There’s definitely got to be something in the water at the Cronenberg household, with Brandon following in the footsteps of his father David by carving out a niche for himself as one of horror’s most strikingly unique and incredibly unsettling voices. Just like his old man, his films aren’t for everyone, but Infinity Pool has nonetheless been carving it up on streaming.
As you’d expect from a premise that finds genre titan Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård starring in the twisted tale of a vacationing couple being drawn into a seedy world of sex, violence, grisly mutilations, and sheer debauchery when their picturesque resort reveals its deepest and darkest secrets, opinion was split down the middle.
Critics and audiences can’t seem to agree on whether Infinity Pool is a strikingly ambitious and wholly individual exercise in existential terror, or a self-indulgent and needlessly excessive descent into pushing the boundaries of cinematic acceptability to their very limits.
Your opinion will depend entirely on taste, personal preference, and whether you’ve got the stomach to make it all the way through, but it appears as if iTunes subscribers are ready, willing, and able to take that plunge. Per FlixPatrol, Infinity Pool has swam through the blood and guts to emerge for air as the sixth most-watched feature among subscribers in the United States, ensuring that buzz – whether it be good, bad, or chaotic – regularly tends to benefit the subject.
We shudder at the thought of what the next generation of Cronenbergs will cook up next, but that’s kind of the point.