The Shrouds (2025), directed by David Cronenberg, unfolds as a deeply visceral and haunting exploration of grief and obsession through the story of Karsh, a businessman tormented by the death of his wife Becca from cancer four years prior. The film opens in a near-future setting where Karsh has invented a morbidly innovative funerary technology called "GraveTech"—a tombstone embedded with a modified shroud that broadcasts a live, interactive 3D image of a deceased person's decomposing corpse. This unsettling device allows the living to witness the physical decay of their loved ones, a technology Karsh plans to use to be buried alongside Becca when his time comes.

The narrative begins with Karsh's fixation on Becca's memory, his grief manifesting through his daily interaction with the digital projection of her corpse, which appears increasingly deteriorated and dismembered over time. These visual hauntings of Becca blur the line between memory and hallucination—a recurring motif—while Karsh maintains a close friendship with Terry, Becca's identical twin sister, portrayed by Diane Kruger in a dual role. Terry, a veterinarian turned dog groomer, also grapples with her own sorrow and watches Karsh's descent with conflicted sympathy.

Early scenes depict Karsh’s obsessive routines at the GraveTech cemetery, where multiple graves including Becca’s are suddenly vandalized, shrouds damaged, and the entire network encrypted by hackers, rendering the digital images inaccessible. This act of desecration introduces a sinister external threat, deepening the film’s claustrophobic tension. Maury, Terry's ex-husband and the original coder of GraveTech's security system, steps in to investigate the cyberattack, tracing it to Iceland—a significant location Karsh aims to expand his business into. Maury's technical expertise extends to creating "Hunny," a virtual assistant modeled after Becca's image, who interacts with Karsh in subtle, flirtatious ways, illustrating his loneliness and yearning for connection.

The story intensifies as Karsh wrestles with his obsessive dreams of Becca returning from Dr. Jerry Eckler, Becca’s former oncologist and lover, each dream revealing a progressively weaker and more mutilated image of her. This sequence evokes a haunting, surreal atmosphere where Karsh’s grief and guilt manifest symbolically. Concurrently, Karsh embarks on an affair with Soo-Min, a blind woman married to a CEO interested in sponsoring GraveTech in Budapest, introducing complex layers of intimacy and betrayal.

Dramatic scenes show Maury scrutinizing images of Becca’s decomposed bones, noting strange protrusions Karsh attributes to her cancer, hinting at the physical horror underlying the spiritual torment. The tension escalates with the disappearance of Becca’s oncologist during a trip to Iceland, mixing personal tragedy with broader conspiracy and technological paranoia. Karsh confronts the broader implications of his invention, as concerns arise about the shroud technology’s potential misuse for political surveillance, underscoring a dystopian undercurrent to the personal grief story.

The climax is less about conventional resolution and more about the intensification of Karsh’s obsession. Cinematic imagery focuses on the decomposing corpses, the invasive technology, and the emotional unraveling of the characters, culminating in a haunting portrayal of humanity’s morbid desire to control and witness death. The film concludes ambiguously, emphasizing the ongoing psychological and emotional torment of loss without offering clear solace or closure.

Throughout the film, Diane Kruger’s dual role—as both Becca and her sister Terry, as well as the virtual assistant Hunny—creates a layered reflection on identity, memory, and the spectral presence of death. Vincent Cassel’s Karsh embodies grief that borders on madness, his performance underscoring the devastating impact of obsession. Guy Pearce’s Maury provides a counterbalance of technical rationality yet is also drawn into the emotional vortex. The film’s visceral imagery and unsettling narrative leave viewers immersed in a disturbing meditation on mortality, technology, and the human psyche’s refusal to let go.

In sum, The Shrouds is told with scenes that juxtapose the grotesque physicality of decay with intimate human moments—Karsh’s silent longings, Terry’s grounded empathy, Maury’s reluctant involvement, and the eerie presence of Becca in multiple forms. The film’s story moves from a personal tragedy to a broader exploration of surveillance, technology, and the dystopian intersection of life and death, all conveyed through Cronenberg’s signature body horror lens.

The Shrouds explores themes of grief and obsession, particularly how the protagonist Karsh deals with the death of his wife by creating technology to observe the decomposition of the dead. It also delves into issues of privacy, ownership of one's body after death, and the intersection of technology with mortality and capitalism.

GraveTech is a tombstone technology that broadcasts a live, interactive 3D image of a deceased person's decomposing corpse, created by a modified burial shroud. It allows the bereaved to watch the gradual decay of their loved ones through an encrypted app, effectively creating a virtual cemetery experience.

Terry is Becca's identical sister and a close friend to Karsh, witnessing his grief journey while managing her own struggles. Maury, Terry's ex-husband and a digital expert, coded GraveTech's security and created a virtual assistant named Hunny for Karsh. He investigates the hacking of the GraveTech network and becomes involved in uncovering conspiracies related to the technology.

Karsh invents a revolutionary shroud technology through his company GraveTech that allows the living to view the gradual decay of their deceased loved ones via an encrypted app, which is central to the plot and the unfolding of various conflicts including grave desecrations and hacking incidents.

Becca is Karsh's late wife who appears in hallucination-like scenes, while Terry is Becca's sibling, a veterinarian turned dog groomer, who witnesses Karsh's grief journey and deals with her own struggles.

The 2025 film The Shrouds is not family-friendly and is rated R, primarily due to strong sexual content and disturbing themes related to death and decay. It explores deeply unsettling subjects such as grief, mortality, and the voyeuristic impulse to watch the dead decompose using a high-tech burial shroud covered in tiny cameras.

For children or sensitive viewers, the potentially objectionable or upsetting scenes include:

• Graphic imagery of human decomposition and graveyard vandalism.
• Sexual content, including explicit scenes involving the protagonist and visions of his deceased wife.
• Themes of death and mourning depicted in a raw, intense manner that might be emotionally heavy.
• References to body horror, such as severed limbs and surgical imagery, consistent with director David Cronenberg’s style.
• A generally dark and eerie tone, with discussions around mortality and existential dread.

Because of these mature themes and graphic content, this film is best suited for adult audiences and is not appropriate for children or viewers sensitive to disturbing material.