Cronenberg’s new film Crimes of the Future is disgustingly beautiful

David Cronenberg has stepped back into the cinematic spotlight with a new, ambitious arthouse film wrought with sci-fi and horror. The mind behind 80’s classics like Scanners, Videodrome, and The Fly has crafted a new freaky feature which I might even rank among such films: Crimes of the Future.

Surgery is the new sex

In a world where human evolution has led to various odd mutations, a pair of performance artists showcase the metamorphosis and removal of new organs through arousing acts of live surgery. In other words, this is a very nasty movie. There are lots of cuts, lots of guts, and some elements that are just weird (in a good way, of course).

Crimes of the Future had recently made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May with polarizing results. I will start by suggesting that all you fans of futuristic body horror go and flock to the theaters. However, if you are easily disturbed, you might want to sit this one out (I mean, it’s Cronenberg for Pete’s sake).

“Body is reality.”

From sliced-open abdomens to creature-like technology, Crimes of the Future is packed with practical effects enhanced by CGI to create avant-garde scenes of sensual surgery and mutilation. It’s coupled with a beautiful score composed by Howard Shore, the man behind the music of The Fly, The Silence of the Lambs, The Lord of the Rings series, and The Hobbit series.

The talented cast including Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart, manages to keep the dialogue-heavy scenes interesting (yes, there is a lot of talking in this movie). To be fair, conversations about organ registry and artistic sadism are, I would say, inherently pretty interesting.

Lets take a break from the future and talk about the past. Cronenberg had previously written and directed an hour short in 1970 also titled Crimes of the Future. Although he was unhappy with the outcome of his low-budget short, he remained a huge fan of the title. He began writing a new script with that same title and a completely different plot in1998. It took over 20 years, but the movie was finally made and audiences everywhere were disturbed, enthralled, and left asking “what does this mean?”

*Spoiler alert* – here is a brief explanation of Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future:

Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) was able to grow organs because he had Accelerated Evolution Syndrome. That means he was evolving much faster than everyone else, a condition that was strongly scrutinized. Society was scared, as humanity had already evolved to be void of pain receptors (something that wasn’t particularly advantageous).

What society didn’t know, and what Tenser only realized at the end, is that the human body was working to solve humanity’s problems, specifically, how to get rid of all that industrial waste we’ve pumped into the world. So although people thought that those plastic-eaters were monsters, it turns out that they were actually just really good at adapting to the new environment.

As the credits rolled, we could only hope that Brecken’s dad (Scott Speedman) was successfully made a martyr and that the underdogs of society were eventually able to spread the truth and encourage evolution.

What did you think of Crimes of the Future? Let us know in the comments!