Hope you’ve eaten lunch already, because you’re not going to want to watch the new Crimes of the Future trailer while you nosh on a sandwich. David Cronenberg’s new film features some of the most grotesque body horror you’ll see all month, including ears on heads, an extra organ protruding out of a man’s stomach, and an ongoing surgery. Can’t stand gore? Steer clear. Big fan of horror? You’ll eat this up.
Crimes of the Future, which has set a Cannes debut in just a few weeks, marks Cronenberg’s return to feature filmmaking after a lengthy (nearly 10 years!) hiatus. The Crash director clearly isn’t pulling any punches with his new release, which is set in a morbid dystopia where surgery and body modifications are all the rage.
“Surgery is sex, isn’t it?” Kristen Stewart so aptly puts it in the trailer. “You know it is. Surgery is the new sex.”
Um... count me out. Still, there’s actually a reason why these dark characters keep going under the knife: In this world, the human body has become so strong that it can resist any pain. So in order to find meaning, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) will showcase the ever-changing display of his own body.
But cunning investigator Timlin (Stewart) is up to no good, and wants to use Saul’s body to teach the world about the next phase of human evolution. The intended goal, as the trailer explains, is to “create a map that will guide us into the heart of darkness.” Saul’s partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux) will have to help him keep the show alive in order to best understand the body at work.
Cronenberg is known for films like Crash, The Fly, Shivers, Scanners, and Crimes of the Future—another flick of the same name that is not affiliated with his new one. He hasn’t released a feature-length film since 2014’s Maps of the Stars, so anticipation is sky-high.
Along with Mortensen, Seydoux, and Stewart, the cast also includes Scott Speedman, Don McKellar, Tanaya Beatty, and Nadia Litz. Cronenberg wrote the script for the movie, with Robert Lantos producing.
After its Cannes debut, Crimes of the Future will land in theaters on June 3. You have until then to mentally prepare yourself for Cronenberg’s gorefest.