Crash Review: Cronenberg’s Most Discomforting

Crash is David Cronenberg’s bold adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s novel of the same name, and it’s still as disturbing and controversial as it was on release 30 years ago.

For many, such an accident would be traumatic, but for James and Helen, it causes an awakening, one that is as sexually exciting for them as it is haunting. In what is David Cronenberg’s most unnerving film, the convergence of human flesh and machinery has never been more terrifyingly transfixing.

Based on J. G. Ballard’s 1973 novel of the same name, Crash wastes no time in setting out its stall. We meet James and his wife, Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger, The Game), in its first two scenes, but separately. In the first, Catherine has sex with a man across the wing of a plane, gaining pleasure not just from him but from the metallic touch of the vehicle too. Next, we see film producer James have sex with a camerawoman on set, before the married couple recount their sexual encounters to one another. Both seem dissatisfied with their experiences, so when James is involved in a car crash, the new erotic avenues and world that opens to them is irresistible for both.

In the wrong hands, Crash could have been a pointless plod of repetition. Cronenberg’s adaptation may well sometimes seem like a procession of sex scenes, but the variety of each and their importance to the plot, character development, and thematic layers ensure they never become worthless. Backing up these intense, often extremely comfortable scenarios is Howard Shore’s sensational original score, full of bold guitar twangs and sliding notes. It’s harrowing and symbolic of the characters’ risky and odd erotic fascination with car accidents.

Peter Suschitzky’s (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) cinematography is similarly impressive. People and machines meet in increasingly subversive and disturbing ways; sex scenes are often framed via shots that capture both the people involved and the cars or machinery where they are. A car wash scene involving James, Catherine, and Robert Vaughan (Elias Koteas, Shutter Island) is a highlight, with the sound design playing a part as much as the visuals in capturing an unnerving sexual experience as the vehicle is cleaned. It’s a moment of sensory filmmaking mastery. Throughout Crash, everything becomes imbued with a perverse sexuality, whether it’s the slow hiss of exhausts or the gentle rubbing of wipers. 

Despite the release that these characters find, Crash is far from a film about liberation. Fulfillment is fleeting, resulting in intense climaxes but lingering loss, all set within an empty and sterile modern world. For all of its eroticism, Crash is purposefully rigid and emotionless. In many ways, this is Cronenberg’s scariest film, despite being his least gory. There are grotesque moments, of course, and Cronenberg’s trademark body horror is on show, but at its heart, Crash is a psychologically driven film with blunt fatalism and nihilism underlining everything. Earlier James notices the influx of traffic; near the end of the film, he notes how empty the roads feel. 

Crash (1996) is now available to watch on digital and on demand, and on DVD & Blu-Ray.