The Shrouds

As venerable Canadian auteur David Cronenberg winds down his prolific filmmaking career, The Shrouds touches on familiar themes while straining to hit different.

This twisted yet provocative exploration of grief, mortality, religion, and paranoia tries to juggle tones while layering the morbid subject matter with quirky deadpan humor.

Cronenberg also incorporates elements of his trademark body horror as he probes life after death, letting go, and technological overreach. Not for all tastes, it’s consistently unsettling even as it becomes muddled in the final act.

The film follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a Toronto tech entrepreneur still reeling from the recent death of his wife, Becca. As a misguided coping mechanism, his latest invention involves a system of cameras and sensors that enables Karsh to view her body inside the casket via an app.

He explains his plans for marketing the product to a dinner guest (Elizabeth Saunders) who refers to the accompanying burial shrouds as “ominous metallic ninja things.”

Meanwhile, as Karsh develops a disturbing obsession with the decomposing corpse, he grows closer to Becca’s twin sister, Terry (Diane Kruger). “You know what creeps me out? Watching my sister rot in her grave,” Terry explains to Karsh while also speaking for the audience.

Soon afterward, an act of theft and vandalism at the cemetery where Becca is buried prompts Karsh to enlist Terry’s eccentric brother (Guy Pearce) to assist with the investigation.

Eventually, Karsh begins experiencing hallucinations involving both sisters and his personal-assistant digital avatar. His quest for catharsis spirals into a surreal and erotically charged nightmare.

The film is obviously personal for Cronenberg, whose longtime wife and collaborator, Carolyn, died a few years ago. His contemplative screenplay is deliberately paced and relentlessly bleak, occasionally testing moviegoer patience.

The film’s central mystery involving medical ethics and unsolved crimes is less compelling than the introspective character study surrounding it.

An understated performance by Cassel (Beauty and the Beast) infuses his troubled character — positioned as something of a mad scientist trying to leverage AI to connect with the great beyond — with hard-earned sympathy.

The Shrouds offers up some intriguing concepts, but as the story distances itself from reality, it speaks to the dead yet struggles to resonate more deeply with the living.

Rated R, 119 minutes.