Mia Goth might be more terrifying in writer-director Brandon Cronenberg’s deeply unsettling and memorably grisly “Infinity Pool” than she was in “X” and “Pearl,” and if you’ve seen “X” and “Pearl” that should run a little chill up and down your spine.
Not that Cronenberg, director of the disturbingly effective “Antiviral” and “Possessor” and son of body horror master David Cronenberg, has delivered a slasher film. This is more like a hallucinogenic version of “The White Lotus” as filtered through “Under the Skin” meets “Midsommar” — and the result is a dark, visually arresting, WTF of a movie with great performances by Goth, Alexander Skarsgård and the supporting cast. There are moments in “Infinity Pool” where it’s a test of wills to keep your eyes fixed on the screen, but beyond all the gruesome violence, Cronenberg’s screenplay is filled with sharply honed observations about culture and class differences, and some wickedly satisfying twists and turns. This is a film that is bat-bleep crazy but knows exactly what it is doing.
