Infinity Pool (2023) - What was that all about?

I was always a big fan of David Cronenberg's films.  I don't always claim to know what the hell they were all about, but - being the horror fan I am - I seemed to find something enjoyable about them. 'Infinity Pool' is directed by David's son, Brandon, so I figured the apple wouldn't fall too far from the tree.  And I was right.

In a fictional country - let's pretend it's some sort of offbeat island around the equator - rich Western holidaymakers lie around by the pool in luxury while the general population tend to be living in relative poverty.  Nothing particularly out of the ordinary there!  But the island - or rather those who pull the strings behind it - hold a dark secret that our rich protagonists are about to find out - to their peril.

I'm not sure how much about 'the secret' has been made clear through the film's marketing, so I'm going to remain vague about what it is for fear of spoilers.  On the surface, it's a neat idea - and even one I can understand from the islanders' point of view.  So that's good - as is the acting (even if some of the main characters are particularly annoying/unlikable).  Plus there's the inevitable 'gross-out' body horror that seems to go hand in hand with the name 'Cronenberg.' 

And yet there was something missing.  I did stick with the film all the way to the end.  And I'm glad I did.  It was certainly unique, even just for the premise, but perhaps the premise was also the problem.  Although I'm willing to believe in a 'supernatural' element in a story to further my enjoyment of the fictional genre, it just didn't really hold up in terms of logic once you thought about it.  Or rather, this supernatural element could work once in terms of the characters, but once it happens again and again, you wonder why the people behind it are so bothered by this seemingly repeated annoyance (or rather annoying tourists!) and there must be a better way to deal with rich idiots, rather than expose them to something that they could go home and tell the world about.

Again, sorry if all that sounds a bit cryptic.  Like I say, nice idea and definitely a dark horror if you're into that, but if you can explain all the implications and unanswered questions the premise brings up then you must have been watching it more closely than me!

6/10