The horror of body horror

It may come as no surprise to some that David Cronenberg's newest feature 'Crimes of the Future' may lead to audience walkouts within its first five minutes.

The least surprised in all of this is Cronenberg himself, who says he fully expects some unfavourable reactions to his gruesome new film - his first feature in eight years.

'Crimes of the Future' stars Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart and the plot description reads:

"As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux) , Saul Tenser (Mortensen) , celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Scott), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission–to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution."

"I do expect walkouts in Cannes, and that’s a very special thing. There are some very strong scenes," Cronenberg said in a Deadline interview. "I mean, I'm sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie. I'm sure of that."

Those who are hoping it gets easier after the first five minutes have another thing coming. "Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there'll be a lot of walkouts. Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack."

Cronenberg hasn't made a sci-fi/horror film since 1999's 'ExistenZ'. The Canadian director is famous for his 80's body-horror films such as 'The Fly' and 'Videodrome'.

'Crimes of the Future' has been in the works for over 20 years, according to Cronenberg. The original screenplay was written under the title 'Painkillers'.

Despite the director's predictions, he was still clear on his thoughts of censorship and backlash.

"Once again, you are best to ignore it, and then you take the hits, I mean, you’re out there. You are very vulnerable. You are exposing yourself as an artist. Part of what you do is to expose yourself, and you are therefore susceptible to all kinds of criticism and anger and outrage and everything else."

'Crimes of the Future' is out in cinemas on June 10.