David Cronenberg’s latest thriller, The Shrouds, is set to make its North American debut after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival last summer.
Janus Films has revealed the first full trailer for the film, which stars Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Sandrine Holt, and recent Oscar-nominee Guy Pearce.
For his 23rd feature, Cronenberg has crafted a thought-provoking premise inspired by personal loss. The film stems from his own experiences following the death of his wife, Carolyn Cronenberg, who passed away from cancer in 2017 at the age of 66.
The story centers on a tech entrepreneur who has developed a groundbreaking software that enables clients to watch live feeds of their deceased loved ones decomposing in real-time.
However, when his cemetery—including the grave of his late wife—is vandalized, the incident unravels a strange, possibly geopolitical conspiracy involving his wife’s sister (Kruger), her ex-husband (Pearce), and his own global business dealings.
“I wanted to play with the idea of paranoia. Conspiracies can be a grief strategy,” Cronenberg shared with Variety while previewing the film before its Cannes debut.
“You may come to the point where you think, ‘There is no meaning to the death of this person.’ And that is really quite unbearable. The fact that it’s meaningless. And so, to find meaning, which we have evolved to seek, it is somehow comforting to think that there was a conspiracy, and that this person was part of a plan.”
The Shrouds will open in Los Angeles and New York on April 18, with a nationwide rollout following on April 25.
