The Shrouds (15)
Cast: Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Elizabeth Saunders, Sandrine Holt, Vincent CasselGenre: SciFi
Author(s): David Cronenberg
Director: David Cronenberg
Release Date: 04/07/2025 (selected cinemas)
Running Time: 120mins
Country: Can/Fr
Year: 2025
Money can buy prominent 50-something businessman Karsh Relikh anything his broken heart desires, except for a miracle cure to the cancer that slowly robbed his late wife Becca of her strength and dignity. Haunted by her passing, Karsh joins forces with his security expert brother-in-law, Maury, to create GraveTech. The company opens cemeteries filled with interactive 3D gravestones that allow the living to view encrypted footage of the dearly departed slowly decaying under their feet.
LondonNet Film Review
The Shrouds (15) Film Review from LondonNet
Canadian body horror maestro David Cronenberg has never been shy about disfiguring the human form for stomach-churning shocks on screen. Targeted telepathic energy causes a head to explode in Scanners, Jeff Goldblum falls apart, quite literally, as he mutates into The Fly, road accident victims fetishise their physical scars in Crash and surgical operations achieve orgasmic highs in Crimes Of The Future. This provocative meditation on mortality is tame by comparison to his earlier work, which frequently earns an 18 certificate for scenes of strong gore…
The most eye-catching interludes in The Shrouds are the artfully staged sex scenes between Vincent Cassel’s husband and his terminally ill wife (Diane Kruger), whose bones have been critically weakened by cancer and its aggressive treatment. During one tender attempt at coitus, he unintentionally breaks her hip by pressing against her too hard. The sickening snap of the bone induces the only wince in a meandering, two-hour, murder mystery initiated by the grief-stricken widower, who pores over a live video feed of his dead spouse’s decomposition below ground. “I’m involved with her body the way I was in life, only even more,” he coos to a gob-smacked blind date. Bare bones is an apt summation.
Money can buy prominent 50-something businessman Karsh Relikh (Cassel) anything his broken heart desires, except for a miracle cure to the cancer that slowly robbed his late wife Becca (Kruger) of her strength and dignity. The disease ravaged her body, resulting in various amputations and disfigurements, performed by her physician and former paramour, Dr Jerry Eckler (Steve Switzman). Haunted by Becca’s passing and his inability to save her, Karsh joins forces with his security expert brother-in-law, Maury (Guy Pearce), to create GraveTech.
The company opens cemeteries filled with interactive 3D gravestones that allow the living to view encrypted footage of the dearly departed slowly decaying under their feet, swaddled in the company’s state-of-the-art shrouds, which one character likens to “ominous metallic ninja things”. Hackers breach GraveTech’s security defences and wilfully desecrate several gravestones including Becca’s resting place. Karsh resolves to track down the perpetrators and he enlists the help of his wife’s “catastrophically neurotic” identical twin Terry (Kruger again), wealthy client Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), GraveTech right-hand woman Gray (Elizabeth Saunders) and artificially intelligent personal assistant, Honey (voiced by Kruger).
Written by Cronenberg in response to the death of his wife from cancer after more than 40 years together, The Shrouds is a deeply personal vision of loss and yearning that did not fully connect with me. The filmmaker extends his fascination with the darker facets of human desire and the psychological traumas inflicted when sex and violence collide. Three Krugers are better than one but the script does not fully nourish each iteration and it is notable that digital avatar Honey lingers longest in the memory.
-Kim Hu
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London Cinemas Showing The Shrouds
From: Friday 4th July
To: Thursday 10th July
Wed 14:15; Thu 17:00
Wed 20:00; Thu 13:45
Tue 20:15; Wed 12:00 20:20; Thu 19:30
Wed 13:40; Thu 15:00
Tue 19:25 21:35; Wed 13:45 16:45 18:45 20:45 22:20; Thu 12:30 14:25 17:20 19:20 21:45
Tue 17:45 21:40; Wed 10:30 20:45; Thu 17:40 22:00
Tue 18:20 20:05 23:15; Wed 12:20 15:10 21:40 22:15; Thu 14:30 18:20 19:45 21:30 23:30
Tue 19:45 23:05; Wed 20:35 22:45; Thu 19:45 22:05
Tue 19:50 21:00 23:00 00:00; Wed 12:00 15:15 16:40 18:55 20:55 22:55; Thu 11:05 13:55 17:05 19:30 21:10 22:00 00:00
Tue 17:25 19:05 21:10 23:25; Wed 14:00 16:30 20:15 22:55; Thu 11:00 14:25 17:00 19:10 21:00 00:00
From: Friday 11th July
To: Thursday 17th July
Thu 15:00 20:20
Sat 23:45; Sun 11:15; Tue 15:00
UK and Irish Cinemas Showing The Shrouds
From: Friday 4th July
To: Thursday 10th July
Tue 19:50; Wed 12:15 18:00; Thu 18:10
Wed 17:00; Thu 17:50
Odeon Manchester Great Northern
Tue-Thu 21:00
Wed 17:30; Thu 17:00
Tue/Thu 20:00
Tue 20:45; Wed 20:15 22:50; Thu 15:40 19:05 21:45
Tue 20:55 23:35; Wed 20:45 23:30; Thu 20:30 23:00
Tue 19:45; Wed 20:00 22:15; Thu 12:00 14:20 17:35 21:00
Tue 17:40 20:25 23:05; Wed 10:40 13:45 16:50 19:05 20:50; Thu 11:00 13:00 15:45 18:20 21:20
Tue 20:10 23:00; Wed 10:10 12:20 14:25 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00; Thu 11:25 13:35 16:00 18:10 19:15 21:15
Tue 17:25 22:00; Wed 22:30; Thu 18:15 20:30 22:10
Tue 17:30 21:45; Wed 17:00 22:15; Thu 17:00 22:00
Tue 19:05 21:50; Wed/Thu 19:00 (Wed) 21:55
From: Friday 11th July
To: Thursday 17th July
Sat 18:15; Mon 12:45; Tue 20:15; Thu 13:20
Sat 09:40; Sun 09:50; Tue 09:30
