Crimes of the Future (2022) – Review

Quick Breakdown

Rating

  • Visuals: Stark and unsettling, but effective – 4/5
  • Mental Depth: Makes you think, but doesn’t overwhelm – 3/5
  • Story: Minimalist and cold, but works – 3/5
  • Weirdness: Definitely strange, and intentional – 4/5
  • Culture: Captures the struggle of the artist – 4/5
  • Final Vibe: Leaves you feeling disconnected, but in a good way – 4/5

Excerpt

Crimes of the Future (2022) is unsettling, with body horror that's intense but not gratuitous. Cronenberg blends a minimalist story with the cold detachment of human evolution. The film reflects the numbness of the human experience, and the lack of emotional depth is deliberate. A stripped-down atmosphere and robotic performances capture the struggle of artists in a future devoid of meaning and emotion.

Film Information

Director:
David Cronenberg
Country of Origin:
Canada
Language:
English
Length:
107 minutes

First Impressions and Finding the Film

So, Crimes of the Future. I went into this having seen eXistenZ, but that’s about as much as I know of Cronenberg. The film definitely has a unique style, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s trying to say something important without spelling it out.

The body horror is there, no doubt. People will talk about that a lot, but to me, it wasn’t overly shocking. It’s just a part of the world Cronenberg built here—people modifying their bodies as a kind of artistic expression. What stuck with me was how detached it all felt. The nudity, the surgeries—it’s all shown without any vulnerability or emotional depth. Everything feels distant, like human connection is something mechanical now.

Minimalist Story, But It Works

The lack of a complex story works in its favour. It’s not a film that needs a big plot to drive it forward. The setup is simple: artists in the future, doing their thing with a backdrop of human evolution, but the film doesn’t try to give you a big dramatic arc. It’s more about the setting and the mood it creates. You get a sense that this is a world where people are just going through the motions—creating for the sake of it because it’s all they have left.

Robotic Performances and Detachment

I liked that the film didn’t explain too much. It trusts you to sit with the imagery and just let it sink in. The performances are flat, almost robotic, but it feels deliberate. It’s not bad acting; it’s a reflection of a world where people have lost touch with what it means to really feel anything.

A Confined Setting That Works

Visually, it’s confined. You’re mostly stuck in a few buildings with a small cast, but I didn’t mind that. It adds to the atmosphere of being trapped, which kind of fits the whole idea of struggling to find meaning in a future that feels empty. Cronenberg is clearly pushing at something here about art’s place in the world—how far artists can go when there’s nothing left to rebel against.

Final Thoughts

In the end, the film leaves you feeling off balance. It’s not because of any big reveal or shocking moment, but more the coldness of the whole thing. There’s a disconnect between what you’re seeing and how you feel watching it, and that’s what lingers. It’s not a film for everyone, but if you’re into something that makes you sit back and think about where creativity and humanity might be headed, it’s worth a watch.