Infinity Pool (film)

Infinity Pool is a 2023 science fiction

horror film written and directed by Brandon
Cronenberg, starring Alexander Skarsgård,
Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman. The film
follows a struggling writer and his wife on
vacation who, after an accident, discover
the country’s dark culture.
 Infinity Pool

Theatrical release poster

Directed by Brandon Cronenberg

Written by Brandon Cronenberg

Produced by Karen Harnisch

Andrew Cividino
Christina Piovesan
Noah Segal
Rob Cotterill
Anita Juka
 Daniel Kresmery
Jonathan Halperyn

Starring Alexander Skarsgård

Mia Goth
Cleopatra Coleman

Cinematography Karim Hussain

Edited by James Vandewater

Music by Tim Hecker

Production Film Forge

companies
Elevation Pictures
4film
Hero Squared
Telefilm Canada
Eurimages
The Croatian
Audiovisual Centre
 Celluloid Dreams

Distributed by Elevation Pictures

(Canada)

Release dates January 22, 2023

(Sundance)
January 27, 2023
(Canada)

Running time 118 minutes[1]

Countries Canada
Croatia
Hungary

Language English

Box office $4.9 million[2]

Cronenberg started developing the project
in 2019, with production later being
pushed back to 2021. Much of the cast
joined the project that year and filming
took place primarily in Šibenik, Croatia.
Infinity Pool premiered at the 2023
Sundance Film Festival on January 22,
2023, and was theatrically released in
Canada on January 27, 2023, by Elevation
Pictures. The film received generally
positive reviews from critics, with praise
for the atmosphere and Cronenberg's
direction.
Plot
Novelist James Foster and his wife Em
spend time at a resort in the fictional
seaside country of Li Tolqa,[3] where a
local festival is underway. The couple's
chronic marital strife is exacerbated when
Gabi, a fan of the only novel James has
published to date, invites them to spend
time with her and her husband Alban. The
four have dinner and decide to spend the
next day driving in the countryside, even
though they have been warned that
tourists are to remain on the resort
compound at all times.
At a beach, as James urinates behind a
tree, Gabi unexpectedly grabs him from
behind and proceeds to give him a
handjob. After a long day of sunbathing
and cooking, the tourists embark on a
drunken drive back to their hotel. En route,
James accidentally runs over a local man,
killing him. Gabi insists that they cannot
call the police, as the country is corrupt
and they will not be safe.

The next day, James is arrested and is told

that the penalty for his crime is death at
the hand of the dead man's firstborn son.
However, the country has a unique system
of justice whereby the guilty, for a hefty
fee, can be cloned and have their
duplicates killed in their place. James, who
married into money, pays the fee to have a
double killed before his eyes. Em is
horrified by the entire affair and wants to
leave immediately, but James is titillated
by the spectacle and wants to stay. He
hides his passport, claiming that he has
lost it, and encourages Em to return to the
United States.

James extends his stay by a week and

encounters Gabi and Alban again. They
introduce him to a small group of Western
tourists who all have been convicted of
serious crimes and have paid to watch
their doubles killed. These people return to
the resort annually, commit heinous
crimes, and pay to watch their doubles get
slaughtered. Over the next several days,
they encourage James to transform into a
libertine criminal, encouraging him to kill
locals, engage in intoxicated orgies, and
abuse the resort staff.

James is rattled one night when he is

tricked into brutalizing a clone of himself
he had been led to believe was the police
detective who initially arrested him. In a
moment of clarity and panic, James
retrieves his hidden passport and
attempts to flee, but the tourist group
accosts him and abducts him from the
bus transporting him to the airport. Gabi
reveals that she finds him pathetic and
that the group is abusing him for their own
amusement, hoping to turn him into a
fellow murder tourist. He runs off into a
nearby wilderness. Gabi shoots him in the
leg as he flees.

After hours of wandering, James collapses

at a farm, where a local family takes him in
to recuperate. In his drugged state, he
experiences a series of hallucinations.
Once he has regained his strength, he is
again confronted by Gabi's group, who
order him to kill a duplicate of himself to
complete his transformation. He initially
refuses, but when the clone attempts to
kill him, James beats him to death. As a
reward, Gabi exposes her bare breast to
James, inviting him to breastfeed.

The next day, as they head back to the

United States, the other tourists casually
chat about upcoming errands, while
James is visibly shaken from the events of
the past few days. Waiting in the airport
for his flight, he resolves to remain behind
instead. He returns to the closed resort,
where he sits alone amidst the downpour
of the monsoon.
Cast
Alexander Skarsgård as James Foster
Mia Goth as Gabi Bauer
Cleopatra Coleman as Em Foster
Jalil Lespert as Alban Bauer
Amanda Brugel as Jennifer
John Ralston as Dr. Bob Modan
Jeffrey Ricketts as Charles
Caroline Boulton as Bex
Thomas Kretschmann as Detective
Thresh
Production

