Predicting David Cronenberg’s New Body Horror Movie

Director David Cronenberg, the master of the body horror sub-genre, is set to make a new movie in that style, but we’re not sure what it is yet. While Cronenberg has strayed away from the horror scene in recent decades, preferring to craft dark and violent dramas, he’ll always be associated with horror by many. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Cronenberg crafted a multitude of horror and sci-fi films so freaky and unsettling that they stay with the viewer long afterward, but are so well made that it’s impossible to look away.

The biggest guns of Cronenberg’s body horror era came in the 1980s, with the most popular being his excellent remake of The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum. He also directed the chilling Stephen King adaptation The Dead Zone during that decade, as well as the head-exploding ride known as Scanners, and the mind-bending descent of a TV executive into madness and mutation in Videodrome. That’s not even mentioning 1970s classics like The Brood or 1990s cult items like Existenz.

Recently, Cronenberg’s frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen revealed that he and the filmmaker were gearing up to make a new film in the body horror vein, which needless to say, excited many horror fans. Mortensen also said it was a refined version of a script that Cronenberg first wrote a long time ago. Outside of that, details on the project aren’t currently available, but we have some guesses as to what it might be.

Frankenstein

Back in the mid 1980s, Cronenberg was developing an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel Frankenstein, but the project fell by the wayside for unknown reasons. Perhaps Cronenberg didn’t want to remake another classic right after The Fly. Either way, little is known about Cronenberg’s ideas for the story, although he did say he wanted to stay closer to Shelley’s more intelligent, emotionally sensitive version of the creature, not the mute monstrous beast found in the Boris Karloff movies. That’s no disrespect toward Karloff of course, but the book is definitely different.

It makes perfect sense that Cronenberg would want to adapt Frankenstein, as it’s in essence one of the oldest body horror stories ever written. Mortensen would likely sink his teeth right into the leading role too, making the actor/director pair a perfect match for the material. The mind delights at imagining the gruesome horrors Cronenberg’s Frankenstein could’ve entailed, especially if one looks at The Fly as a guide. If this is what Cronenberg and Mortensen are cooking up, it’s highly unlikely the final result would disappoint fans, even with the amount of Frankenstein movies that already exist.

Painkillers

Back in the early 2000s, shortly after making Spider, which centered on the horrors of mental illness and childhood trauma, Cronenberg was developing a movie called Painkillers. It concerned a bizarre performance artist with a sky-high pain threshold that specialized in mutilating his own body as part of the show. Nicolas Cage was originally attached to star, and wow, that could’ve been an amazing bit of insanity with him in the lead. Alas, he dropped out, but replacing him was another great actor in Oscar-nominee Ralph Fiennes.

Fiennes had played the lead in Cronenberg’s aforementioned film Spider, and since Cronenberg enjoys working with his favorite muses over and over again, it’s possible this could’ve led to he and Fiennes having an ongoing relationship like the one he has with Mortensen. It’s not quite clear why exactly Painkillers never got made, but when asked about it in a mid 2000s interview, Cronenberg brushed the project aside, stating that it wasn’t happening and that he had lost interest in making it anyway. Perhaps Mortensen and Cronenberg have managed to rekindle that interest, and Painkillers is now happening.

A Reworking Of His Unmade Fly Sequel

As mentioned, Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly is arguably his body horror masterpiece, and while that film did get a sequel in 1989, Cronenberg had no involvement. About a decade ago, Cronenberg revealed that he had once written his own Fly sequel, although he dubbed it more of a “sidebar” than a continuation. Cronenberg said the movie wouldn’t have had any returning characters from the Goldblum cast, but instead looked at the horrors of human and fly merging through a new lens aided by technological advances since the first Fly.

Perhaps Cronenberg might have opted to revive his Fly 2 script, either retaining the franchise name and ties, or jettisoning them and reworking the project into an original story. Either way, Mortensen could certainly make an able replacement for Goldblum in the Seth Brundle-esque leading role. An actual franchise connection to The Fly seems unlikely to happen though, especially if no returning characters were involved in Cronenberg’s idea. Then again, Hollywood sure loves established IPs.

Consumed

Depending on one’s definition of what a long time ago means, Consumed may well be the most likely candidate to be David Cronenberg‘s new body horror movie endeavor. That’s because it’s entirely his own brainchild, as Consumed was Cronenberg’s first – and so far only – published novel, released in 2014. It’s the type of material ripe for Cronenberg to adapt into a body horror movie too, as it’s already very much of that ilk on the page, and readily reminded many fans of his older film works.

Consumed focuses on the parallel, and later intersecting, stories of two journalists obsessed with investigating the sickest and depraved crimes imaginable, traveling the world to do so. One looks into a now missing couple known for being sexually unleashed, with it believed that one of the people involved killed and ate his lover and partner in crime. The other journalist investigates an unlicensed surgeon accused of organ trafficking, only to discover something entirely more than he bargained for. Consumed looked to be headed to Netflix as a miniseries in 2019, but the project hasn’t been spoken of publicly since, and could well serve as great fodder for Cronenberg’s grand return to body horror, with Mortensen now in tow. Whatever Cronenberg does though, it’s sure to be interesting.

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