The Shrouds Reveals New David Cronenberg Sci-Fi Horror Thriller, See In Action

By Douglas Helm | Updated

Variety revealed a new teaser for The Shrouds, an upcoming film from auteur director David Cronenberg. The film follows a man named Karsh, who invents a new technology called GraveTech after the death of his wife. The technology allows people to monitor the corpses of their departed loved ones.

The Shrouds continues David Cronenberg’s penchant for exploring the human body in new and intriguing ways through cinema.

But one night, multiple graves are desecrated, including the grave of Karsh’s wife, leading him to try to track down the culprits. The Shrouds stars Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, and Sandrine Holt. The David Cronenberg film is set to make its world premiere at Cannes in the Competition section of the film festival.

The Shrouds continues David Cronenberg’s penchant for exploring the human body in new and intriguing ways through cinema. Cronenberg said of the film, “Most burial rituals are about avoiding the reality of death and the reality of what happens to a body. I would say that in our movie, this is a reversal of the normal function of a shroud.”

The Shrouds is also clearly a very personal film for David Cronenberg, as he touched on part of his inspiration for writing it, saying, “I was writing this film while experiencing the grief of the loss of my wife, who died seven years ago,” and, “It was an exploration for me because it was not just a technical exercise, it was an emotional exercise.” As always, it seems that Cronenberg’s film will raise many interesting questions for viewers to ponder and discuss well after the credits roll.

In addition to writing and directing The Shrouds, David Cronenberg has kept busy expanding his acting resume over the past couple of years.

The Shrouds is David Cronenberg’s first film after the 2022 movie Crimes of the Future, which starred Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart. That film explored the human body in a very different way, as Mortensen played a performance artist named Saul who displayed the metamorphosis of his organs for his avant-garde performances. While that film was an interesting sci-fi take on body modification and human evolution, The Shrouds seems like a more dialed-back sci-fi about grieving and death.

The Shrouds seems like one of the most intense and personal projects David Cronenberg has done lately, and it’ll be interesting to see how it is received at Cannes when it premieres.

In addition to writing and directing The Shrouds, David Cronenberg has kept busy expanding his acting resume over the past couple of years. Cronenberg appeared in the last few seasons of Star Trek: Discovery as Kovich and reprised his role for the currently airing fifth and final season of Discovery. The next episode of the season is set to air on May 16, and the series finale will air on May 30th.

The Shrouds seems like one of the most intense and personal projects David Cronenberg has done lately, and it’ll be interesting to see how it is received at Cannes when it premieres. The festival kicked off yesterday and is set to run until the 25th of May, so we’ll surely hear more about the film soon. As for a theatrical release, the film is set to release in France on September 25, but we’ll likely have to wait until after Cannes to find out when we can expect to see it in the US.