Film Screening: David Cronenberg’s “Dead Ringers”
David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers
June 25, 2026, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Doors: 6:30pm
Tickets:
$15 GA Presale
$10 Student Presale (Use code STUDENT at checkout)
$10 IMSS Member Presale (Use code IMSSMEMBER at checkout)
At Door
$20 at Door
$15 Student at Door
$15 IMSS Member at Door
A master of body horror, psychological dread, and the messy relationship between flesh and technology, David Cronenberg has spent his career turning the human body into a site of transformation, terror, and desire. With Dead Ringers, his 1988 masterpiece, Cronenberg created one of his most elegant and disturbing visions: a film where medicine, desire, and obsession collapse into one another with surgical precision.
Co-presented by the International Museum of Surgical Science and local programmer Stephanie Sack, this ultra-rare Chicago presentation brings Dead Ringers to the Museum’s Hall of Immortals, a setting that feels almost uncannily designed for the film. Surrounded by imposing statues honoring major figures in medical history, audiences will encounter Cronenberg’s work not simply as a screening, but as a site-specific experience where 20th century cinema and medical history collide.
Anchored by Jeremy Irons’s dual performance and Geneviève Bujold’s essential turn as Claire Niveau, Dead Ringers follows Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twin gynecologists whose lives depend on shared access: to patients, women, and each other. The brothers operate through a private system of deception, masquerading as one another while treating intimacy as something to be managed, transferred, or withheld, until Claire’s “trifurcated cervix” introduces a body they cannot share, fix, classify, or explain. To them, she embodies patient, lover, and specimen, resistant to the methods and manipulations they have created to understand women’s bodies; what once successfully functioned through easy symmetry implodes into a raw spiral of psychological decay.
Screening the film in the Hall of Immortals adds a provocative new dimension to the experience. The International Museum of Surgical Science, housed in a historic Lake Shore Drive mansion, explores the history of surgery and the relationship between medicine, art, innovation, and the human body. In this setting, Cronenberg’s imagined world of clinical obsession flawlessly enters into dialogue with the real history of surgical ambition.
A rare film. A singular venue. One night only. Dead Ringers at the International Museum of Surgical Science will be an unforgettable evening of cinema, anatomy, and atmosphere.
Bio: Stephanie “La Gialloholique” Sack is a longtime cinephile and devoted enthusiast of high art horror cinema, with a special passion for films from the 20th century. Her love of film centers on exploring the artistry, context, and emotion behind works that have often been overlooked or misunderstood. Known for her thoughtful curation and infectious enthusiasm, Stephanie brings fresh perspectives to audiences eager to rediscover hidden gems of film history, particularly from her favorite genres of Italian Giallo, French Fantastique, and Soviet Sci-Fi. Through her ongoing programming and producing, Stephanie continues to champion films that challenge convention and deserve a second look.