Acclaimed director David Cronenberg is one of the most fascinating filmmakers around, and some of his most famous movies are absolutely horrible – and I mean that as a compliment.
Cronenberg's early work in particular is synonymous with high-tech sci-fi body horror that often requires a strong stomach – and if that's your kind of movie, you don't have long to catch Crimes of the Future before it leaves Hulu.
Crimes of the Future is a return to the themes of his early work and it's often very uncomfortable viewing, with disturbing performances by Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux as avant-garde artists who perform live surgeries to spectators. It's sitting with 80% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes: the people who like it loved it, and the people who hated it are probably still in therapy to get over it.
Why Crimes of the Future is worth streaming, if you have a strong stomach
Crimes of the Future was "one of the most upsetting films of the year," Horror Movie Talk said on the film's release in 2022. The Radio Times summary only hints at what's to come: "In a near-future where humans are evolving in strange ways, Saul Tenser has turned his ability to grow extra internal organs into a grisly performance art. But he begins to question the direction humanity is taking after he is contacted by a sinister radical group."
Grisly may be an understatement. As Empire recalls, when the film made its debut at Cannes it was "met with a quivering river of walk-outs, but also a six-minute standing ovation... with its slurpy autopsies and opulent wound-licking, this is not a film to watch munching a hotdog, or God forbid a burrito, but what did those Cannes walk-outers expect? Objecting to Cronenberg being transgressive is like complaining Michael Bay films have too many explodo-booms."
If the phrase "opulent wound-licking" has put you off, it's fair to say that Crimes of the Future isn't for you. But as Empire says, it's "hypnotic, maddening, pervy and disturbing. In other words, vintage Cronenberg. The doomy slow-burn won’t be to all tastes, but its abstract, feverish images are pure nightmare fuel."
Writing in the Irish Sunday Independent, Hilary A White spoke for many: "The singular vision, the score by Howard Shore, the Giger-esque prop design all contribute to making this a macabre, leftfield victory -- albeit one you’ll never want to watch again."
Crimes of the Future is leaving Hulu on October 30, 2025.
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