Development

Brandon Cronenberg wrote the original

screenplay for Infinity Pool with the
intention of directing the film. He
developed the story from actual
experiences he had on unsatisfying
vacations and a science fiction story about
killing clones he had been writing.[4] By
May 2019, an international co-production
had been set up between Canada,
Hungary, and France. Filming was slated
to begin at the end of 2019.[5][6] By
November 2020, filming locations in
Croatia and Hungary were selected, but
production was pushed back to 2021.[7] In
June 2021, it was announced that
distribution would be handled by Elevation
Pictures in Canada and Neon in the United
States.[8]

Casting

In June 2021, Alexander Skarsgård was

revealed to be starring in the lead role.[9]
By the time filming had started, additional
casting announcements included Mia
Goth, Thomas Kretschmann, Amanda
Brugel, Caroline Boulton, John Ralston,
Jeff Ricketts, Jalil Lespert and Roderick
Hill.

Filming

Principal photography took five weeks,

beginning on September 6, 2021,[10] at the
Amadria Park resort in Šibenik, Croatia.
After twelve days of shooting, production
moved to Budapest, Hungary, where
filming was completed.[11] Post-production
took place in Toronto, Canada, and was
completed during the second half of
2022.[12]
Release
Infinity Pool premiered at the 2023
Sundance Film Festival[13] and was
released by Elevation Pictures in Canada
on January 27, 2023.[14] The film's
European premiere will be held at the 73rd
Berlin International Film Festival in the
Berlinale Special section.[15]

The film was released on VOD on February

14, 2023.[16]
MPA rating

For its United States release, an initial cut

received an NC-17 rating from the Motion
Picture Association (MPA).[17][18] Neon
appealed to the Classification and Rating
Administration appeals board, but the
rating was upheld.[19] After re-edits, it
achieved an R rating.[20]

Reception

Box office

Infinity Pool grossed $1.1 million from

1,835 theaters on its first day of release. It
went on to debut to $2.7 million, finishing
eighth at the box office and out-grossing
the lifetime domestic run of the director's
father's 2022 release, Crimes of the Future
($2.4 million).[21][22] It dropped out of the
box office top ten in its second weekend
with $900,000.[23]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten

Tomatoes, the film holds an approval
rating of 86% based on 163 reviews, with
an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's
critical consensus reads, "Turbulent
waters even for strong swimmers, Infinity
Pool provides a visceral all-inclusive
retreat of Cronenbergian perversion for
those wanting to escape commercial
sundries."[24] On Metacritic, the film has a
weighted average score of 72 out of 100
based on 37 critics, indicating "generally
favorable reviews".[25] Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average
grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale, while
those polled by PostTrak gave it a 52%
positive score, with 28% saying they would
definitely recommend it.[21]

Reviewing Infinity Pool following its

premiere at Sundance, David Fear of
Rolling Stone described the film as being
laced with "a rage, an edge and a warped
satirical sensibility that feels unique, and
uniquely unnerving enough to kill talk of
family coattails", praising Cronenberg's
screenplay and direction, as well the lead
performances.[26] The film is a New York
Times Critic's Pick, with Jeannette
Catsoulis writing, "Surreal, sophisticated,
and sometimes sickening, Infinity Pool
suggests that while the elder Cronenberg
might be fixated on the disintegration of
our bodies, his son is more concerned with
the destruction of our souls."[27] Esther
Zuckerman of Vanity Fair commended the
cast performances (particularly Goth's),
but was overall mixed on the film,
asserting that it is "provocative with
questionable payoff".[28]

Comparing the film to Possessor in a

positive Los Angeles Times review, Katie
Walsh wrote that Infinity Pool "is larger in
scope than its predecessor, the narrative
grander, sharper, funnier and more
wickedly perverse."[29] Meagan Navarro of
Bloody Disgusting also gave the film a
positive review, writing, "Cronenberg’s
sense of style, paired with an unrelenting
sense of dread and tension and two utterly
captivating, depraved leads ensure these
provocative waters are well worth wading
into."[30]
In a negative review, Michael O'Sullivan
from The Washington Post claimed that
the movie has an "eye-roll-inducing plot"
and that Cronenberg has inherited some of
his father's worst excesses: sophomoric,
fetishistic violence and gratuitous
sexualization.[31] In another negative
review from The Hollywood Reporter, David
Rooney claimed that the movie lacks
substance and has a silly storyline.[32]
IndieWire described the film as shallow,
cold and clammy.[33] Mae Abdulbaki of
Screen Rant gave the film a two out of five,
feeling the story is messy and lacks
cohesion.[34] Reuben Baron of Looper
noted that the film's attempt at cultural
commentary is shallow and that the film
gives little reason for viewers to care
about its "loathsome characters", although
Baron did praise Goth's performance.[35]

References
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3. Willmore, Alison (January 27, 2023). "The
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External links
Infinity Pool (https://www.imdb.com/titl
e/tt10365998/) at IMDb 
 Infinity Pool (https://www.boxofficemoj
o.com/title/tt10365998/) at Box Office
Mojo

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