Premiering at the Sundance film festival in January, Brandon Cronenberg’s third directorial feature is disgusting; with absurd, over-the-top performances, ideas, and visuals… and it is fantastic! In a amalgam of bodies and parts, a hand drenched in unknown fluids reaches out from the mass and clutches you with no intention of letting go anytime soon. Of course, your fate isn’t completely unanticipated, seeing as you most likely sat in the theater because you have either 1) seen Cronenberg’s previous films; or 2) seen his father’s work.
Credit: NEONFilmed in Hungary and— for the most part— Croatia, we’re introduced to a gorgeous landscape where the mountains meet the sea. The location: unknown (and as it turns out, a fictional country with a fictional language). James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) have found themselves here on a ‘vacation’, where struggling writer James is on the search for ‘inspiration.’ A sudden political protest disrupts an otherwise beautiful day on the beach, leading to James meeting fellow tourist Gabi (Mia Goth).
After a somewhat awkward day at the beach with Em, Gabi, and Gabi’s husband, James accidentally kills a local farmer while driving everybody back to the resort. Explaining that the country is ‘uncivilized’ and how calling the police would mean certain death, Gabi convinces James to simply leave the man and continue to the resort. The next day, James and Em are taken into custody where they discover that they can essentially pay their way out of death. While Em decides she wants to escape this nightmare, James is coaxed further into the deep by Gabi’s devilish allure.
Credit: NEONWe soon come to find out that Gabi is the voracious leader of an insatiable wolf pack. And once they’ve dragged in stray pup James, they make sure to play with their dinner before sinking their teeth into it. As the pack’s leader, Gabi is relentless; and sometimes even comically malicious. Her sadistic and unrestrained obsession with tormenting James is made somehow even more disturbing by just how good she is at doing it. She’s a human-like animal; wearing down her prey with a razor-sharp cruelty that’s exclusive to the human being.
It’ll come as no surprise that Mia Goth— as she has previously made clear— is a star! Normally, you’d think soon after a performance like the one she gives in ‘Pearl’, it would be pretty difficult to detach her from that character, but Gabi proves to be a force all on her own. Although they are both— to put it bluntly— insane, they are in many ways polar opposite to each other. On one side of the spectrum, Pearl is insecure and impulsive; with volatile emotions, and at the bottom of the societal ladder. She’s dealt a shitty hand; and like everyone around her, is terrified of herself.
On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, is Gabi: sitting pretty at the peak of society. Gabi knows exactly who she is, what she wants, and how to get it. Gabi is much more patient, allowing whoever is caught in her web to writhe and struggle before she inevitably strikes. Like Pearl, Gabi takes joy in her actions, but— unlike Pearl— isn’t afraid to acknowledge that in fact, she revels in it.
In an interview with The Wrap, Mia Goth describes the film as a “meditation on power”. She points out that often, films of that nature tend to be male-centered; but brings up her character Gabi as a way to instead examine that power “through the female corruption of [it].” Finding her perfect victim in James, Gabi’s specific relationship with him throughout the film is unsettling and hard to watch. James finds himself in the same situation as several male spider species— quickly used, only to later be devoured by a venomous, dominant female.
Credit: NEONJames’ descent into complete madness is reminiscent of John Grant’s spiral in the ozploitation film ‘Wake in Fright’, just slightly in reverse. John’s plummet into the depths of the hellish outback shows a higher-educated middle-class man be pulled down-under and tormented by the locals of a tiny rural city in the middle of absolutely nowhere. On the other hand, James is pulled upwards and into unimaginable horrors and tortured at the hands of the uber-wealthy.
Skarsgård’s performance as James is astounding. At 6’4″, Skarsgård towers over Goth. It’s clear from his build that he is a powerful man; and yet, his character James is completely powerless over Goth’s Gabi. If you think of a pathetic loser, the Norse physique of a Skarsgård is probably not what you picture casting first, but the character of James could not be in better hands. Despite his undoubted physical strength in the film, Gabi reduces James to the size of a bug without using much direct physical violence. Gabi is cunning and bewitching no doubt, but it is James’ foolishness that brings him here. Skarsgård betrays his stature and creates a believable, pitiful speck of a man; which so often is in one way or another connected to the physical being, but not here. He is both undeniably physically powerful, and completely and utterly psychologically powerless.
This film is not nearly as gory as you might expect coming from Cronenberg, especially if you’ve seen his last movie ‘Possessor’, but that’s not 100% by design. The version of the film that premiered at Sundance was ultimately rated NC-17 in the U.S; so naturally the film was modified just enough to snag an R rating for its theatrical release. Cronenberg has said that the original cut is not much different from the R-rated theatrical cut, and that the NC-17 version will be released sometime soon. A similar thing occurred with the release of ‘Possessor’.
Not to worry however, for what this movie might lack in gore, it makes up for in goo: everyone’s favorite liquidous solid. In addition to the aforementioned goo, a vast array of human bodily liquids also make an appearance. Just as goo’s essence is to shift and slide— both literally in a physical sense, and symbolically between the boundaries of liquid and solid— so do you, kind of. Allowing yourself to truly be sucked into the visuals and the experience , it feels as though you yourself are slipping in and out of some plane of consciousness. And after the credits roll, you’ll feel a lingering feeling that can only be compared to a light buzz after a night out; and you’re only now starting to come back, and your brain has just now suddenly been switched on again.
Credit: NEONFor Gabi and her friends— at least from where we stand— reality is something completely different. Like the masks they wear, time, reality, and even the concept of death itself, is all distorted. Their money buys them immunity. It buys them pseudo-immortality. The lives of the uber-rich are so vastly different from those of ‘the average human’ that it doesn’t take much effort to see the uncanny inhumanness of those people.
In French, an orgasm is called la petite mort, translated as ‘the little death’. This is the only ‘death’ acceptable to the elite— the concept is otherwise foreign in regard to themselves. Horrific, revolting, rich people orgies aren’t new: most notably in ‘Society’ or ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. In ‘Infinity Pool’, an already worrying ‘Human Centipede’-esque orgy devolves into a vibrant, incomprehensible monstrosity before your own eyes. Quick glimpses of body parts and faces; prisms and colors— all so blurred and distorted that it’s all just a pile of parts and movement. Not even completely sure of what you’re seeing, most of the time; you’re shocked and repulsed by what you may or may not have just seen.
Sex and murder are the privileges of the rich: if you can afford it, you can do it. Play god with others; and play god with yourself. Kick yourself; kill yourself; watch yourself die, and still be able to wake up the next morning to do it again.
