The Shrouds has David Cronenberg tackling and attempting to process the untimely death of his wife in a way that only the iconic director could, through the lens of the body horror and the grotesque. It’s a dense and emotionally charged effort that tackles both grief and loss as you would expect, but does so through a more seasoned perspective that’s rarely the case in film. Featuring a 50 year-old plus protagonist, it’s exciting to see a filmmaker not trying to project their twilight experiences on a bright-eyed wise beyond their twenty-something years, who has yet to meet the love of their life – let alone lose them.
The techno macguffin for the director this time around is a technology called “The Shroud”, developed here by Cronenberg doppelganger and tech entrepreneur Karsh (Vincent Cassel). This is a high tech death shroud allows those loved ones above ground to view the bodies of those they lost decompose below, via a smartphone app or an LCD embedded in their tombstone. The Shroud has been pivotal in helping Karsh to help cope with the loss of wife Becca (Diane Kruger), who passed away after an arduous battle with cancer resulting in various amputations. As the film begins, it’s been four years since Becca’s death and as Karsh is looking to take the shroud cemeteries international, the first location has been vandalized and the video feeds have been encrypted by mysterious hackers.
What follows is Karsh trying to unravel the plot against him and his company, while new fragments of his wife’s death are illuminated, forcing his grief back to the surface and to reprocess their relationship with a renewed clarity.
One thing that immediately grabbed me is how Cronenberg tackles loss from the male perspective from both death and divorce, in such a way as only someone who has experienced both has. This brings in Guy Pearce who turns in a tragic yet unforgettable performance as Karsh’s “brother in grief” Maury, he’s not just his tech guy, but was recently divorced from Becca’s (twin?) sister, also played by Diane Kruger(Dead Ringers Nod?). It’s that plot device that utilizes both Karsh and Maury to compare and contrast the two forms of loss in a way and the desperation they inspire that is profound as it is captivating. It’s how both men navigate their circumstances within these instances, when all they want is that reconnection – that I found it completely fascinating and one of the best portrayals of loss and grief in a narrative in quite some time.
The other thing that caught me off guard was Cronenberg’s approach with his actors to this material. The performances in his films are usually somewhat detached and the deliveries of lines are as meticulous as they are almost clinically measured. But here there’s a more naturalistic and emotive approach that I found completely disarming as a fan of the director. Vincent Cassel who seems like he’d benefit more from the former style here delivers a truly cathartic emotional performance, battling with not only his inner demons on screen, but those looking to sabotage his business dealings as well. This is opposite Kruger and Pearce who also in turn offer up some rather stirring performances opposite.
That said, the mystery at the heart of The Shrouds is secondary to the emotional journey, and that mystery may feel a bit more ambiguous if you’re not paying close attention. It’s all there, you just have to keep your eyes on the pieces (and keyboards), because of the director’s focus here. I think that may confuse and annoy some, but to be honest that is not the point here, the film is truly about Karsh finding that closure to his wife’s death, realizing the reality of their relationship at the end and attempting to start again with another bereaved woman he meets. I also find comfort in this cast of older actors with older bodies who feel believable in their roles and relationships with mortality at the age, which only enhances and intensifies the autobiographical tone of the piece.
If you told me one of the most moving films I would see in 2025 would be by David Cronenberg, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But The Shrouds is the director at his most vulnerable, using the tropes of his filmography to explore these hefty concepts in a way as only he can, and going to some pretty dark places in the human psyche along the way. The film feels like it pulls from the his oeuvre without ever winking at his audience, everything from Crash, to Existenz is peeking just below the surface. It’s autobiographical as it is meta in a way that only could come from the mind of Cronenberg himself, that most shockingly at the end is it even offers a small bit of hope when all is said and done. When the lights came up I was simply in awe of how Cronenberg managed to coalesces all of these things from his life, to his filmography, into such a story that was as moving as it was so Cronenberg, and I loved every second of it.
