Send In The Clones

Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool takes us on a terrifying holiday

BRANDON CRONENBERG DOESN’T just want Infinity Pool to freak you out – he wants it to make you laugh, too. “We were always chuckling to ourselves when we were developing it, we thought it was going to be funny,” he tells Red Alert.

That’s quite a strange admission for a director whose latest film has been widely described as “shocking” thanks to scenes of Alexander Skarsgård naked and breastfeeding, and Mia Goth wildly screaming while pointing a loaded gun at a bus full of people. It’s no wonder early audiences found it a bit much.

“During our early test screenings with friends and colleagues, there was very little laughter,” the director says. “I thought, ‘We’re fucked. We really fucked up this film, it’s a disaster because nobody’s laughing.’ They seemed to politely enjoy it, but it was as if the film had no sense of humour.”

That changed at Sundance Film Festival when Cronenberg – son of veteran director David, and previously best known for the 2020 body horror Possessor – saw the audience laughing along at Skarsgård wearing nothing but a dog leash. “I was incredibly relieved, because it was always intended to be funny,” he adds.

Infinity Pool is certainly not all laughs. The film sees Skarsgård’s character James, a struggling author, and his wealthy wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) holidaying on a remote island where the rules are a little different.

One day, another couple – Gabi, played by Goth, and Alban (Jalil Lespert) – invites the pair on a trip outside of their resort’s walls.