In Brandon Cronenberg's third feature, we meet James and Em Foster who are on vacation at a resort on the shore of a nameless body of water in an entirely fictional country that is Third World or developing or whatever you call it these days. The resort is ringed by a rather tall fence that is topped with barbed wire. James befriends Gabi, a frenetic naughty dream girl. He and Em join Gabi and her husband, Alban, for a venture outside the resort compound.
James volunteers to drive the revelers home but he is not exactly sober and ends up hitting a local. This leads to his arrest. He discovers that the government makes liberal use of the death penalty but, in order to maintain good optics for tourists and generate a little income, one can pay to have a clone made who will take one for the team. But you have to watch your double being killed.
James takes the authorities up on the deal and is prepared to head home with an urn of his double's ashes but he instead is lured deeper into the Gabi's world which consists of her husband and a few other visitors to the country who form a band of ugly tourists. They are perverted and wicked. And rich too because they are happy to engage in all manner of vice and destruction and simply pay to have a double suffer the consequences as they gleefully watch.
I didn't know much about this movie walking into the theater and, for a while, it seemed as if it was going to simply be a twisted take on The Sheltering Sky. But it quickly went beyond twisted into hedonistic depravity. Mia Goth is great as the ringleader who is out for a thrill at any cost. I really enjoyed the dreamy, psychedelic orgies scenes as they were visually arresting.
A fun ride into the darkest recesses of our minds that thrills and horrifies. Cronenberg's best yet.
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