It looks as though Cronenberg horror movies are currently like buses – you wait years for one to come along, and then you get two at once. While hype is reaching fever pitch for the Cannes premiere of Crimes of the Future, Cronenberg will also be taking his next project, called The Shrouds, to the Cannes marketplace. It’s a dark thriller, set to star acclaimed French actor Vincent Cassel.
According to Deadline, Cassel will play “Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art – though controversial – cemetery allows him and his clients to watch their specific departed loved one decompose in real time.”
“Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalised and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife. While he struggles to uncover a clear motive for the attack, the mystery of who wrought this havoc, and why, drive him to reevaluate his business, marriage and fidelity to his late wife’s memory, as well as push him to new beginnings.”
Filming is expected to begin in March 2023. After the eight year wait since Cronenberg’s last feature film – Map to the Stars – and maybe two decades since his last ‘proper’ horror movie, having Crimes to the Future and The Shrouds within such a short timespan feels like a real treat. If your idea of a treat is watching ears being sewn onto the front of faces or watching corpses decompose, of course.
Cannes Film Festival kicks off on May 17, 2022 and some highlights to look out for include Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker.
It’s a good time to be a horror fan, with the return of Cronenberg – one of the best directors to ever do it – and while we wait for his upcoming movies, check out our guide to the best 2021 horror movies.