Infinity Pool is a bit of an uneven film that I’m ultimately coming down positive on, certainly more so than I thought I was during its second act. It’s third act – and especially it’s ending – really feeds my inner nihilist. My emo child who just wants to sit around and admire the humanity of Seven and Fight Club.

The film is about a couple vacationing at a resort in a fictional third world country who get into some legal trouble. Soon they are facing weird retribution and a cloning scheme that leads to vast amounts of anxiety, indignation, nihilism, and existential nightmares.

This flick is somehow the most predictable and least predictable thing I’ve seen in a while. I went in blind and had no idea where it was going… and when it laid its cards out, I just didn’t see it coming and I kind of loved it. And then there are plot points that are overly familiar… that remind me of the recent film Dual and an existential crisis of the Beth vs. Space Beth variety.

But I think the movie is more about its booze-soaked casually sadistic vibe than a concrete plot. It certainly has a logical, concrete plot but it largely takes a back seat, surrendering you to the cruel hedonism of the characters as they spiral out of control and into deeper and darker wells of inhumanity. The film is dark with a lot of blood, sex, violence, and all that good stuff.

The movie stars Alexander Skarsgård not in cool guy mode and Mia Goth, following up her double whopper 2022 of X and Pearl. She remains the girl you both most and least want to end up with in a cross-country murder spree. She’s unhinged and dangerous in really sexy and creepy ways. Skarsgård is fine too as are the rest of the cast at playing cruel, unmoored, drunk, desperate, and scared.

I like this film ultimately for its unforgiving heart of darkness. This isn’t a movie for the happy film-goer expecting happy filmgoer endings. It refuses to let up on its anxiety-inducing madhouse dream logic and if that sounds like your cup of bitter, poisoned tea, then you might like this flick. People who want rainbows and kittens, maybe not so much.

Score: 86