You a know a movie has accomplished something when it causes you to have bizarre dreams all night. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a great movie, but it does mean it’s impactful. Crimes of the Future gave me some wild ass dreams.
If you’ve experienced a David Cronenberg film before, you know you can typically expect sexually explicit scenes, impressive body horror, and a storyline that can, at times, be hard to follow. Crimes of the Future delivers on all these marks. But will it go down as one of Cronenberg’s greats, like The Fly, Scanners, and Videodrone? Well, like those films and many of his others, it probably requires multiple viewings to fully appreciate and comprehend what he’s done.
Here is the synopsis from IMDB: Humans adapt to a synthetic environment, with new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice, Saul Tenser, celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.
What this synopsis leaves out is that pain has ceased to exist for the human race. This has led to extreme body modification and self harm becoming a spectacle of the arts—mutilation for entertainment. And many involved in these practices, Caprice (Lea Seydoux) and Tenser (Viggo Mortenson) most of all, derive sexual pleasure from being sliced up.
Indeed, though Crimes of the Future is grotesque in many ways, it is also quite erotic. The surgical performances Tenser undergoes to remove his newly developed organs (organs that we’re told are of no use), are akin to orgasmic bliss.
The acting throughout is wonderful. Even Kristen Stewart, who in pretty much everything else I’ve seen is terrible, is great in this movie. Lea Seydoux and Viggo Mortenson play off each other so well.
But through the whole film, we the viewers are trying to figure out what is going on, what it all means, and . . . it’s never fully explained. It kind of is. But there are multiple characters and scenes that leave you scratching your head, wondering how they fit into the plot, if they do at all. Kristen Stewart’s role, even, is a bit perplexing. It’s almost like Cronenberg created the character out of nowhere just to put her in the movie.
Then the ending just kinda . . . happens. It is an abrupt and unfulfilling ending, and absent is an adequate build-up of tension. There is a certain level of tension throughout, but it’s more associated with the disturbing acts and imagery than with the plot. So while I find the story idea unique and intriguing, the story itself leaves a bit to be desired. And, honestly, as erotic and wild as the film was in parts, my wife and I both felt that one or two more scenes of surgical sex would have greatly benefited our viewing. If Cronenberg wasn’t in his limp-dick years (upper seventies now), he might have thought the same thing.
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness!
Gore - 8
Special Effects - 7
Nudity/Sexuality - 8
Wow Factor - 7
Acting - 8
Fear Factor - 4
Story/Plot/Originality - 5
Cinematography/Atmosphere - 6
Sound/Music - 5
Fun Factor - 5
Crimes of the Future gets a very nice 63 PHEMSA. It should be higher. From body horror legend David Cronenberg, the Gore and Nudity/Sexuality levels should be 10 apiece. While the movie is great with both of these, it could have used a tad more of each. And while it gets good marks for originality, the actual story is nothing special and the ending does nothing to satisfy the audience. Like I said in the beginning, though, it probably takes multiple viewings to fully appreciate it. If you want to watch Crimes of the Future, you can find it on Hulu.
In my collection with Daniel J. Volpe, Visceral 2: Filleted Flesh, I wrote a story called “Evolution of Communication.” It too is a body horror experience with evolution at its core. You can find it on Amazon if you’re interested.