Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Crimes of the Future trailer unveils a Cronenberg world

By

If we’ve learned anything from David Cronenberg’s previous films, it’s that he really loves diving into body horror. Videodrome, The Brood, The Fly, eXistenZ, and Shivers all dealt with the subject matter in different ways. But in Cronenberg’s latest film, Crimes of the Future, the body horror isn’t accidental or inflicted as a punishment. These people are choosing to change themselves in strange and unusual ways because they believe it’s the next step of human evolution.

Ahead of the film’s theatrical release this summer, Neon has released the first trailer for Crimes of the Future. And while some of the modifications and biotechnology may look similar to Cronenberg’s earlier films, they come off even weirder in this movie, because in this story, it’s not just science, it’s performance art.

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE - Official Teaser

Don’t worry if you didn’t understand much about that trailer. It’s pretty incompressible without the proper context. Fortunately, Neon also provided the synopsis for the film.

Recommended Videos

“As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed … Their mission – to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.”

Viggo Mortensen in Crimes of the Future.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Cronenberg wrote and directed Crimes of the Future, which will premiere in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The theatrical release will follow in June.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
Crimes of the Future review: David Cronenberg hails the old flesh
Léa Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen get intimate.

If Hell has an Ikea, it’s fully stocked with the designer grotesqueries that pass for furniture in Crimes of the Future. Dangling womb hammocks, the latest advance in bio-mechanical Tempur-Pedic technology, squirm to relieve the discomfort of those slumbering within their folds. A chair, seemingly made from nothing but bone, rather hilariously jerks and fidgets to ease the digestion process of fussy eaters. The grandest of these organic-machine luxury amenities is an automated surgery pod whose incising tentacles are controlled by a shuddering, insectlike remote. The Geek Squad technicians ogle the appliance like a sports car, admiring its shiny surfaces and gleaming hospital hardware.

Who else but Carol Spier could have designed this mutant showroom? Her baroquely unmistakable work is the earliest indication that we’re watching someone plummet off the wagon into an all-night bender two decades after he went cold turkey on his biggest vice. That someone, of course, is David Cronenberg, the Canadian director of such gooey, goopy triumphs as The Fly, Videodrome, and Naked Lunch. His vice, creatively speaking, was once body horror, the queasy strain of corporeally fixated nightmare fuel on which he built a reputation. Cronenberg got clean at the end of the last century, kicking his habit of wreaking havoc on humanity’s spongiest bits. But after 20 years sober, he’s ready to party like it’s 1999. No flesh, old or new, is safe.

Read more
Roll for initiative in Stranger Things 4’s final trailer
The cast of Stranger Things.

It's been far too long since we've checked in with the kids of Stranger Things. But this week, the wait will come to an end with the premiere of Stranger Things 4. In the final trailer for the new season, almost all of the familiar characters are back. But perhaps the most stunning development is that some of the teens may be going into the Upside Down itself.

But first, Dustin and the gang have become the Hellfire Club, a new Dungeons and Dragons group, and they're playing on a much bigger stage than before. Meanwhile, Lucas is finding athletic success on the basketball court, and something very strange is happening to Max. And when we say "strange," we mean it's bizarre even by Hawkins' standards!

Read more
Alicia Vikander loses herself in the trailer for Irma Vep
Alicia Vikander in Irma Vep.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a major Hollywood actor or actress who hasn't been courted to appear in a superhero film. But in HBO's new miniseries, Irma Vep, Alicia Vikander plays an actress named Mira, whose desire to escape from the world of big-screen superheroes drives her to take the leading role in a remake of the silent French horror film, Les Vampires. In fact, Irma Vep is not only the name of Mira's character in the film, but it's also an obvious anagram for "vampire." Unfortunately for Mira, her reality is about to get much weirder as the lines between her and her character begin to blur.

In the first trailer for the miniseries, Mira is overjoyed to be working with the acclaimed director, René Vidal (Vincent Macaigne). But it looks like René's high-strung personality and his literal clash with one of his performers may sink the movie before it can be finished.

Read more