According to Jewish law, human remains should be buried after death. This goes against the grain of the current global trend for cremation.

And it’s the notion of burial that is the focus of David Cronenburg’s latest film, which he has both written and directed.

When his wife’s body is ravaged by cancer, tech businessman Karsh Relikh (Vincent Cassel) buries her, in accordance with her Jewish faith, with a plot reserved next to her for himself.

But Karsh doesn’t just bury her, he creates an entire new burial concept around her death, Grave Tech: cemeteries fitted with the most sophisticated tech that allows for mourners to visit their loved ones, and see on screens, in real time, their decomposing bodies.

It’s such a successful business that he’s now planning to open up Grave Tech cemeteries all over the world.

But when his Toronto site gets vandalised, and his software hacked, Karsh is deeply concerned, and is keen to unearth who is behind this attack. It’s an investigation that somehow leads back to his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), but why?

82-year-old Cronenberg is yet another one of our veteran directors, much like 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola and 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, who are unwilling to retire from their day jobs. But if this film is anything to go by, Cronenberg is curious about what happens to us when we die, possibly due to being in his twilight years himself.

Much like his body of work to date, it focuses on love, death and sex.

It’s an interesting premise, and one that you can see possibly becoming a reality in the near future, that also sees Cronenberg return to the familiar theme of duality; this is a film that sees Kruger play sisters, and follows in the path of both 1988’s Dead Ringers and 2002’s Spider that also found actors playing dual roles.

It’s a slow-burner that keeps your interest with some interesting characters, played by Kruger, Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt, whose performances all add to the mystery of the piece.

The film sees Cronenberg also playing with the themes of grief and the advancement of tech, and how it plays such a prominent part in our lives – in this case with the use of his personal AI assistant Honey – and death, with his high tech cemetery. All of which are handled with aplomb in the very capable hands of the veteran director.

That said, some may find its finale on the disappointing side, which is more than a little wishy washy, and feeling seemingly rushed by the director’s high standards.

Still, Cronenberg proves that he’s more than capable of continuing to make thought-provoking films, whilst still exploring ghoulish themes that he’s made a career out of.