Cronenberg's final underground film carries on in the same vein as Stereo. Set in a dystopian future, it centres around strange institutes, bizarre medical disorders and mutating organs. Like Stereo, there is no sync sound here, so we listen to narration from a doctor called Adrian Tripod. We learn about the House of Skin, the Institute of Neo-Venereal Disease, the Oceanic Podiatry Group, a process known as Artificially Induced Puberty, and finally encounter a paedophile cult! Needless to say, the content is confrontational and taboo-busting but its not as shocking as it sounds as, like Stereo, its definitely more interesting to read about than actually watch. The lack of sync sound immediately puts up a barrier between the viewer and the movie, while there were several truly patience-testing segments, often revolving around feet! But for Cronenberg-heads, it feels almost compulsory to check these early underground films out, as they do show that Diamond Dave burst out of the starting blocks with many of his core cinematic ideas already fully in place. Consequently, Crimes of the Future, like the others is fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.
Review of Crimes of the Future
