The Shrouds is one of those movies that I feel I’ll be one of the few that truly like what Cronenberg did with the film. Cronenberg has adopted a new style and look to his films as seen in, Crimes of The Future. It can feel mechanical and cold but is that how Cronenberg might be seeing the world post his wife’s passing? I’m not sure honestly, but it’s an observation that I’ve had the last couple of years. In The Shrouds, Cronenberg continues this cold and mechanical feeling.

The synopsis of The Shrouds can be found below:

Karsh, 50, is a prominent businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife, he invents GraveTech, a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their dear departed’s corpses as they decay in their shrouds. One night, multiple graves, including that of Karsh’s wife, are desecrated. Karsh sets out to track down the perpetrators.

One thing you’ll probably note is that Karsh who is played by Vincent Cassel seems like an avatar for Cronenberg. Although Cronenberg calls it his most personal film he has stated its not to be taken literal. The hyper tech world of The Shrouds is an evolution of what Cronenberg has been doing all his career. Cronenberg has brought to life a world that feels like it’ll be here sooner rather than later.

I’m not sure how to even start with this movie and how exactly I feel about it. I guess the easiest way is if you’re a Cronenberg fan then it’s a must watch. If you’re not ready for a dialogue heavy movie that feels like it’s just wandering aimlessly for two hours, it might not be the film for you. I’m not trying to diss the movie, but it does feel like Cronenbergs least accessible film in quite some time. I don’t think there’s a point to The Shrouds or an “Aha!” moment. It truly feels like Cronenberg just processing his grief through the avatar of Karsh played by Cassel.

The Shrouds truly is a film at its core about grief and how we handle it or like in the film…we don’t. The more I sat with my thoughts, I really grew to love the film. A story that’s filled with so many twists and turns, at its core is just simply a movie about living with grief. It’s a cold and bizarre film, but that’s what you would expect from Cronenberg in this stage of his career.

I enjoyed a lot of The Shrouds and found myself really loving it more after a couple of days and weeks. It’s a film about grief and how we deal with it or pretend we do. Do we just continue to fill up space to distance ourselves from the truth? Grief is something that’s consuming and is around us in life. How does one function when the truth of our mortality can feel overwhelming? We fall to conspiracies and justification to try and fill the void and offer an explanation. Being able to accept reality can be the scariest part, and Cronenberg conveys just that.