What better way to start an organized-crime drama than with blood? In the opening minutes of the film Eastern Promises (Sept. 21, Focus Features), we are witness to a grotesque murder and a teenage girl who hemorrhages to death after giving birth. Those involved are connected with a Russian family crime syndicate who brought their sinister business to London.

Eastern Promises is riveting as it brings us into a world of hardened criminals working in the heart of London. This thriller reunites the masterful team of director David Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen.

The two paired up in the provocative and acclaimed film A History of Violence in 2006. With their second collaboration, they have made another hit with the same intensity and suspense that was present in Violence.

Eastern Promises is a dark and compelling thriller about a Russian crime family who become inextricably tied together with an unsuspecting midwife Anna Khitrova, played by Naomi Watts.

Anna is left with nothing but the newborn and its dead mother’s diary. The diary is in Russian, but Anna is determined to reunite the infant with a family and has her Russian-born uncle translate it. The diary is all-telling of drugs, prostitution, rape and murder that lead to London’s underbelly of organized crime. She is led to a restaurant, owned by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who is the head of the Vory V. Zakone criminal brotherhood.

At the restaurant we are introduced to Semyon’s son (Vincent Cassel) and his driver Nikolai (Mortensen). Nikolai will serve as more than just a driver to the family, functioning as a bodyguard, undertaker and henchman. The movie centers around the mystery of his character’s involvement in the underworld.

Mortensen’s performance carries the movie, quiet and brooding with charisma. His character does not give much away about himself, and is never fully revealed. Mortensen gives a mesmerizing portrayal of Nikolai, combining slicked-back hair, crisp suits and a Russian accent to add depth to the character.

This film is destined to be remembered, if not for the plot or characters, then for its unyielding brutality. Cronenberg does not glorify violence, but shows it in a horrifying, realistic way that makes it almost unbearable to watch.

Unlike most mobster movies, the weapons of choice are knives, not guns, making for more intense and graphic scenes. A warning to the faint-of-heart: This movie may not be for you.

The violence is brutal, bloody and discomforting. Even if you close your eyes during the scene, the sound of bones crunching and steel slicing through skin is enough to make your stomach churn. With the most memorable, perfectly choreographed scene happening in a bathhouse, an unsuspecting Nikolai sits naked when attacked by two clothed men wielding knives.

Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises is brilliant. It takes us behind the crime and the violence to try to get to the roots of human nature.

The resolution lacks a sense of finality, but in true Cronenberg style, you will leave the theater wondering, “What happens next?”