When ComingSoon published its interview with the filmmakers behind "Death Boom" on June 9, 2026, the headline read: "The Answer Already Exists: Death Boom's Eli Roth & Jessica Chandler on Why Water Cremation Is Illegal." NewsBreak syndicated the same headline to its audience of 50 million users.
Water cremation is not illegal. Alkaline hydrolysis, the process the documentary advocates for, is legal in at least 24 U.S. states and has been used at major American institutions for three decades. The University of Florida has employed it for donated cadavers since the mid-1990s. The Mayo Clinic has used it since 2005. UCLA disposes of donor bodies through alkaline hydrolysis. In December 2021, Archbishop Desmond Tutu chose aquamation for his own remains.
The distinction matters. Calling a process "illegal" that is available to roughly half the American public does more than distort a headline. It obscures the actual story behind why the other 26 states have not approved it: a story of religious lobbying, industry resistance, and legislative inertia that "Death Boom" itself documents with more precision than the press covering it.
What the Documentary Actually Says
"Death Boom" premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival on June 9. It is a feature-length documentary directed by Jessica Chandler and produced and narrated by Eli Roth, the filmmaker known for the "Hostel" franchise and "Cabin Fever." Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions and QC Entertainment, the studio behind "Get Out" and "BlacKkKlansman," partnered on the project.
The film's official description says it "exposes the toll that embalming, cremation, and traditional burial have on those who've passed, their families, and deathcare workers, and the corruption, political, religious, and corporate, that stands in opposition to greener methods being nationally legalized and accessible."
Note the phrasing. "Nationally legalized." Not "illegal." Director Chandler, in her interview with Spectrum News, was equally precise: "We would like people to know there are beautiful alternative methods of body disposition that are not currently legal across all the states for no real reason."
"Not legal across all the states" is accurate. "Illegal" is not.
By the Numbers
What Alkaline Hydrolysis Actually Is
The Cremation Association of North America (CANA), the industry's primary trade body, describes alkaline hydrolysis as a process that "uses water, alkaline chemicals, heat, and sometimes pressure and agitation, to accelerate natural decomposition, leaving bone fragments and a neutral liquid called effluent."
The body is placed in a pressurized stainless steel chamber holding approximately 100 gallons of liquid. A solution of water and potassium hydroxide is heated to between 199 and 302 degrees Fahrenheit. The process takes three to sixteen hours depending on equipment and body mass. The result is bone fragments, which appear pure white and are processed into cremated remains, and a sterile liquid.
CANA describes the effluent as containing "salts, sugars, amino acids and peptides" and states that "there is no tissue and no DNA left after the process completes." The liquid is discharged through standard municipal wastewater systems. CANA calls it "a welcome addition to the water systems."
This is where the Spectrum News reporting went sideways. Roth told the outlet that "it is illegal to pour out the water into a garden." That is technically true but misleadingly framed. The effluent from alkaline hydrolysis is not poured into gardens. It goes through the same wastewater treatment infrastructure that handles every other liquid waste stream in a municipality, including the embalming chemicals that Roth correctly identified as an environmental concern.
The State-by-State Patchwork
Alkaline hydrolysis has been approved through legislative action or regulatory definition in 24 states:
Alabama (2017), Arizona (2022), California (2017), Colorado (2011), Connecticut (2016), Florida (2010), Georgia (2012), Hawaii (2022), Idaho (2014), Illinois (2012), Kansas (2010), Maine (2009), Maryland (2011), Minnesota (2003), Missouri, Nevada (2017), North Carolina (2018), Oklahoma (2021), Oregon (2009), Tennessee (2013), Utah (2018), Vermont (2014), Washington (2020), and Wyoming (2014).
In several of those states, the process is legally defined but not yet practically available. Kansas, Maryland, and Wyoming have approved definitions but lack operating facilities. Missouri's regulatory framework does not prohibit alkaline hydrolysis but has not explicitly authorized it.
In other states, legislative efforts have failed. Texas House Bill 1155 died in committee in 2017. Virginia's Senate Bill 1487 passed the House in 2023 but died in the Senate. Legislation is currently pending in New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
And then there is New Hampshire, the one state that legalized alkaline hydrolysis and then reversed course.
The New Hampshire Case
New Hampshire approved alkaline hydrolysis in 2006. Two years later, the state banned the process amid opposition from religious lobbying groups. A 2013 proposal to reinstate legalization was rejected.
The New Hampshire reversal is the clearest example of the political dynamic "Death Boom" seeks to expose. Religious organizations, particularly the Catholic Church, have been the most visible opponents of alkaline hydrolysis legislation in multiple states. State-level Catholic conferences have lobbied against it, arguing that it fails to show proper respect for human remains.
Chandler addressed this directly: "They really need to let go of the power they continue to hold onto with a death grip about what someone does with their body after they die."
The Catholic Church's opposition has not been uniform globally. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu died in December 2021, he requested aquamation. His remains were processed through alkaline hydrolysis in South Africa, where the method has been legal since 2019. His funeral was conducted with full Anglican rites.
Scotland legalized water cremation in March 2026. Ireland became the first European country to offer it in 2023.
What the Documentary Gets Right
The environmental case "Death Boom" presents is consistent with available research.
Roth told Spectrum News that embalming chemicals end up in municipal sewers and then reach the oceans. Formaldehyde, the primary embalming agent, is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency regulates formaldehyde emissions under the Toxic Substances Control Act, but funeral home wastewater discharges are not subject to specialized federal treatment requirements.
Roth's observation about the energy intensity of flame cremation is also supported by industry data. A single flame cremation consumes roughly the same amount of natural gas as driving an average car 4,800 miles, according to comparisons compiled by CANA and the Green Burial Council. Alkaline hydrolysis uses approximately 90% less energy than flame cremation and produces no airborne mercury emissions from dental amalgam fillings, a documented byproduct of traditional cremation.
The film's most provocative claim is that "corruption, political, religious, and corporate" stands between Americans and greener disposition options. The evidence supports the broad thrust of that argument, though "corruption" may be too strong a word for what is, in most cases, ordinary lobbying by entrenched interests.
Why the Headline Matters
The ComingSoon headline, "Why Water Cremation Is Illegal," does not merely oversimplify. It is factually wrong. A process available in 24 states, used at the Mayo Clinic for two decades, and chosen by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his own funeral is not illegal.
The policy debate around alkaline hydrolysis is actively underway in at least five state legislatures. When major entertainment outlets publish headlines calling the process "illegal," they provide rhetorical cover to the same opposition forces the documentary identifies. Legislators in states considering authorization can point to those headlines and ask: if it is illegal, there must be a reason.
There is a reason. Several, in fact. But none of them involve the process being illegal. The reasons are a combination of religious lobbying that succeeded in one state and blocked bills in several others, an established funeral industry with a financial stake in maintaining the status quo, and legislative bodies that have not prioritized the issue. Those are the forces "Death Boom" identifies, and they are real. Whether audiences understand them depends on which coverage they read.
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