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Film Review
Decrypting the Necromancer: A TIFF Review of ‘The Shrouds’
September 11, 2024Ben MK
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The cinematic mastermind behind such cult classics as Dead Ringers, Crash and A History of Violence, David Cronenberg has spent his entire filmmaking career exploring not only the darkness and the grotesqueries of human nature, but that of the human body as well. Whether it's a man who unintentionally deforms his body in his quest to break new scientific ground or a thriller centering around a virtual reality game the player actually plugs into their body, Cronenberg's movies straddle the line between horror, science fiction and thriller. It's a formula that the 81-year-old writer-director has relied upon for the better part of the last half-century. And with his latest, The Shrouds, that tradition continues to hold true, in what's perhaps Cronenberg's most personal film ever. Starring Vincent Cassel as a Toronto entrepreneur named Karsh Relikh, the movie sees Cronenberg processing the 2017 death of his real-life wife, Carolyn, with a story about a futuristic burial technology designed to give the loved ones of those who have passed away an intimate look into their graves. Created by Karsh and called GraveTech, it's a system that consists of a high-tech shroud embedded with network of ultra-hi-res cameras, tombstones with screens built into them, and a mobile app that integrates it all together. However, when GraveTech's prototype burial site is vandalized and the data of its dead clients — including Karsh's own late wife, Rebecca (Diane Kruger) — held hostage by hackers, it sends him on a mission to uncover the culprit and their motivation. Calling upon Rebecca's twin sister, Terry, and her tech-savvy ex-husband, Maury (Guy Pearce), Karsh finds himself presented with several possible answers to his conundrum — some more conspiratorial and far-fetched than others. But will investigating the mystery only dredge up past hurt that he thought he had put behind him? In true Cronenberg fashion, the result is an examination of grief as seen through the somewhat necrophilic lens of the film's main character. Yet, despite the many interesting ideas and themes presented in The Shrouds, there's an absence of cohesiveness that's needed to tie it all together. Suffice to say, Cronenberg die-hards will still find enough here to titillate and intrigue. Ultimately, though, audiences in search of a story with a little more meat on its bones will have to make do with the skeletal remains offered up instead. |
The Shrouds screens under the Gala Presentations programme at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Its runtime is 1 hr. 59 min.
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