David Cronenberg explores grief and decay in The Shrouds trailer

The film, which originally premiered at Cannes last year, was written following the death of Cronenberg’s wife, Carolyn, in 2017. As such, the story follows a tech entrepreneur named Karsh (Vincent Cassel), who, following the death of his wife (Diane Kruger), develops a new software that will “allow the bereaved to bear witness to the gradual decay of loved ones dead and buried in the earth.” There’s sure to be some gnarly imagery there, but it isn’t shown in the trailer.

Instead, we get an abstract, intense glimpse into the rest of the film’s plot, which involves some sort of nefarious technology heist. “While Karsh is still reeling from the loss of his wife from cancer—and falling into a peculiar sexual relationship with his wife’s sister (also Kruger)—a spate of vandalized graves utilizing his ‘shroud’ technology begins to put his enterprise at risk, leading him to uncover a potentially vast conspiracy,” the logline continues. “The new film from David Cronenberg is both a profoundly personal reckoning with grief and a descent into noir-tinged dystopia, set in an ominous world of self-driving cars, data theft, and A.I. personal assistants.”

At a press conference following the film’s 2024 premiere, Cronenberg called the rapid advances in AI technology “quite shocking,” per Variety. “It’s like nuclear fission. It’s ferocious and terrifying and it’s also incredibly useful,” he said. “So, what do we do? I don’t know. I have no idea.” New York and L.A. residents can watch the director grapple with that question when the film premieres April 18, before expanding nationwide April 24.