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A controversial horror film that caused mass crowds to walkout during its first screening will air on BBC on Friday evening.
The movie, which stars Twilight’s Kristen Stewart and Lord of the Rings’ Viggo Mortensen, will be shown on BBC2, although it’s not for the faint-hearted.
Dozens of viewers couldn’t handle Crimes of the Future and had to leave the Cannes Film Festival screening.
But the 2022 David Cronenberg hit – which has been described as ‘skin-crawling – also received a seven minute round of applause, as well as an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film includes a gory child autopsy scene, shots of bloody intestines and characters who orgasm by licking each other’s open wounds
The synopsis reads: ‘As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations.
The David Cronenberg-directed movie that caused mass crowds to walkout during its first screening at Cannes Film Festival will air on BBC2 tonight
David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart are pictured at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival premiere together
‘With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.
‘Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed…
‘Their mission — to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.’
Cronenberg told Variety previously about the walkout uproar: ‘It doesn’t make me sad.
‘I mean, the worst thing is if your movie is boring and I’ve been some screenings in Cannes where nobody walked out, but nobody cared about the movie either.
‘And that would be very depressing.’
Crimes Of The Future marks Canadian auteur David’s long-awaited return to body horror, and he shot the entire film in Greece.
The story is set in the ‘not-too-distant future’ where humankind is learning to adapt to their ‘synthetic surroundings.’
Dozens of viewers couldn’t handle Crimes of the Future and had to leave the Cannes Film Festival screening
The film includes a gory child autopsy scene, shots of bloody intestines and characters who orgasm by licking each other’s open wounds
The evolution moves humans behind their ‘natural state’ and into a new metamorphosis that alters their biological makeup, known as Accelerated Evolution Syndrome.
While some have embraced what is known as ‘trans-humanism’ and its limitless potential, others have tried to police it.
The story centres on Saul Tenser, a performance artist who has embraced Accelerated Evolution Syndrome and has sprouted new limbs on his body.
Tenser and his partner Caprice have used the removal of these organs to thrill their audiences, though they’re forced to re-consider their most shocking performance to date when the government and an emerging sub-culture taking notice.
The movie left critics divided following the screening.
Director David warned in a previous interview: ‘There are some very strong scenes. I mean, I’m sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie. I’m sure of that.
‘Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there’ll be a lot of walkouts. Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack.’
The science-fiction horror airs BBC2 tonight at 11pm.
