'The Shrouds' Review: Cronenberg’s Techno-Grief Tale Misses the Mark
- Jack Ransom
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
By Jack Ransom - June 24, 2025
When it comes to David Cronenberg I have a very hit or miss relationship with his filmography. The Fly, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises & Spider are all due a rewatch, but I enjoyed each upon first viewing, and his previous film before this, Crimes of the Future, I liked more than expected. However, when it comes to his other classic body horror flicks (Scanners, Videodrome, The Brood & Rabid), I found myself disappointed, and even worse utterly bored out of my mind by his 2012 effort Cosmopolis.
What is 'The Shrouds' about?
The latest film from veteran auteur director David Cronenberg. The Shrouds sees Karsh (Vincent Cassell), an innovative businessman and grieving widower, build a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.
What frustrates me is that Cronenberg’s concepts and ideas tap into a lot of themes, darkness and downright weirdness that I appreciate in challenging sci-fi and horror material, but the execution has a habit of being tedious and cold and unfortunately in my opinion The Shrouds is no exception. The initial concept of high-tech grave surveillance is morbidly creepy and ripe for dark humour and discomfort, of which at times it does tap into…before descending into a convoluted, boring mish-mash of government surveillance fear-mongering, dull sexual encounters and surprisingly wooden/Wiseau-esque dialogue sequences that I just grew impatient with.
Exploring Cronenberg’s digital aesthetic in 'The Shrouds'
Stylistically this is very much a clinical and digital affair. There is some garish CGI usage, which does somewhat work with the vibe and the fittingly cartoony, Her-esque, relationship with Karsh’s phone A.I. Hunny (voiced by Diane Kruger) is certainly off-kilter. There is some undeniably striking imagery, one particular moment of intimacy between Karsh and his late wife (also played by Kruger) is very uncomfortable and the beyond-voyeuristic nature of peering beyond the grave is inherently seedy.
Unfortunately, the characters on display here are very much under the wooden performance banner, with the occasional hammy outburst (one particular scene between Cassell and Guy Pearce towards the finale being the most notable). Diane Kruger’s multi-part role is the most intriguing angle, with her colder, tragedy laced theme carrying over the three characters, yet with sprinklings of humanity throughout.
Is David Cronenberg's 'The Shrouds' worth watching?
No — The Shrouds is a tedious, disappointing, convoluted and sluggish affair that has some undeniably intriguing and thought-provoking ideas, of which unfortunately failed to spark investment out of me. I’m sure there will be those that say I simply “didn’t get it”, which fair enough, but after the countless extended shots of Karsh’s Tesla my patience was very much at its end.
'The Shrouds' releases in cinemas July 4
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