Infinity Pool
John Ralston (left) as Dr Modan and Mia Goth (right) as Gabi in Infinity Pool
Necro-baby (the only appropriate title when you’re the son of David Cronenberg) Brandon Cronenberg first announced Infinity Pool starring back in 2019, four years before its eventual release. This goopy, sci-fi horror focuses on James (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman), who travel to the fictional country of Li Tolqa for a nice relaxing holiday. After another couple, Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Jespert), convince the pair to leave the security of the hotel for a beach excursion, an accident forces them to bare witness to Li Tolqa’s bizarre criminal policy…
Brandon Cronenberg, who previously directed the features Antiviral and Possessor (see my write up here), has crafted some graphic and truly gory moments in Infinity Pool. however, this may be a case where a director’s eyes are bigger than their stomach. For this perfectly serviceable, but regrettably lacking any real shtum in the characterisation department.
In line with his previous work, and arguably his father’s, the visuals are off the chart. There are a handful of ridiculously hypnotic montages in which bodies are reorganised, guts are rearranged (so to speak), and drugs are inhaled in an uncomfortable fashion. Like Possessor, these moments are so sincerely disorientating and kinetic that you can’t help but smile in appreciation for both the FX and editing team. There’s a particular bit where a body is constructed in a sequence of glitchy meat-cubes that left such an impression on me, great stuff. Not to mention, a couple of really ‘out-of-nowhere’ jump scares that actually managed to make me jump out of the seat. On first impression, you wouldn’t expect to see them in this type of broody, ponderous horror. Lo-and-behold, you may soil yourself.
Mia Goth is the standout star here… again. You would think that by the tenth time she belittlingly wails “JAMMEEESSS!” at Alexander Skarsgård that it would get old, but it doesn’t. Gabi is a playfully snobby psychopath that possesses the undertones of some sort of spoilt Victorian toddler yearning for indulgence. Goth once again proves that she’s deserving of more praise outside of just Film Twitter, but with general audiences too.
It’s sad to say that Infinity Pool can’t quite match up to its ambition with its awful characters and annoyingly edgy centre. There’s nothing wrong with having a despicable protagonist and even more despicable side-characters, but I reckon that a satisfying comeuppance or brutal tragedy was missing in this instance. At its worst, serving as a juxtaposition to the more radical and tasty horror artwork on show, there’s these ‘for-the-sake-of-it’ fetishist scenes which possess a nasty cynicism to them. It doesn’t help that we don’t really spend enough time developing our antagonists so that their overall motives are seen either as more justifiable or as completely sadistic, instead we’re stuck in this weird underwritten middle-ground.
Still, despite its mucky core, Infinity Pool offers some awesome visual delights and fittingly gross elements. If you thought that The White Lotus could’ve used some more body horror, peyote, and breast milk, this might be the motion picture for you.
