The Shrouds Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

The Shrouds Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 8, 2025

David Cronenberg's "The Shrouds" (2024) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Janus Films/Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include recent program with David Cronenberg and theatrical trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Many of David Cronenberg’s films acquired a cult status for the same reason virtually all of David Lynch’s films did. They visited strange places and tackled stranger material in special, memorable ways, often forcing the mind to ponder seriously scenarios that, outside the movie theater, cannot be taken seriously. However, unlike Lynch, Cronenberg never permanently distanced himself from the mainstream crowd. He made several films aiming to impress the mainstream crowd, all but one of which turned out pretty average.

The Shrouds was likely conceived to accomplish something no other Cronenberg film has to date -- simultaneously earn the approval of his hardcore fans and impress the mainstream crowd. It is a two-hour-long dive into a strange and very fluid place, the perfect cinematic playground for Cronenberg’s mind to go to work and dazzle with various special tricks and thrills. Cronenberg penned and directed The Shrouds, so it is fair to speculate that, in its current version, it is exactly the film he wished to make and was able to deliver.

In the near future, middle-aged innovator, businessman, and recent widower Karash Relikh (Vincent Cassel) has developed a technology that allows grieving individuals to stay in touch with the loved ones they have permanently lost. Sort of. Relikh’s technology makes it possible to observe the decomposition of a buried corpse via an advanced electronic device, linking the grave where the corpse is laid to an external gadget capable of displaying encrypted visuals. The technology has been a hit, and Relikh’s company has capitalized on it by placing it in various state-of-the-art cemeteries, one of which also has his late wife’s grave.

While discussing future business opportunities and still adjusting to life without his wife, Relikh is informed that several graves, including his wife’s closely monitored grave, have been desecrated and hacked. Unable to figure out the motive(s) behind the shocking act of vandalism, Relikh reaches out to Maury Entrekin (Guy Pierce), a veteran high-tech guru and former husband of his late wife’s sister (Diane Kruger), who has already developed several decent conspiracy theories. While Entrekin explores the system that collects data from the graves and attempts to understand how the hackers breached its security and what type of information was stolen from it, Relikh is made aware of Chinese and Russian activity targeting his technology, and that the clear answers he is looking for could be somewhere in Budapest, Hungary. However, as the big picture slowly emerges, Relikh’s mind begins plugging into a most surreal place, where he can still spend time and communicate with his late wife.

Several of the big overlapping themes are quite interesting and could have been used to produce appropriately intriguing classic Cronenberg films. The best is the one that intertwines the future fate of an individual’s personal data -- everything from blood and DNA profiles to banking history and social activity -- which a private entity with close ties to a government entity or operating on behalf of the government can weaponize, with the inevitable emergence of a black market where it will be sold. In China, the Communist Party has already created SCS, a social credit system utilizing such data that either punishes or destroys anyone who is deemed untrustworthy by the regime. Earlier this year, in the United Kingdom, the government also announced plans for a mandatory digital ID, which, while determining access to the employment market, will link various types of personal and public records, some of which have already been used to de-bank its critics. The digital ID will inevitably link medical data under the guise of public safety, too, which is the starting point for the chaos in Relikh’s reality. In America, there are already huge DNA banks, created by the likes of CircleDNA, GenoPalate, and AncestryDNA, hosting the personal data of millions of Americans, available for hacking and abuse by private entities and the government, exactly as demonstrated in Relikh’s reality.

Unfortunately, instead of recognizing how deep the rabbit hole in which an individual’s personal data will end up in the future can be, and identifying the biggest bad actors that will unquestionably exploit it, Cronenberg gets lost in it and delivers a hugely disappointing, shockingly unfocused commentary on human grief, which is the least attractive theme in The Shrouds. On top of this, The Shrouds boasts a strikingly unoriginal and unattractive sterile appearance of the kind that today makes streaming projects instantly recognizable.

The Shrouds Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Shrouds arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Janus Films/Criterion.

The entire film has a very sharp, very clean appearance that is now common for many streaming productions. Delineation, clarity, and depth are consistently incredible, so even on a very large screen, all visuals look spectacular. Image stability is, unsurprisingly, outstanding. Colors are somewhat warm and wonderfully balanced, as they tend to be on most recent films that are digitally stylized. I did not notice any encoding anomalies to report in our review. All in all, I think that the release offers an outstanding technical presentation of a film that most likely looks as good as it can on Blu-ray. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Shrouds Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

A good, quite atmospheric score by Oscar-winner Howard Shore produces all somewhat interesting dynamic contrasts throughout the film. The remaining material is quite bland, so there is nothing there that forces the lossless 5.1 track to flex its muscles. All exchanges are very clear, sharp, stable, and easy to follow. I did not notice any encoding anomalies.

The Shrouds Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Meet the Filmmakers - in this recnet program, David Cronenberg discusses what The Shrouds was supposed to accomplish. In English, not subtitled. (17 min).

• Trailer - presented here is an original trailer for The Shrouds. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Beatrice Loayza's essay "The Shrouds: Undead".

The Shrouds Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Once all crucial personal data is digitized and stored, for various supposedly logical reasons, like improving population health and strengthening national security, different actors will initiate its misuse and abuse. In China, this project is already complete, and these processes are already centralized in a massive social credit system that makes it very easy for the Chinese government to determine the fate of its 'good' and 'bad' citizens. How far behind is the West? Not too far, and David Cronenberg already knows it. Unfortunately, instead of exploring the deep rabbit hole where citizens in the West will most likely have their personal data transferred to in the near future, and identifying the biggest bad actors that will roam free there, Cronenberg gets lost in it and delivers a disappointing, shockingly unfocused commentary on human grief. It is too bad, because The Shrouds could have gone very, very deep into the rabbit hole and terrified its audience with a detailed description of a future that already seems unavoidable. Criterion's Blu-ray release offers an excellent technical presentation of The Shrouds.