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Infinity Pool, or Infinite Death by its English title, bears the Cronenberg seal, was written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the son of legendary horror director David Cronenberg, and is one of the films that proves that horror movies can always be more macabre, darker, and more twisted.
Horror movies were created, in part, as a means to criticize certain social elements without “throwing the stone” in such a direct way. Now that is changing, and terror seeks to expose the worst of humans, of privilege, and of those “instincts” that can come to light when we feel threatened.
Films like The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, and A Cure for Wellness steer clear of monsters, witches, and demons to place the rich and powerful at the center of the storm as victims and villains in their own stories.
Infinity Pool (which gets its name from those famous pools in luxury resorts that seek to blur the edge with the horizon) adds to that list; critics at the Sundance Festival even compare it to a horror version of the series The White Lotus, and the result is disturbing, electric, and impossible to ignore.
The Trailer
The trailer shows a writer and his partner vacationing on an island paradise, where they run into a fan who mentions she’s been waiting years for her second book, but he seems to be stuck.
It all starts with the typical luxury vacation, but an accident happens that changes everything and leaves the writer trapped in an impossible and completely terrifying situation, which even he cannot understand.
What is Infinity Pool all about?
The Infinity Pool synopsis reads: James and Em Foster are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation on the fictional island of La Tolqa when a fatal accident exposes the resort’s perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence, and surreal horrors.
As we see in the Infinity Pool trailer, the perfect vacation, which is where the comparison to The White Lotus comes from, quickly takes a bloody turn with James and Em getting involved with the most violent locals around, mostly an actress and an architect who say they admire his work, and he must go through a series of tests to survive, which end up transforming him into something that he himself could not have imagined.
The point, according to several authors, is to comment on extreme hedonism and show the tourists in this story as barbarians, capable of doing anything to get what they want.
The Cast of Infinity Pool
The film stars Alexander Skarsgard, who has appeared in projects like The Northman and Big Little Lies, and new horror muse Mia Goth, who recently surprised Martin Scorsese with her work in movies like X and Pearl.
Additionally, the film features Cleopatra Coleman, from the true-life series Dopesick, and Thomas Kretschmann, who we’ve seen in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Blade II, and Wanted.
When is Infinity Pool Released?
Infinite Pool or Death premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will hit theaters around the world on March 30, 2023.
