LOS ANGELES, April 15 (UPI) -- The Shrouds, in theaters Friday, boasts an intriguing premise from writer/director David Cronenberg. The film's ambiguous resolution, however, is more anticlimactic than provocative.
Vincent Cassel stars as Karsh, a widower who developed a unique technology after his wife's death. At the cemetery he runs and co-owns, the dead are wrapped in high-tech shrouds that allow mourners to view their loved one's body in the grave using screens in the tombstone.
Karsh's wife, Becca (Diane Kruger), died four years ago but he still obsessively views her decomposing remains. After an act of vandalism and the discovery of anomalies on Becca's body, Karsh begins to investigate potential unintended consequences of his shrouds.
Cronenberg has previously explored the intersection of biology and technology in his body horror classics Videodrome, The Fly, Existenz and Crimes of the Future. He always seems more interested in emotional consequences than in playing with science-fiction toys, and this proves especially true with The Shrouds, considering Karsh invented a way to literally never let go of the dead.
Even before the events that incite the plot, Karsh has a complicated relationship with Becca's twin sister, Terry (also Kruger), and his brother-in-law tech guru Maury (Guy Pearce). He struggles to move on from Becca's death, and a blind date proves to be little more than an opportunity for Karsh to give all the exposition about his company to his date and the audience.
Flashbacks show the trauma of Becca's cancer treatment, which included more advanced technology in keeping with the film's world. For example, Becca wore a sensor around her neck that notified her oncologists of potential issues and alerted them to send help when she was injured.
For some unexplained reason, Becca is always naked in the flashback scenes. Once her bones became fragile, perhaps changing in and out of clothing became too strenuous.
Karsh is also naked in these scenes as he lies around waiting for Becca to return from appointments. The point of the flashbacks seems to be showing Becca's physical vulnerability as she undergoes mastectomies and amputations, and Karsh's emotional vulnerability as he is unable to help her.
In the present, the plot becomes a series of one-on-one conversations, like in many mysteries. Between the blind date exposition and other scenes of Karsh explaining or learning new details about developing technology, the film risks losing touch with the characters.
Fortunately, Cronenberg injects those relationships with the mature sexuality of his films like Dead Ringers, Crash and A History of Violence. The characters' emotions often lead to sex because they are adults seeking intimacy.
Karsh also grows close to a new client, Soo-Min Szabo (Sandrine Holt). Soo-Min represents both someone who can relate to his grieving and someone with a vested interest in his plans to expand shroud cemeteries abroad.
While many of the twists and turns are genuinely unexpected, the mystery surrounding the shrouds remains unresolved. It is fair to emphasize Karsh's emotional resolution, but a copout to just offer noncommittal possibilities to the linear plot.
The ideas, both of technological intrusions upon the deceased and the emotions of mourners who can't move on, are fascinating. This time, however, the ideas needed more development to justify their exploration with a more satisfying conclusion.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
