Kruger). With the increased association with his former family members, not only are Karsh’s dreams of his widow experiencing growths in despair and the grotesque, but he then finds himself contemplating her death and demise all over again, as well as the mystery behind his graveyard wreckage potentially being internationally related.

Given the subject matter and inspiration behind the film, The Shrouds is top to bottom succumbed with grief. Amongst an array of characters, we see the mental and physical toll that grief takes. Balancing out the darkness of grief, The Shrouds is absolutely littered with black comedy – and more often than not, a result of Vince Cassel’s delivery of lines and reactions. However, there are instances where the comedic moments undercut the severity of a scene or a specific moment, often inflicting a tonal imbalance. Late on, The Shrouds even evolves into a 90s-esque romantic psychological thriller, but this doesn’t actually play out for that long, but instead has the feel of an added bonus.

In virtually every scene shared together by Cassel and Pearce, their respective Karsh and Maury are aggressively opposite. From the aspects of confidence and dress sense to purpose and lifestyle, their oppositional projections make for an often hilarious dynamic.

Cassel’s Karsha does offer great intrigue because of what is not explored. Quite often his history as a successful industrial artist is mentioned, but never explicitly explored. It’s almost that as Karsh is living with grief, all that truly matters and is relevant is his here and now. Grief and loss do not care for who you were, but how you deal with the present.

For as unrealistic and intrusive the development of the funeral industry is in this film, the heavily realistic element is how this new notion of graveyard service is widely accepted and purchased in society. Not without its critics, of course, but in The Shrouds, this is an industry development that has international growth.

Ultimately, this is a much better outing from David Cronenberg than his previous adventure, Crimes of the Future. A film with such a great personal and emotional input, the usual Cronenberg boxes are ticked, but this feature feels much more intimate and delicate.