Morality to screen as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival

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When Caitlin Cronenberg began developing her feature film debut, Morality , with screenwriter and producer Michael Sparaga, she had a clear goal in mind: to make it dark.

Given his last name, it's safe to assume it's an impulse he inherited from his father, David, an acclaimed Canadian filmmaker, master of dark fiction, dark satire, and pioneer of the decidedly dark “body horror” subgenre. But Caitlin Cronenberg, as you know, is not a fan of the horror genre.

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His favorite movies or most watched movies are comedies.

“I like watching movies that let you delay those moments,” he says in an interview with Postmedia.

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His vision for Humane has nothing to do with whether it fits Cronenberg's preconceived vibe and finding the right tone for a darkly comic film that offers a nail-biting plot that mixes satire, family drama and sprinklings of horror. a semi-dystopian backdrop.

“I felt the concept would lend itself to a much darker film than the script,” says Cronenberg, who will join Sparaga in Calgary on April 19 for a screening of “Humane” as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival. “(Asparagus) was really open to that, so we worked together to give it a bit of darkness, to bring it to a place where it felt like a thriller, with some satirical and funny moments.”

The moral is still funny, but it's also important in showing the paranoia and resentment that engulfs a wealthy family in one evening when extraordinary circumstances spark a storm of violence. The action takes place nine months after a vaguely defined ecological collapse that requires all countries to take extreme measures to reduce the Earth's population. Because each country has a quota to fill, the government opens a voluntary euthanasia program. Charles Yorke, played by Peter Gallagher, is a wealthy and recently retired journalist who calls his children home to announce that he has decided to “sign up” for a program to help humanity. While his grown children absorb the news, the family receives a visit from Bob (Enrico Colantoni), a deceptively cheerful government contractor, was commissioned to perform the government's euthanasia on the spot. Charles' plan doesn't go as planned, and thanks to some dastardly tricks from Bob, the four brothers are soon at each other's throats…literally.

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Much of the humor comes from a cast filled with actors known for their comedic chops. Sparaga co-wrote the role of Bob with Colantoni, a versatile Canadian actor best known for playing the doting father Kate on TV's Veronica Mars, with playboy photographer Elliott DuMauro on the sitcom Just Shoot. and a desperate foreign leader Matezar in the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest.

Jay Baruchel plays older brother Jarod, a government apologist and frequent news anchor, known for his comedic roles in Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder, Gone and This Is the End. Emily Hampshire, who starred as Stevie Budd in the sitcom Shit's Creek, plays Rachel, a seemingly cold, corporate type full of anger and resentment. Alanna Bale stars as Ashley, the youngest daughter of a troubled actress, while Sébastien Chacon plays her adopted son Noah, a former drug addict and piano prodigy. The York siblings don't get along at the best of times, and all experience some sort of conflict in their personal lives while dealing with a global catastrophe.

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“People are like, 'What is this movie?' Is it a horror movie? '' – says Cronenberg. “It's not one thing. This is a film that crosses genres. There is a family drama, there is a little thriller, there are elements of horror, funny, satirical. I like that too. It combines all the things I love.”

Part of the foreshadowing — at least the global disaster part — may seem inspired by the 2020 real-life COVID crisis, but Cronenberg says Sparaga wrote the first draft of the script before the pandemic. Certain elements are not difficult to identify in the final film – how a massive and public world crisis affects intimate and family relationships, for example – in the last film, but Cronenberg says that he is not interested in revisiting the pandemic.

“We've been through it, we've overcome it,” he says. “I don't think I need to go through that again.”

Cronenberg is no stranger to film and television production. Growing up, he was often on his father's sets, but also became a well-known photographer who worked on many television and film productions. He earned a reputation as a celebrity portraitist through his work in The New York Times, Variety, The Washington Post, and Esquire.

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He has directed several music videos and co-directed the 2018 short film The End and The Death of David Cronenberg, a surreal, minute-long short film/art project written and co-directed by his father. When he was considering venturing into the world of feature films, Sparaga, a longtime friend, emailed “Have you thought about directing?” sent the first draft of the Humane film with the title.

Caitlin is now the second-generation Cronenberg to direct feature films, following his brother Brandon, who directed sci-fi horror films such as 2012's Anti-Virus, 2020's The Lord, and 2023's The Infinity Pool. Not surprisingly, his work tends to draw comparisons to his father's. Their mother, Carolyn, who died in 2017, was the film's editor, director and cinematographer.

David Cronenberg has explored many genres over the decades, including gangster films (History of Violence, Eastern Promises), historical drama (Dangerous Method), psychological thrillers (The Spider, Dead Ringers) and satire (Map of the Stars). But he's still best known for his work in the horror genre and as a pioneer of body horror, including early favorite brush-outs like Shivers and Rabid and genre classics like 1986's The Fly . The Cronenberg name certainly comes with heavy baggage.

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“I think the only scary thing is people have expectations about the types of projects I take on and what my style will be based on their style,” Kailyn says of the comparisons to her father and brother. “I've been a photographer for 20 years and I feel that my style is very different from the rest of my family and it's interesting for all of us because we experience different things and approach things in different ways. So I think there's going to be some people who expect my first film to be what it's supposed to be, and it's not going to be as scary or sci-fi, and it's not going to be body horror, and maybe they'll be disappointed when it's not that kind of thing. I never thought I would be like my father. I don't think he ever expected this and nobody should.”

Humane will be screened at the Globe Cinema on April 19th at 9:30pm as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival. It stars Caitlin Cronenberg and Michael Sparaga. “Adam” will be released in theaters on April 26.

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