Crash (1996), dir. David Croenenberg, the Movie Network/Telefilm Canada
Croenenberg AND JG Ballard together?
James (James Spader) and Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) Ballard are married but not happily. Both have affairs whenever they can and at this point the other has stopped caring if the other knows.
This changes one night; James is driving home from work when he has a wreck. He lives, but the other driver isn't so lucky. The passenger, Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) survives. James meets with Helen later, as well as a stranger, Robert Vaughn (Elias Koteas). Vaughn is an odd fellow. His interest in the brace holding James's leg together borders on fetishlike.
James and Helen start an affair. Car crashes seem to excite them both, with leads them back to Vaughn as he runs what can be called a cult focused on famous car wrecks.
Things progress from there. Catherine finds herself fantasizing about Vaughn and then later James AND Vaughn. Things get either better or worse from there, depending on your tastes.
Yeah, this was a weird one. Never heard of anyone have a fetish for wrecking cars, so in a way Cronenberg made a fetish film for something that doesn't exist. Interesting film but not an easy one to watch. The performances are fine and the body horror is in full swing, now with the added car horror.
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