‘The Shrouds’ Review: What Happens When David Cronenberg Takes Us Six Feet Under

April 15, 2025

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , 1 Comment

Til death do they part? (CREDIT: Sideshow and Janus Films)

Starring: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt

Director: David Cronenberg

Running Time: 119 Minutes

Rating: R for Sex and Nudity in Both the Here and Now and the Beyond, and a Little Bit of Violence

Release Date: April 18, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Have you ever wanted to peek at your dead loved ones while they’re resting underground? Well, if you lived in the world of The Shrouds, you’d be in luck! That’s because this is a movie about a businessman named Karsh Relikh (Vincent Cassel) who has invented GraveTech, which allows people to keep an eye on the decaying corpses of their dearly departed. This mission is pretty personal for him, considering his desire to be buried alongside his late wife Becca (Diane Kruger) following her untimely death from cancer. But his focus on the hereafter might be keeping him blind to the strange developments on this earthly plane, as he finds himself getting dangerously closer to Becca’s sister Terry (also Kruger) while his brother-in-law Maury (Guy Pearce) rants and raves about some sort of conspiracy.

What Made an Impression?: The Cronenberg of It All: The Shrouds is more psychological horror than body horror, or rather, I should say, that ratio leans more psychological than usual by David Cronenberg Standards. There’s definitely plenty of corporeal shenanigans, though, particularly when Karsh keeps seeing a vision of a gradually more and more surgically reduced Becca.
Guy Pearces a Bullseye: Maury is one of those characters that makes you go, “Should we just ignore this guy, or should we instead be listening very closely to every single thing that he says?” Pearce understands the assignment and is compellingly confusing.
Why, Why, Why?: Is GraveTech a good idea? Cronenberg certainly doesn’t seem to be endorsing it. And based on what we can glean from Karsh’s experience, I can’t say I recommend it. But maybe there’s a way to handle this breakthrough more sensitively? I don’t think it has to make your day-to-day so woozy and surreal. We all grieve in our own ways.
Losing the Plot: The action is driven by an act of vandalism at the GraveTech graves and an attempt to locate the guilty parties. But I got the feeling that Karsh and by extension Cronenberg weren’t really all that interested in finding the answer to that question. Instead, The Shrouds is much more concerned about the director’s continued interest in reflecting upon what happens when we give our bodies and minds over to emerging technologies.
It’s Complicated: In conclusion, if you hear the hook of GraveTech and wonder, “How will this make everyone’s relationships messier?”, then The Shrouds has been designed to cater to you.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Corpses

‘Underwater’ Delivers Deep-Sea Monsters, While Merely Hinting at Something More Insidious

January 9, 2020

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Alan Markfield/Twentieth Century Fox

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, T.J. Miller, Mamoudou Athie, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr.

Director: William Eubank

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Attacks On and From Sci-Fi Horror Monsters

Release Date: January 10, 2020

The opening of Underwater promises intense pressure and pitch black scenarios, but honestly? It could’ve had even more pressure and been even more pitch black. That’s not to say that those prone to extreme claustrophobia should give this one a chance. It is, after all, about deep-sea researchers who have to walk to safety across the ocean floor after their vessel becomes damaged by an apparent earthquake. But it’s almost a little too bright, a little too out in the open. The creepy-crawlies that turn out to be lurking in their path are effectively monstrous, but the point of escape appears clearly within reach such that I was never fully worried. Maybe not everyone would make it through alive, but surely some of them would. The ingenuity and grit devised for getting around the beasts are fairly satisfying, but I found myself craving, or at least anticipating, more danger and mystery.

Going right along with the vibe of shining more light than expected, both the opening and end credits inform us that this misadventure will remain very much classified when all is said and done. But the thing is, we’re seeing the classified story. This whole movie is a peak behind the redaction! So why let us know that there is a cover-up when we’re already within the covers? Perhaps there is meant to be an implication, in thoroughly true blue X-Files spirit, that in the real world there are actually terrors in the deep running amok that most folks have no idea about because certain people have decided we’re not supposed to know about any of that. Alas, all that conspiracy flavor is merely the thinnest spread of icing. But by golly, if you’re going to tease us about what your monster is really all about, then please follow through with it.

Underwater is Recommended If You Like: Overlord, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The X-Files but compressed

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Stuff Bunnies