Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Stars: Mia Goth, Alexander Skarsgård, Cleopatra Coleman, Thomas Kretschmann, Jalil Lespert

Brandon Cronenberg’s follow-up to his unnerving feature debut ‘Possessor’ is a lurid sci-fi horror with a pitch black comic streak and splashes of twisted hallucinatory eroticism. The setting is a luxury resort in Li Tolqa – a fictional, impoverished country. Author James Foster (Skarsgård) is holidaying there with his wife Em (Coleman) in order, he claims, to overcome his writer’s block. Then they meet Gabi (Goth), the confident, overbearingly friendly model married to wealthy and creepy Swiss architect Alban (Lespert). As the couples dine together, it’s revealed that Foster is actually cash-strapped and living off his rich wife, the daughter of a wealthy publisher who disapproves of Em’s choice. Gabi persuades the group to borrow a car from a resort employee and leave the highly secure compound to visit the beach, in spite of dire warnings from the management

. En route back, a tragic accident occurs, kicking off a series of bizarre and lurid events that see Foster’s masculine pride completely stripped away. Featuring nightmarish imagery, extreme violence and disturbing erotic imagery (Brandon’s dad David will be so proud) the picture plays like an extreme and trippy version of the modish super-rich-jerks-getting-their-comeuppance genre a la ‘Triangle of Sadness’ and ‘White Lotus’. It borders on incoherent, even silly, at times and the satire is inert, but Skarsgård and Goth are typically fearless and uncompromising (the former delivering a double take for the ages) meaning it’s never boring.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm