The West Bend Current

Unsettling creatures are always on the silver screen, but an equally scary set is harder to come by.

Indeed, with the use of green screens and digital sets becoming more widespread, the environments of modern film have only gotten more elaborate than was ever possible with matte paintings or physical sets. However, this explosion of new possibilities also carries with it a burden. Digital sets frequently feel fake, thanks mostly to the precision of the human eye when it comes to detecting realism. It does not help that actors pasted atop a fake set with a green screen cannot interact with their environments as well.

Thankfully, the practical sets in David Cronenberg’s new film “The Shrouds” entirely avoid this issue, and instead work to great effect to enhance the film. “The Shrouds” is the kind of film that relies heavily on tone and mood to convey fear more than conventional means of horror. In fact, one of the most important parts of the film are the titular shrouds themselves: eerie gravestones that peer into the ground to show more than the typical headstone. The cemetery itself has a dark color palette of greys and browns, with its attached restaurant mixing modern architecture with gothic flourishes.

The uncanny and extravagant sets continue when depicting the home of Karsh (played by Vincent Cassel), an eerily still yet beautiful home with many odd quirks. Most notably, Karsh’s bed is surrounded by an indoor koi pond. This location is cleverly designed to say as much about the character as it can without taking up precious space in the script. The shots of the koi pond in particular highlight that Karsh is fortunate (especially in regards to finances), yet very peculiar in taste, which comes to be an important trait later in the film.

Another brilliant trait shared by nearly every set in the film are windows. The often floor-to-ceiling windows bring harsh, gray light that does not entirely silhouette the characters, but it makes them appear monochromatic, almost like statues. How fitting that the characters themselves all err on the side of being impersonal and stone-faced. This also serves as a reminder of just how embedded an actor feels in a real set with real lights.

Directly contrasting the stoic characters themselves is the warm light during many of the film’s darker scenes. The sets capture and reflect the cozy orange glow, contradicting the standoffish or even malicious behavior of the characters. The sets are lit in a way that draws the viewer in like a siren only to secretly house the danger that the characters will then convey. 

In an era where poor production design is a mainstay in popular movies, “The Shrouds” sells a magnificent, tangible and secretly dangerous environment.

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Down two theaters and about 30 movies, viewers may assume that the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival would be weaker this year, and they would be wrong. This year I saw seven films, each ripe for discussion regarding a different element of filmmaking. To analyze each film’s strength I will offer seven separate analyses.

(Image courtesy of Milwaukee Film.)