Few filmmakers have so clearly defined a cinematic language that their surname becomes an adjective. Think Fellinian, Almodovarian, Lynchian, and Cronenbergian. This last term references a cinema known for its New Flesh, where the human body is shaped, distorted, and fused with inorganic elements. Across three decades from the 1970s into the next century, Cronenberg fused themes of physical transformation, infection, disease, and technology into a dark, provocative mix. In the 21st century he shifted his focus toward exploring human nature—more psychological than merely physiological.
The Canadian director picked up a major new honour with the Donostia Award in San Sebastián and returned to the unsettling body-horror imagery that has long characterized his work with Crimes of the Future, his first film in eight years. The film operates through a lexicon of concepts and key names, shaping its discourse as if written in a dictionary form.
Naked lunch revived by Cronenberg, adapting William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch in 1991. The project, once deemed unadaptable, follows a writer navigating a nightmare world called Interzone. A remarkable musical score by Howard Shore and the saxophonist Ornette Coleman threads through the film, delivering a fluid, intimate experience set mostly indoors.
Biology serves as the compass for Cronenberg’s cinema. The organic world is inseparably linked with the inorganic and mechanical, yielding a biology of terror in which viruses and tumors circulate, sometimes as imagery, sometimes as ideas. In works like Videodrome, the body and mind fuse with technology, revealing an environment where thoughts and bodies can kill.
Surgery is a recurring motif, with Cronenberg portraying medicine and technology addicts who dissect, reveal, and probe the depths of the human psyche. In Crimes of the Future science and body art mingle, yet the director also made headlines by selling an NFT of a kidney-stone image for a significant sum, underscoring his enduring interest in the body as both form and symbol.
In a short 2021 film, Cronenberg examines mortality from a tender, intimate angle. The director appears in a quiet moment, wearing a robe, kissing a dying face, and embracing the inevitability of death with a gentle, humane candor.
Existence presents Cronenberg’s take on virtual reality from a moment when the world was first introduced to simulated experiences. Early skepticism gave way to a more nuanced understanding as the director crafts a story in which characters step into a game-like realm through an organic interface that binds user to machine in a lasting, almost intimate way.
Freud becomes a lens for Cronenberg. The study of sex, psychoanalysis, and inner conflict provides fertile ground for exploring how bodies relate to minds, revealing the complex dance between desire, fear, and interpretation.
Twins offer a stark experiment in identity. Physically identical yet emotionally distinct, the twin doctors in this story navigate rivalry and obsession around a shared attraction. The film uses their relationship to probe questions of fate, choice, and morality.
History of violence, one. The director frames a story with mythic American motifs, focusing on a man who chooses a path toward goodness and the quiet cost of breaking old patterns. The narrative treats violence as a ritual and a cultural imprint, marked by a few decisive moments that redefine its antihero.
Irwin, Mark. The striking, damp palette of Cronenberg’s early work—from Scanners to The Fly—was shaped by the cinematography of Mark Irwin. Essential to the era, Irwin’s approach seasoned the genre and influenced many peers as the years passed. Their paths eventually diverged, but the imprint remained.
Kafka. The Fly aligns with Franz Kafka’s themes of metamorphosis, echoing a classic tale of transformation. Cronenberg’s adaptation channels the sense of bodily flux that Kafka imagined, translating it into a modern nightmare.
LITERATURE. In 2016 Cronenberg published a novel, Consumados, described by readers as a rich, provocative blend for fans of Burroughs, Ballard, and DeLillo, full of the director’s signature motifs: sex, violence, disease, and technology.
MORTENSEN, VIGGO. In Crimes of the Future Mortensen returns to Cronenberg’s orbit, a collaboration that builds on past work in A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. The collaboration explores the darker, more introspective edges of human nature.
NEW MEAT. The early New Flesh concept has fascinated many creators, from filmmakers to graphic artists. Cronenberg’s exisiting influence is evident in the way he framed body horror as political theory, art, and social commentary in his most iconic works.
Chinese pear. A striking late-career note comes with M. Butterfly, a tale of love and illusion that probes identity and transformation through an elaborate costume of performance and desire, echoing Cronenberg’s themes of metamorphosis and perception.
Pattinson, Robert. Robert Pattinson’s collaboration with Cronenberg in notable films helped redefine the actor’s path after major franchise roles, bringing a fresh, serious tone to intimate, character-driven drama.
rabies. Among Cronenberg’s early explorations, rabies stands as a bold metaphor for contagion and desire. The film threads through New Flesh aesthetics with a provocative blend of mutation and psychology.
Stereo. The director’s debut, made in 1969, hinted at the themes that would surface later: neurosurgery, telepathy, sexuality, and altered states, all captured in a stark, experimental vision with a minimal soundscape.
Titan. Contemporary cinema’s most daring exploration of New Meat arrives as a vivid continuation of Cronenberg’s influence, blending flesh, metal, and existential dread into a bold, boundary-pushing narrative.
Universe (dystopia). Cronenberg’s cinema often imagines a dark future shaped by technology and mutation. The Crimes of the Future sit within this dystopian frame, presenting bodies that grow new organs and endure pain-inflicted survival through plastic consumption.
VIDEODROM. A central thread in Cronenberg’s career, Videodrome contemplates television’s power and the evolving nature of media imagery. The film depicts a world where a broadcaster encounters a signal that reveals a video reality built from flesh.
Wimmer, doctor. Cronenberg also takes on cameos, including a role as Dr. John in a work that plays with memory, satire, and the quirks of genre cinema, contributing to his broader exploration of body and mind.
DEAD ZONE, LA. The Dead Zone sits alongside King adaptations as a cooler, more cerebral portrait of a man overwhelmed by what he sees. It leans into psychological depth rather than pure sensationalism, emphasizing internal conflict over loud action.