Infinity Pool - Turbine 4K UHD Mediabook Cover A

As much as I love to just kick back, turn my brain off, and enjoy some frivolous entertainment, I also like to be challenged by a film. I don’t expect a Marvel film to blow my brain away, I expect action-packed excitement with my favorite superheroes. When I sit down to a film with the name “Cronenberg” attached to it, well, that’s a different story. I expect to be transported to a world I never wanted to explore but powerless to escape from. I don’t pop popcorn in advance, hell I barely even eat before or after any Cronenberg film. That’s becoming especially true for the recent endeavors of Brandon Cronenberg.

In 2012 Brandon made his feature film directorial debut with Antiviral - a film I thought was generally pretty good for a first feature, but I know it wasn’t the flavor of many folks out there. It was a glimmer of things to come. In 2020 the youngster Cronenberg unleashed the unsettling Sci-fi/Body Horror Infusion Possessor. A tantalizing premise made all the more horrific by a truly soul-crushing finale. In 2023, his latest creation Infinity Pool crashed into theaters and is just as distressing and unsettling as his sophomore effort. Possibly even more so depending on how you look at it with a far more sinister sense of humor. 

Our story centers around vacationing sort-of writer James Foster (Skarsgard) and his well-to-do wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman). Basking in the sun of an exclusive resort in Li Tolqa (don’t worry, it’s a fictional place), James tries to confront his writer’s block after his first novel fails to gain an audience. There he meets his one (only?) fan Gabi (Mia Goth) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert). The foursome become friends and after an excursion outside the resort compound, a fatal car accident leaves them in the sights of Li Tolqa’s corrupt police system and culture. James can either die at the hands of a local per their customs, or he can pay an exorbitant fee, have himself cloned, and the clone can be killed in his place. The catch, he has to watch his fully aware clone die before his eyes.

One of the things that keeps bringing me back to Brandon Cronenberg’s brand of Science Fiction Horror is how dirty and lived-in it all feels. His worlds look like the perfect place to pick up a serious staph infection. In Posessor, the technology to implant your consciousness into another person turning their body into a puppet was refined and precise, but also looked very unclean because it could be done in the back of a dingy van. Likewise, the process of cloning someone in Infinity Pool is a dirty-looking shower where you stand ankle-deep in a mysterious viscus red fluid with a bizarre mouthpiece stuffed into your face. It’s a lived-in sort of science fiction where you need hand sanitizer on your person at all times in case you accidentally touch something. 

And I love it! Granted I didn’t immediately love Infinity Pool the same way I did Possessor, but I came around after a few more viewings. This isn’t a popcorn film. This isn’t a film you should have food or drink around as you take in the nightmarish visuals. It gets gnarly fast and leaves you with one terrifying examination of excess and addiction. It's this kind of movie why I keep a full catalog of easy entertainment at hand because I need something to bring me back up after the cinematic comedown. This isn't an easy film at all. It's often horrific watching James' encounter with the Imp of the Perverse but it proves to be another hypnotic accomplishment from the young director. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

Thanks to Turbine, we have a new 4K UHD of Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool to dive into. For this review, we were issued a check disc for our initial coverage and we aim to cover the full retail edition once it's available. Per Turbine’s typical release practice, Infinity Pool will come on a 4K disc (a BD66 in this case) and a BD50 disc (which we don’t have on hand) and housed in a Mediabook from which you can choose from four different art options and is limited to a run of 666 copies each edition. The 4K disc loads to a language menu - English or German - depending on which you select that’s the language of the main menu options and default audio. [Update: 1/27/25] - We now have a final retail edition in hand (see packaging images above and below). The included 1080p Blu-ray disc is Region Free so no issues there, and offers the same set of extras as the 4K disc. We've also been able to take a look at the 48-page booklet. It's in German so I had to break out Google Translate to read it, but that's a small inconvenience for a great essay from Tobias Hohmann with an interview from Zosia Mackenzie. Packed with all of that content are a ton of wild behind-the-scenes photos and production design proofs. Well worth the time to pick through that content. 

