Brandon Cronenberg makes up for his dad’s lousy 2022 contribution to cinema (Crimes of the Future) with Infinity Pool, a bonkers social satire/horror show that gives Alexander Skarsgard the role of his career—and firmly establishes Mia Goth as the queen of horror.
While vacationing at a posh fictional resort in a fictional country, writer James Foster (Skarsgard) is dealing with writer’s block. His last novel came out six years prior; his rich and patient girlfriend, Em (Cleopatra Coleman), is footing the bill of life.
James has a fan in Gabi (Goth), also vacationing at the resort. She loved his novel and would like to get to know him better. Gabi and her pals have a sort of hedonistic thing going on—they’re rich folks misbehaving badly while on vacation. Gabi invites James and Em to join in, and they go along willingly.
A daytime excursion turns into an evening nightmare, with James getting arrested. The penalty for his crime is a doozy, but there is a way out—and that’s all I’ll say.
The movie is a full-blown, sometimes-gory horror show with a dash of dark comedy and nasty social satire. James has quite the journey; Gabi is a villain to behold; and Cronenberg makes it all come together in freaky ways.
Unfortunately, Infinity Pool has been a box-office bomb. The crowd I saw it with grumbled all the way through, so it’s fair to say the masses are not with the critics on this one. (Rotten Tomatoes currently shows an 88 percent critics rating—and a 51 percent audience rating.) Maybe it will find a place as a midnight movie/cult film.
Infinity Pool is for people who like their horror twisted, outrageous and complicated—in a fun sort of way.
Infinity Pool is now playing at Mary Pickford Is D’Place (36850 Pickfair St., Cathedral City); Century at The River and XD (71800 Highway 111, Rancho Mirage); and Century La Quinta and XD (46800 Washington St., La Quinta).
