With the announcement of next year's Sundance Film Festival lineup, the first image of Brandon Cronenberg's disturbing new horror Infinity Pool has been released. The sci-fi flick received a lot of buzz earlier for its gore and sexual content after initially receiving the NC-17 rating, and considering Cronenberg's penchant for violence with films like Antiviral and Possessor. He doesn't disappoint in the first look, which shows a couple whose faces are replaced with terrifying, warped visages.
Sundance released the image, which presumably is of the film's two stars Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård, though it's certainly impossible to tell through their faces. Although their bodies are normal, their faces are weathered, wrinkled, stretched, and bruised in a horrifying fashion, appearing as if something terrible has warped their appearance into a monstrous form over time. It's possible these are simply masks in-universe as well, but even so, they give a glimpse at some of the gnarly effects Cronenberg will employ in the film.
Although little is known about the plot of Infinity Pool, it was revealed that Goth and Skarsgård will play the young rich couple Em and James as they go on vacation to a luxurious all-inclusive resort complete with island tours and idyllic beaches. A fatal accident on the grounds exposes the dark, seductive secrets beyond its walls and the perverse subculture lying just underneath the surface. The image definitely encapsulates the wealth of the resort's guests with the couple wearing formal attire with expensive jewelry as they arrive in a fancy vehicle, but the faces, or possibly masks, hint at the horrors that await inside.
Everything We Know So Far About Infinity Pool
Infinity Pool managed to cut down the gore and sexual content enough to narrowly avoid that dreaded NC-17 mark, but Cronenberg's latest still seems prepped to shock and scare. It also managed to land a stellar cast with Goth and Skarsgård both coming off of massive horror hits in X, Pearl, and Barbarian. Cleopatra Coleman will star alongside them with Thomas Kretschmann, Amanda Brugel, Caroline Boulton, John Ralston, Jeff Ricketts, Jalil Lespert, and Roderick Hill. Neon is producing alongside Topic Studios and will distribute the film in the U.S.
Cronenberg's latest joins a long list of exciting films at Sundance's 2023 festival. Horror fans will also get to see Shudder’s Birth/Rebirth premiere, as well as the fertility doctor horror Run Rabbit Run starring Succession's Sarah Snook and the starry thriller Divinity with Stephen Dorff, Bella Thorne, and Scott Bakula among others. Overseas frights will be plentiful this year with highlights including In My Mother's Skin out of the Philippines and Talk to Me from Australia.
More is likely coming soon from Infinity Pool as it prepares for its arrival at Sundance in January.