Time: 118 Minutes
Cast:
Alexander Skarsgård as James Foster
Mia Goth as Gabi Bauer
Cleopatra Coleman as Em Foster
Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Guided by a seductive and mysterious woman, a couple on vacation venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism and untold horror. A tragic accident soon leaves them facing a zero tolerance policy for crime: either you’ll be executed, or, if you’re rich enough to afford it, you can watch yourself die instead.

Infinity Pool was one of my most anticipated movies of 2023. I was a fan of director Brandon Cronenberg’s 2020 horror film Possessor and his latest movie looked intriguing, bolstered by the inclusion of Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth. Unfortunately, I do understand the somewhat mixed response to the movie, even though I liked it on the whole.

I will say at the very least, I liked the concept of Infinity Pool. It certainly has a lot of ideas and social commentary, involving the intersections of sex, drugs and violence, and it touches on topics like tourism, policing and entitlement of the rich. It also benefits from the fact that it doesn’t seem to take itself entirely seriously as there are a lot of campy elements, and Mia Goth’s performance even seems to embody that side. There’s also a lot of weirdness put on screen as to be expected with this being from the director of Possessor, but you’re not really sure about the point of it all or what its trying to be. Unfortunately, I don’t think its as effective as it should’ve been. For all the hallucination sequences and violence, it felt surprisingly dull, and it especially loses steam in the second half. While it has a lot of ideas, the takes on them are rather surface level and don’t have anything interesting to say. Not only that, but it seems confused about what it’s trying to say. It plays with a lot of intriguing concepts but doesn’t quite come together by the end.

The cast is solid enough at least. Alexander Skarsgard is dedicated in the lead role and he certainly fits his character well, and Cleopatra Coleman was good in her scenes. However, it is Mia Goth who is the standout of the movie, giving an unhinged performance which becomes even more off the rails in the third act.

Brandon Cronenberg’s direction is really good and the movie is at least strong on a technical front. Despite its issues, you see him growing as a filmmaker from Possessor, which itself was a very well directed film. The cinematography is stunning and there’s a lot of interesting and vivid imagery. There are some moments of cool body horror, the sound design is great, and the score from Tim Hecker is fittingly unsettling. There are some surreal and hallucination imagery but admittedly, those moments do get tiring and feel uninspired.

Infinity Pool is a well acted and directed sci-fi horror with stunning visuals and interesting concepts, but doesn’t quite come together by the end. I do find it a bit disappointing considering Cronenberg’s work on Possessor and I liked that a lot more. However, Infinity Pool’s strengths including the performances (especially from Mia Goth) make it worth checking out at the very least.