It takes a while for "Infinity Pool" to get to the big reveal of its premise, and for the movie to feel like it's a proper horror thriller. I won't spill the details in order to preserve the surprise, but the trailer spells out everything, including a couple of the twists.
Once it gets underway, however, this is definitely the work of Brandon Cronenberg, full of monstrously warped portraits of humanity, and unsettling imagery. Like many other recent films, the story is about the class divide. Here, our hero James (Alexander Skarsgaard) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are vacationing at a resort in the fictional country of Li Tolqa. They meet another couple, Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert), who influence James to indulge in his darker side. Li Tolqa is a deeply religious country with a harsh judicial system. However, the rich tourists can pay their way out of any consequences, including murder.
I keep wanting to compare "Infinity Pool" to Alex Garland's "Men," though the two films are very different. Both have a lot of good ideas, sometimes realized in brutally memorable ways. Jessie Buckley's character keeps seeing visions of sinister men who mean to do her harm - all with the same face. Alexander Skarsgaard's character also keeps seeing men with the same face, except that the context is totally different. James is the one who is becoming dangerous. These visions represent internal threats as well as external ones, and both movies rely heavily on metaphors and dream imagery. The plots involve situations spinning out of the protagonists' control, a lot of shocking imagery involving violence and nudity, and unsettling, ambiguous conclusions.
"Infinity Pool" doesn't have the visual or aural flair of "Men," but it's much more adept at provoking horror with similar concepts. Its jaunts into surreal visuals tend to follow the same form as Cronenberg's previous work in "Possessor" - vertiginous, psychedelic manipulations of the film image in order to make human beings into alien grotesques. To underline this, there are a few earlier scenes of the spoiled guests wearing striking, creepy masks. I appreciate that the film isn't too interested in social commentary otherwise, and Cronenberg seems more focused on coming up with disturbing scenarios to put onscreen. The film is less about the injustice of the system that allows the bad behavior of the elites, and more about the effect this has on James' soul and psyche, so the struggle is mostly internal. The more he dehumanizes others, the more he finds that he's dehumanizing himself.
Alexander Skarsgaard is perfectly fine here, and I applaud his willingness to participate in some extreme content. Brandon Cronenberg is one of the few filmmakers today who embraces explicit sex scenes. However, Mia Goth steals the picture, top to bottom. She makes for a wildly entertaining manifestation of evil, whether it's her casual seduction tactics or her transformation into a jeering sadist, sipping wine atop a car hood as she torments her victim. She has a bizarre breastfeeding scene late in the film that is one of the most unnerving things I've seen in ages. After this and "Pearl," it's clear that horror is her genre, and I'm all for it.
"Infinity Pool" has R and NC-17 cuts due to the sexual content, and I suspect that it's one of those films that some will adore and some will be turned off by completely. I prefer cerebral horror, and have generally enjoyed the work of both Cronenbergs, so I knew what I was getting myself into. I'll caution that this is definitely a more graphic entry, and I found myself comparing some scenes to Gaspar Noe's output, specifically "Enter the Void." With that in mind, I don't think that "Infinity Pool" is Cronenberg's best, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. It presents a lot of thoughtful material to chew on, along with some well-deployed shocks to the system.
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