10 Most Shocking Movie Deaths Of 2022

Child death in any movie is inherently surprising, but trust David Cronenberg to make it especially discomforting.

Cronenberg's new body horror romp saw walkouts within the first five minutes of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, largely due to a deeply unnerving opening sequence involving the murder of a young boy.

But first, some context: the film takes place in a future dystopia where humans have evolved in unexpected directions. Our first glimpse of this is an eight-year-old boy, Brecken (ISozos Sotiris), who can eat and digest plastic.

Brecken does this against the wishes of his horrified mother Djuna (Lihi Kornowski), who after catching him eating a plastic bin, decides he's inhuman and must die. And so, as he sleeps, Djuna picks up a pillow and smothers him to death.

To make it worse, Cronenberg spares no detail, lingering long on the boy as he struggles to survive, and we're then forced to watch as Djuna calls Brecken's dad, Lang (Scott Speedman), to tell him he can pick up the dead body of his "creature" son.

Despite the lack of visceral gore that audiences expect from Cronenberg, the scene had a queasy, stomach-churning quality all of its own.