As the trailer opens for David Cronenberg‘s latest “this is definitely not a rom-com” dystopian horror film Crimes of the Future (in theaters this June via NEON), we hear a slightly warped note from a tuba that sounds eerily like an air-raid siren being belched up from the center of the earth. That same note continues to swell menacingly up and down as an unsettlingly authoritarian voice begins to warn, “It is time to stop seeing. It is time to stop speaking. It is time to listen.”

As these commands conclude, we see Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) submerged in some sort of H.R. Giger style body modification tank (which could easily double as a kind of postmodern sarcophagus), as his partner Caprice – Bond girl Léa Seydoux – looks on. Saul is a famous performance artist, and his “performance” involves showing off the disturbingly fascinating transformation of his organs…which is apparently possible in the “synthetic” future in which the story is set.

Kristen Stewart is Timlin, an investigator from the National Organ Registry (some creepy update of Donate Life America?), and she’s dogging Saul and Caprice’s steps. Why? Because apparently the former is the public front for some shadow (organ)ization, which holds the sinister secrets to the next phase of humanity’s…”evolution.”

Despite this, we see an inquisitive Timlin “testing” one of Saul’s “devices” by pressing it against her eye – which certainly doesn’t seem like it will work out well for her in the long run (Curiosity killed the…). The clip then concludes with that same unnerving voice repetitively ordering, “It is time to listen…listen, listen, listen, listen” – as if to properly emphasize the solemn seriousness of the portentous command.

Stewart is certainly to be applauded for choosing roles in such challenging films as this (and the recent Princess Di biopic Spencer), when she could just be riding her considerable fame to blockbuster success. And the pairing of Mortensen and Seydoux seems an inspired one, as in a matter of seconds one is able to sense a strange sort of chemistry between them. Still, as with so many of Cronenberg’s previous films, one gets a sense that the real star of Crimes of the Future is the unflinching director’s ability to envision a deeply disquieting future, which is also just possible enough to happen.