Macabre…ish Horror Review: Crimes of the Future
Crimes of the Future, 2022/ 107 min
In the future, there are significant progress in biotech. Tech and computers are created that can control bodily functions and now in society, that is the norm. At the same time, mankind has made great jumps in evolution, the origins of which are unknown. Among the changes are the disappearance of infectious disease and pain. Basic hygiene as we once knew it, is done. People don’t even wash their hands anymore.
Surgery can now be safely performed in a casual setting. Some humans have more extreme evolution, like Brecken, a boy who can consume plastics for sustenance. He is killed by his mother one evening after she is convinced he’s not human, after watching him eat a waste basket for dinner. She leaves his corpse to be discovered by his father, Lang.
Saul and Caprice are a couple and also performing artists. Saul have evolved even further, his condition is called accelerated evolution syndrome, his body constantly regrows organs. So their act is Caprice surgically removing organs in front of an audience.
This disorder causes Saul to be in constant pain, severe respiratory and digestive issues. He sleeps in a biomechanical bed at night and he uses a biomechanical chair that aids him in eating. He is struggling and the bed hardly helps with the pain.
They meet with the bureaucrats that manage the National Organ Registry, this government organization upholds the state’s restrictions on human evolution. It collects and catalogs newly evolved organs. Saul invites the two bureaucrats to their next show.
One of the bureaucrats, Timlin, is fascinated by their art. At one of their shows, Caprice explains that surgery is the new sex. Cutting has even replaced sex and masturbation.
Saul is soon recruited by a government agency to infiltrate a group of evolution revolutionaries, one of them is a former plastic surgeon, Nasatir. He installs a zipper into Saul’s abdomen for easier access and he and Caprice later use it for sexual stimulation. Later, Timlin propositions Saul for sex but Saul matter of factly says he would have to fake it because he’s not very good at sex.
The main agenda of the evolutionaries is to modify themselves, their digestive tracts, making it possible for them to eat plastic and other synthetic materials. Their main food source is called a purple candy bar, it is processed toxic waste and it would be poisonous to anyone else. Saul reveals this plan to Timlin.
Lang turns out to be the group’s leader, his son , Brecken, being the first born with this capability. Lang approaches Caprice and Saul to do a public autopsy on Brecken. Saul agrees but his digestive system has been tampered with, surgically replaced. Lang flees, distraught.
Lang is accosted and killed by an operative of the corporation that make biomechanical technology. Saul, saddened by his death, informs the police that he quits. And that night at home, he asks for a candy bar.
This was written and directed by David Cronenberg! It is dark, both in substance and aesthetic. Really nice body horror, the effects are as good as we’ve come to expect. It is also sometimes hard to watch, there’s cutting, suturing, autopsy, exposed organs etc. It’s also a social commentary that speaks to the zeal and overreach of government and corporations in juxtaposition to humans who are just living. Well done.