The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

In a future imperfect all females have perished due to a deadly chemical outbreak, leaving the male population to fend for themselves. Among them Aaron Tripod (Ronald Mlodzik), a researcher coping in the new world now devoid of a moral compass. During his studies he encounters a patient, which emits mysterious excretions tasting of chocolate. Once the subject inexplicably disappears Aaron employs himself in another clinic, which serves as a compound for individuals with similar bodily substances. There he encounters the changing functions of the new man and its new flesh. All with true Cronenberg-esque style...Similar in execution as "Stereo", with an upgrade from black and white into full colour, but still experimentally coping without sound, instead inputing odd disjointed sounds and a voice-over to convey the slightly misogynistic story. Rife with motifs featuring in Cronenberg's earlier works, like "Shivers", "The Brood" or "Scanners", this artsy feature remains an intriguing expansion of Cronenberg's cinematographic world-view. Despite a larger budget than "Stereo" and undeniably better technical resolution with some excellent framing of shots, "Crimes of the Future" is comparatively a step further into detrimental watching, making novelties like fast forward necessary to survive the viewing.Nonetheless the overall experience remains an excruciating watch as a product of a student filmmaker, overawed by his own brilliance, but unaware that his supposedly nouvelle experiment in filmmaking is mostly unwatchable drivel. As such the style is almost unbearably self-defeating, making the story drown under the pretentious exposition and ultimate lack of direction. The script may sound cerebral (however truthfully strongly undercut by an intellectual overreach), but that does not excuse a total detachment from the viewing audience. Ultimately Cronenberg's venture feels overly childish in his introvert drive for novelty. Several scenes do manage to build a vague anxiety with it cold and distant atmosphere, especially the layered denouement involving a bout of paedophilia.Best viewed for Cronenberg fanatics with a strong inclination towards understanding his perspective on film and exploring his growth as a filmmaker. Remaining subjects best resolve to focusing on his later works.

"Their thoughts are opaque to me," coldly notes the androgynous observer Adrian Tripod (Ron Mlodzik, who would make Michael Jackson look manly by comparison) at "The House of Skin." The patients, it seems, have started secreting some kind of foam from various orifices. Before long, the hemorrhaging is commonplace. Tripod licks the secretions from one man's face as he lies dying. One colleague, "once a fierce sensualist," contracts a venereal disease that causes his body to produce new organs. The disease is deemed a "creative cancer" and the extraneous organs harvested (though they continue to develop). Another sprouts a "cerebral antenna" from his nose. Like STEREO, CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is an insular, silent movie with voice-over narration that is delivered in a carefully measured, clinical monotone. There are some grating sound fx in CRIMES OF THE FUTURE that almost suggest we're looking into a fishbowl (and call to mind the "industrial symphony" sounds in David Lynch's ERASERHEAD). This is an experimental masterpiece. As the narrator puts it: "We are now all disciples of a new master, it seems."

OK this flick is all artsyfartsy... but it does have some goodness in it. the characters are interesting, and acting is not at all bad. the script is something totally different...cinematography is not that bad, although some little mistakes are to be found in smoothness.i think that for example eraser head is much more interesting as this one lags quite abit thus becoming somewhat boring.but it does have the same sense as does spider later... (although cronenburgeonerd has sort of made 2 really piece of sh*t movies now... history of violence, and eastern promises, compared to the older stuff) this is a good movie for those who want to start making movies, and critics, and hardcore crounenburgrelers movies =D... but for others not really of any value.

This early Cronenberg is bizarre, strange, experimental – and yet, this avantgarde approach to science-fiction nonetheless does not match with the masters latter works. Fascinatingly, in some regards, "Crimes of the Future" looks more "mature" then, say, "Shivers" or "Rabid". This is probably because the director/writer/cinematographer/producer Cronenberg does not mind to use a form of narrative which, while being incredibly slow and intentionally mannerist, also manages to trap the viewer into an almost hypnotic state. In other terms, he unfolds an "uneasy" way of story-telling. For the context of the tale, the venues are excellently chosen, and rarely have I seen such a convincing portrayal of an apocalyptic society. This counts for post-apocalypse (since all women have died and the male survivors behave in a dreamlike state, making it impossible for the protagonist (and us, the viewer), to read the rationality that motivates their doings) as well as in terms of pre-apocalypse, as the ending leaves no doubt that mankind – this sort of "man"kind – is doomed. Many aspects later to be taken up in other of Cronenbergs films already appear here, most prominently the subject of estranged skin diseases – later to become "the new flesh". However, fans of the latter-day Cronenberg may be puzzled by this hard-to-crack nut; it is very different from what you might expect. It comes as no surprise that critics at the time, the booklet mentions, stated the young director is unlikely to continue film-making. And he did indeed change the direction. I would just love to see the short films for Canadian TV that followed this piece. Recommended!