Infinity Pool – Review

Cert – 18, Run-time – 1 hour 58 minutes, Director – Brandon Cronenberg

Whilst on holiday in a luxury resort couple James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) discover a dark world of crime and identity on the island after leaving the safety of the resort.

There’s no denying that an opening line such as “did you just say you can’t feed yourself with white sand brain death?” is going to grab your attention. It’s a strong lead into the world of Infinity Pool – soon accompanied by shots of the central island resort where it seems as if the world is rotating rather than the camera. Central couple James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are well aware of the rules about not leaving the safety of the resort. However, after being convinced by another couple, Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert), to venture to other reaches of the fictional La Tolqa trouble quickly follows after James hits a local man in a car accident.

As the married couple, primarily James, begin to discover the workings of the prison system in the area things shift tone from horror to thriller. Yet, despite this style the rising high-pitched score indicating a new scene or idea still indicates a more direct horror. For much the film when it is playing out the horror is more restrained, or about the course that Skarsgård’s character is taking rather than the more up front gore which pops up very prominently every now and then.

As the world the resort is isolated from is shown to be darker and darker it soon makes its way into the confines of the luxury holiday. Soon Gabi and Alban’s friends who have all had similar experiences come into the mix and start to show an almost cult-like nature to their group. In comes both a more frequent trippy style to proceedings and a feeling that at the end of each scene you can almost see the narrative trying to figure out where to go next. While in general the film is watchable and moves along fairly fine there are a couple of bumps along the way because of this.

Perhaps most of all when reaching the final 20-25 minutes where the film truly feels as if it loses itself. The actions that we see on screen appear to just happen with no real context as to ‘why’ to bring in more of a shade of horror. Instead it just seems as if decisions and subjections are made just because. It removes something from what has come before as you start to wonder what the real point behind it all has been. Further pushing the need for a tighter, stronger narrative so that the final stages have more substance and drive to them instead of an almost confusing state of uncertainty where the suspense and horror lack.

While for the most part it’s fine Infinity Pool often feels as if its finding its way as it goes along with each new point and idea, eventually reaching a point where it feels context is lacking as to why stuff is happening or being done in the first place.