If anyone could be said to be following in their father’s footsteps it’s Brandon Cronenberg. Not only has he become a director much like his celebrated dad David, but he has also chosen to produce films of a similar nature, involving sci-fi and horror.

For his third film, and the follow up to 2020’s intriguing Possessor, Cronenberg sets his destination to an exclusive resort, where the rich get away with murder.

Arriving on the island of La Tolq are married couple Em (Cleopatra Coleman) and James (Alexander Skarsgård). Their exclusive hotel is protected in a high security compound, as the locals have a habit of getting violent with hordes of the rich flying in to take advantage of what their island has to offer.

James gets approached by a young woman, Gabi (Mia Goth), who tells him she’s a fan of his book. She insists that they join her and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert) for dinner, and he agrees.

James certainly enjoys the attention from Gabi, who invites them for a day out from the compound; it’s a risky venture, but they think it’s worth it, to enjoy parts of the island that’s off limits to them. Again, James agrees.

They have a nice enough time, Alban too much so, as he’s unable to drive, so James agrees to drive them back. An incident happens on the way back however, that changes the holiday mood completely, and soon finds James in a cell in the police station. He soon discovers that the police have a curious approach to justice, ensuring that the rest of his time on the island will be one he'll never forget.

Cronenberg has already shown with just two features under his belt that, like his father, he has a fascination for the dark side of sci-fi and horror. And this is no different. But unlike his last film, this doesn’t quite live up to its potential.

The first third is promising enough, setting up a curious premise that involves some interesting use of genetic science.

Unfortunately Cronenberg, who also wrote the script, doesn’t build on it. Instead he chooses to concentrate on another path, which leads to the gross hedonism of guests of the resort.

Again he holds our interest into the second third of the film, as relationships develop between James and Gabi, but it already feels strained going into the final third.

It’s there where what interest was there swiftly fades, as the film struggles to develop in any meaningful way. It soon loses itself with a bunch of characters – elite, wealthy types who can buy their way out of anything – who soon become difficult to care about. Even James becomes a fairly bland individual, who blends in with the affluent in a very vanilla kind of way.

After showing a lot of potential, Cronenberg just simply runs out of both story and steam by the film’s conclusion, focusing far too much on a bunch of truly unlikeable types, resulting in Infinity Pool overall being disappointingly shallow.