Taking a dive into “Infinity Pool”
By: Kyla Hollenback
Malaise, trepidation, disquiet, general unease. All feelings people tend to avoid in general settings. Put yourself in a theater in front of that giant screen, elbow deep in a popcorn bucket and sipping a way-too-big fountain drink. Suddenly, those feelings become welcome. Expected even. I regret not being in the immersive theater environment while I watched Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool. Not because it wasn’t a disturbing enough film, but because it was so disturbing that an immersive surround sound system coupled with the fifty foot wide screen would only serve to complement Infinity Pool’s depravity. Honestly, though, it doesn’t really matter where you watch it. Cronenberg’s body horror masterpiece cultivates the worst feelings in the best ways, catching your attention the moment the film starts and holding onto it long after the credits finish rolling.
Elevation Pictures
The main character, James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard), and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) take a vacation on the beautiful island of La Tolqa, staying at an all inclusive resort on the coast so that James can find inspiration for his book he has been trying futilely to finish. James meets another couple staying at the resort, Gabi and Alban, who vacation on the island every year. Gabi (Mia Goth) is a femme fatale tour guide who befriends James under the guise of being a fan of his writing. She and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert) invite James and Em to a night of dinner, drinks, and dancing, which they accept, and so begins the hedonistic nightmare that James becomes increasingly ensnared in. The couples have a beach day the next morning, spending the day drinking and getting to know each other (much) better. When the time comes to head back to the resort everyone is drunk but James says he feels sober enough to drive. All is well and they are nearly back at the resort when tragedy strikes. Think of the film as a sort of roller coaster. Up to this point, James has been strapped into the cart, listening to the click-clack sound become slower and slower, his anxiety mounting, until the cart stops at the precipice and the only thing he can hear is the deep breath he takes before he makes the descent.
Skarsgard and Goth’s performances are irresistibly engrossing. I could not look away from the screen, no matter how much the gore and depravity pressured me to. Amazingly, despite this movie having an unanticipated amount of gore and brutality, it doesn’t feel like torture porn. There’s no shock for the sake of shock, no unnecessarily reprehensible scenes in an attempt to nauseate an audience. Cronenberg capitalizes on phenomena that torment normal people every day, like isolation, humiliation, shame, failure. He managed to take every aspect of a good horror film and fit them into Infinity Pool perfectly. The jump scares are unpredictable and at the best times, you feel disoriented but you can still follow the plot. The close-up shots throughout the film create an inescapable feeling of too-close-for-comfort that interrupt any momentary feelings of calmness or placidity an audience may feel in the slower paced, less gore-ridden scenes. This reality-adjacent horror flick feels like an “Eat the Rich” satire donut, with a nice “Scary Sci-Fi Sex Stuff” filling. Pay attention, because nothing in this movie is as it seems.
Rating: 4.5/5