Infinity Pool

With Infinity Pool, his third and boldest film thus far, Canadian filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg, proves yet again he can produce and direct another original screenplay that not only carries on the same sensibilities of Possessor, but he has now paved the way for his own singular vision of body horror that should for once allow him to become his own household name that is certainly standalone from his father, David Cronenberg (The Fly, Eastern Promises). A nihilistic sci-fi horror about a couple on vacation in a fictional country of La Tolqa who venture out with another couple outside of their resort and find themselves down a treacherous wormhole of hedonism, depravity, and sudden bursts of violence. The film is not only aesthetically experimental but has the mood and tone of a fever dream. Once again, Brandon Cronenberg merges satire and horror with haunting imagery and gruesome violence with beguiling results.

Both on a visual and technical level, the film recalls the work of Nicholas Refn as it examines decadence in the modern world in the same way Refn explored it in his buried but groundbreaking Amazon series, Too Old to Die Young. The film also recalls Michel Francos Sundown (which made my top 10 of 2022) about privileged people faced with turmoil while on vacation. Comparisons to The White Lotus are already being made, the film opens at a top tier resort in a fictional country. Author James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard) hasn’t written a novel in six years and he’s on vacation with his partner Em (Cleopatra Coleman) in hopes he can find inspiration for his sophomore novel. When a mysterious young woman from Los Angeles Gabi (Mia Goth) encounters James, she recognizes him and praises his work, and he’s instantly allured by her praise and presence because not many people purchased it or have read it. She ends up inviting James and Em out to a double date dinner with her partner Alban (Jalil Lespert), and we find out, Gabi is a TV-Commercial-Actress and Alban is a wealthy businessman. The next day, Gabi insists that they go off the resort grounds and visit a luminous private beach.

Courtesy Neon Films

Gabi is very flirtatious with James, and James is clearly charmed by her praise of his book. He never thought he would encounter a fan of his work, considering his previous book was panned by book critics. While on the beach, Gabi becomes promiscuous with James while Em and Alban are turned away. After a day of drinking on the beach, James ends up crashing into a bystander on the road, which leads to an instant death of a townsman. Gabi persists James to flee the scene, convincing him that the authorities and locals will openly scrutinize and punish them if they stay around due to their laws. The next morning, James and his wife are arrested by local authorities, led by police detective Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann). During the interrogation, Thresh is calm, while James is strained with anxiety from the aftermath. He informs James that there is a very precise law: Manslaughter is avenged by the son of the victim. However, as everything has a price, he explains to James that he can buy himself out through a cloning process for the ultra-wealthy where his clone will be murdered, but he’s still coerced into watching his own death. James agrees and he’s plunged into a large tank where he uses a bite block, as the tank is quickly filled up with red muck. From there, another James appears.

During these Trumpian times, Infinity Pool reassures that the wealthy can buy themselves out of anything and take no accountability for their crimes. Money can really take the privileged far. Cronenberg has a more subversive method to his madness than just skewering the wealthy. He examines the sociopathic nature of narcissism and the continued decadence that occurs when there isn’t accountability. All sense of ethics and morality are removed once lawlessness is normalized. Once James witnesses his own murder, we see a demented satisfaction on his face. Em is repulsed that he watched and didn’t even look away. This causes a detachment between the two on vacation, and Em ends up going back home as James deliberately misplaces his passport so he can stay in the country.

Through Gabi’s seduction, she ends up pulling James into a world of hedonism with fellow tourists who all have paid to watch their clones die as well. It doesn’t take much to get arrested in the country with their strict laws, one can even get arrested for sodomy, one tourist explains. Collectively, the group engages in senseless violence, mayhem, orgies, partying, and they indulge in pleasure and sadism. They also wear bauta masks that replicated deformed faces. James ends up seeing the groups die, only for them to be watching their clones die in the background to suggest that this isn’t the first time they have observed their clones die. We see other clones of James appear throughout the story, and Cronenberg ponders ambiguities if the original version is now dead, and the cloned version is the new version of yourself.

While Cronenberg’s ideas and imagery are striking, the characters in the film are sadly minuscule into caricatures. While Mia Roth delivers all the tropes as a neo femme fatale, she stays quite one-dimensional throughout. The rest of the supporting characters aren’t too defining. Despite these missteps, Infinity Pool isn’t a hallow provocation in nihilism or shock, there are many ideas to be found about self-loathing, measuring self-worth, and just how amoral individuals can get once lawlessness runs amok. Once everything becomes laissez faire, even individuals or small groups of people are no longer appreciated or valued, as we observe James endlessly getting humiliated by Gabi and her wealthy cohorts.

James’s demise into the wormhole of depravity is fascinating to watch and equally demanding to endure. It would be easy to dismiss this film as incoherent, but it’s a film that makes sense if you surrender yourself to the experience. The film plays out like a surrealist fever dream, filled with experimental aesthetics, hallucinations, meticulous compositions, montages, and, of course, striking imagery. Cronenberg is very skillful in how he conceptualizes his sequences, he also allows some melancholy to emerge from the chaos. There are nuggets of genuine human feeling interspersed throughout the film, especially in the buildup through the final scene. This film will certainly divide, debates will inevitably occur, and there is no doubt, Infinity Pool will be a cult movie in years to come. Ultimately, the core reason Brandon Cronenberg’s work is so mind-bending and addictive isn’t because of the shock, nor is it because of its brutal violence, it’s in his visual artistry, and in his latest, he has now found a singular style that will position himself into auteur status.

INFINITY POOL is now playing in theaters