Infinity Pool Review

Infinity Pool is the third feature film to be written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. It’s set to be one of the trippiest films of 2023.

James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is a struggling novelist who goes to a resort with his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman) to find inspiration. Whilst at the resort James meets one of the few fans of his first novel, Gabi (Mia Goth) and the couple befriends Gabi and her husband, Alban (Jalil Lespert). However, their friendship takes a dark turn when the couples leave the resort for a day trip to a remote beach.

Infinity Pool was a Marmite film. It has a strong 86% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but audience scores were much more mixed. This seems to be the standard course for elevated horror films and films with a more thematic approach.

Early on in Infinity Pool James runs over a local farmer and gets arrested for it. This was the catalyst for the film. It’s revealed that the people on the island have an honour culture with an eye-for-an-eye criminal punishment system, so the family of a murder victim can kill a preparator. However, wealthy tourists can pay for a clone to take their place. This gave Infinity Pool its dramatic and thematic thrust.

Infinity Pool had three themes: violence, corruption, and hedonism. The system in place on the island led to a vicious cycle that allowed all these vices to exist. In the country, a rich tourist could commit a violent act, and get arrested but could pay for a clone to take the punishment which allows the perpetrators to live a life of hedonism until their next crime.

The corruption on display was both systematic and personal. The island’s justice system was based on financial and moral corruption. The tourists were able to live a life without consequences which led them to fulfill their darkest desires. James was corrupted by Gabi due to her praise of his work and performing sexual acts and he got to enjoy the extreme libertine lifestyle.

Infinity Pool could be seen as a Marxist viewpoint. It was a film that was critiquing the rich who used their wealth to get out of trouble with a system built just for them. Added to that was a bigger idea of the capitalist West being able to exploit poorer nations for their own ends. The island was a mix of nations since it had a dry, Mediterranean climate, brutalist concrete buildings, and had a combination of rituals and advanced sci-fi technology. Additionally to that the tourists were warned that the island was dangerous, and they need to stay on the resort, which is the case for many nations that base their economies around tourism, i.e. Mexico, Caribbean islands, and Egypt.

As well as being Cronenberg’s attempt to make a genre film filled with socio-political commentary like Bong Joon Ho, Infinity Pool was a surreal, twist-laden experience. The film opens like M. Night Shyamalan’s Old since it started with a married couple with problems going to a resort who gets an offer to go to a secluded beach. Like a Shyamalan film, Infinity Pool was filled with twists and turns. I went into Infinity Pool fairly blind, and the clone plot seemed to come out of nowhere. It seemed like it was going to be more of a psychological thriller.

As Infinity Pool progressed it became more surreal due to James sinking into the world of hedonism. This made Infinity Pool seem like a Darren Aronofsky film, particularly his divisive film mother! Both films showed people entering into orgies in their world of unlimited freedom. It did get a little too much at times.

Infinity Pool did have two great leads. Skarsgård and Goth were actors I have liked in the past. Goth had the more juicy role as the person who seduces James into the world of violence, then flips into the queen bitch of the group. It was fun to see Goth being allowed to use her natural English accent since she’s best known for her all-American horror roles in X and Pearl.

Infinity Pool may not be for everyone because of its surreal style but people who like their horror to have a lot of substance will enjoy it.