Stateside, Neon released Infinity Pool on 4K UHD in late Summer 2023, and I thought that HDR10 transfer was pretty good, but I also thought it suffered from some notable over-sharpening that’d create this sort of crispy-crunchy effect to the fine details. I also noticed it had some odd banding issues here and there. Not a terrible disc, but I am very happy to see this Director & Cinematographer-approved 2160p 1.78:1 Dolby Vision transfer come along. While the bitrate isn’t as high as the Neon disc, the details are just as sharp but without the odd crunchy quality. You can absorb all of the nightmarish facial features of the masks and textures in the visceral gore effects in all their glory. On top of the details looking more organic, the Dolby Vision grade is much more refined. The film has a sort of subdued quality where colors can look like they’re on some kind of dimmer switch. This makes the hypnotic hallucinations more impactful letting those moments really pop. But the “normal” scenes look terrific letting those color shades shine nicely with strong healthy black levels and ominous shadows. The prison sequences with their limited lighting and blasted-out windows look far better here, there are more details in the shadowy visuals. During this viewing, I also realized how much Thomas Kretschmann looked exactly like my old boss, right down to the haircut, glasses, and sweaters. In an already visually disturbing film, that was an unsettling realization.

This release also comes with a beautifully unappealing Dolby Atmos mix. I need to clarify that statement a bit in that the Atmos is fantastic effectively hitting all the channels and delivering a fully immersive experience. It’s just such a dissonant sound mix with unsettling disparate ambient tones that become more intense as the film progresses. As the film unfolded, I gradually felt more physically uneasy. The impact and the spread of music and sound effects increase as the film gets more depraved and intense. Which for this film is a great effect! The dialog is clear throughout and the Tim Hecker score lends itself to the hypnotic visuals. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of life at the resort sounding more flat and even but then when it drifts into the nightmare, the mix became more intense with more channel-specific sound effects and imaging. Similar to the work done on Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, the audio keeps you as uncomfortable as the visuals… but in a good way! This disc also comes with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that is very good and holds its own, but I have to tip to the Atmos for the extra LFE impact and sonic intensity.

The other added benefit of this release is there are actual bonus features - and some good ones! We get a very good and informative audio commentary from Brandon Cronenberg and his cinematographer Karim Hussain with producer Rob Cotterill. I love commentaries like this where they not only explain the “how” any given scene was captured but also who the hell came up with that visual or whathaveyou.  After that, we have solid making-of segments for the film, the lighting, and the makeup effects followed by cast interviews. After that, there is an additional short film from Brandon Cronenberg. The makeup effects segment narrated by Dan Martin is particularly interesting for those looking for the “how” to the gore and makeup work and some of the more notable "appendages" that appear in the film. Then there is the booklet which I’ll update and elaborate on once I have a look at it. Now that we have the retail edition in hand and I've gotten to look through the booklet, I'm actually upping the Bonus features score a full point to reflect the quality of that content. The new Homann essay is fantastic but the additional look at the production design and costume work, the behind-the-scenes photos that show how they made some of the more ghastly effects is quality material not to be missed. 

• Audio Commentary featuring Brandon Cronenberg, Karim Hussain, with producer Speak 
• Making of Infinity Pool (HD 9:56)
• Making of Makeup Effects (HD 21:56)
• Making of Light Effects (HD 5:49)
• Interview with Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth (HD 10:08) 
• Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences As They Come to You (HD 9:32)
• Design Gallery (HD 7:52)
• US Trailer
• German Trailer
• Textless Trailer
• TV Spots
• Booklet

Brandon Cronenberg has certainly set the stage for himself building a career of gleefully distressing films. If you’re going to try and pigeon his work into a particular genre, my feel is “Science Fiction Body Horror” would be applicable. But that would negate the devilishly dark sense of humor found in Infinity Pool. Make no mistake, this is a visually and sonically distressing film - but in a good way! It might not quite be as twisted as his previous film Possessor, but it’s another engrossing entry in a growing catalog of films with hopefully more on the way. Turbine delivers an excellent 4K Dolby Vision experience with an excellent Atmos mix to match. Top it off with some informative worthwhile extra features. Once we have a full retail edition on hand we’ll circle back and fill in some details about the Mediabook, the essay, and what’s on the included Blu-ray, but until then, consider this one Now that we've seen the final package and the great content in the booklet, the  Highly Recommended

Click to pick which cover you'd like for your collection: