Crimes of the Future
With his partner, a celebrity performance artist publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. An investigator from the National Organ Registry obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed... Their mission — to use the artist's notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Why it matters
A cerebral dive into body horror that probes the evolution of the human form through unsettling performance art and alienating bureaucracy.
- Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux anchor the film with a detached intensity that mirrors the film’s clinical yet intimate tone.
- David Cronenberg returns to his body horror roots, favoring provocative conceptual dread over visceral shock or narrative clarity.
- A slow-burn meditation on transformation and control, best suited for viewers who appreciate horror as a philosophy rather than straightforward scares.
- The film’s deliberate pacing and cryptic storytelling frustrate some, but reward those willing to parse its eerie, futuristic world and its themes of bodily autonomy.
Director
15 horror films in catalog
From the Drain 1967
Crimes of the Future 1970
Shivers 1975
Rabid 1977
The Brood 1979
Scanners 1981
Videodrome 1983
The Dead Zone 1983
The Fly 1986
Dead Ringers 1988
The Nest 2013
The Death of David Cronenberg 2021
Crimes of the Future 2022
Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection 2023
The Shrouds 2025
Cast
Horror DNA
Gore
57
Slow Burn
100
Psychological
57
Supernatural
0
Creature
36
Disturbing
83
Fun Factor
0
Cerebral
85
Survival
0
Body Horror
