NEON has released the first trailer for Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool, an upcoming sci-fi thriller starring Mia Goth (Pearl, X) and Alexander Skarsgard (The Northman, True Blood).
Brandon Cronenberg, the son of legendary Canadian director and sci-master David Cronenberg, who create classics like Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), and The Fly (1981), is debuting Infinity Pool, his third full-length film, at Sundance early next year. The film follows the younger Cronenberg's critical acclaim for 2012’s Antiviral and 2020’s Possessor, establishing a clear lineage between the younger director and his famous father.
The Infinity Pool trailer features a writer, James (Skarsgard), on vacation with his wife, Em, played by Cleopatra Coleman (The Shadow of the Moon), at an all-inclusive resort, where they meet a group of strangers, including a seductive young woman, Gabi (Roth), who lures the couple off the resort grounds and into a new world. A fatal accident on a dark road lands James in legal trouble and exposes the resort’s “perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence, and surreal horrors.” To escape a death sentence for his crime, James must create a clone of himself to be executed as he and his wife become more entangled in the web of the resort’s strange world.
Like the younger Cronenberg's earlier work, Infinity Pool features surreal scenes, ample violence, and twisty sinister plots. Initially set to have an NC-17 rating for "graphic violence, disturbing material, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and some language," Infinity Pool has since been edited down to an R rating. This bodes well for a wider theatrical release of the film, as well as an unedited director’s cut for streaming and Blu-Ray releases down the line.
Like his father’s work, Brandon Cronenberg promises a mix of slow-build psychological and body horror that audiences have come to expect from both directors. The film is supported by a strong cast, including Skarsgard and Goth, who is steadily building a reputation as one of Hollywood's pre-eminent scream queens for her role in Ty West's X and Pearl. The strange and exotic setting of Infinity Pool increases the tones of unfamiliarity and panic for its characters, no doubt rendered excellently and unnervingly by Cronenberg's knack for striking and macabre.
Infinity Pool is set to debut at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight section.
Source: NEON/YouTube