The Brood
1979 Directed by David Cronenberg
Synopsis
The Ultimate Experience Of Inner Terror
A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation.
Cast
Popular reviews
More-
Typical Cronenberg, which means it's pretty awesome.
-
There's stuff in this movie - if you can get right with the murderous dwarves you still have to stomach the requisite stiff dose of body horror, and then there's Oliver Reed's performance - that makes stuff in other Cronenberg movies look like reaction shots from HERE COMES THE BOOM. The Canadian Kubrick delivers his ultimate Divorce movie and the afterbirth is rich, daddy, real rich. Put this on a double bill with REPULSION if you're ballsy but dig a hole first for your skin to crawl into.
-
David Cronenberg has joked that The Brood is his version of Kramer vs. Kramer, and it's actually a better and more insightful about the destructive nature of divorce than the more acclaimed movie. Written after Cronenberg's own divorce and custody battle, there's an anger at its core that feels painfully true. Protagonist Frank (Art Hindle) tries to gain custody of his daughter from his estranged wife Nola (Samantha Eggar), a mentally troubled woman with a history of abuse from her own mother, who is undergoing residental treatment from radical psychotherapist Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed). Raglan uses intense role-playing exercises to help his patients confront their anger and traumatic experiences, which have begun to create physical manifestations of their emotions; Nola's…
-
Yes, the shape of rage. Only through the medium of film can this level of sick brilliance be reached. Loved it!
-
The scariest thing about this film is the wallpaper in the mother-in-law's bedroom!
In all seriousness, this is a decent Cronenberg film with a sufficient level of Body Horror. The degree of acting switches between furrowed-brow seriousness to horribly high-strung in the blink of an eye and tool me out of the picture a couple of times. Oliver Reed is pretty smooth though which I suppose counts for something.
The scary child-thing is relatively impressive and the build up to each attack burns with electrifying tension. Seeing the look on the children's faces in the classroom beat-down was unfortunately quite humorous. But then again... I'm a sick bastard sometimes.
This film also marks the debut score of Howard Shore. There's…
-
Even among David Cronenberg's ouevre, THE BROOD is pretty out-there. That originality is part of what I like so much about it; after all, this is certainly the only movie ever made about a woman (Samantha Eggar) who, undergoing radical New Age psychotherapy, gives birth to deformed child-like creatures (personifications of her rage) who enact her fury on those who anger her. It's 100% ridiculous if you take it literally, but viewed as sci-fi metaphor and as an example of early Cronenberg "body horror" it's a really interesting, suspenseful, and strangely entertaining film.
Eggar is really excellent as a woman whose insane rage has taken physical form, committing fully to the role even when asked to do some really disgusting…
Recent reviews
More-
For me David Cronenberg is a bit of a hit or miss when it comes to his films.
This one I do think is pretty good, especially for its time! It may be an old film but it looks quite good quality-wise.
It has a real creepiness to it, a nice gross-out moment and a few well done scares.
-
Cronenberg-ception
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPXMHZ4XEs0
Interesting study on MUBI: mubi.com/reviews/20392
-
David Cronenberg has joked that The Brood is his version of Kramer vs. Kramer, and it's actually a better and more insightful about the destructive nature of divorce than the more acclaimed movie. Written after Cronenberg's own divorce and custody battle, there's an anger at its core that feels painfully true. Protagonist Frank (Art Hindle) tries to gain custody of his daughter from his estranged wife Nola (Samantha Eggar), a mentally troubled woman with a history of abuse from her own mother, who is undergoing residental treatment from radical psychotherapist Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed). Raglan uses intense role-playing exercises to help his patients confront their anger and traumatic experiences, which have begun to create physical manifestations of their emotions; Nola's…
-
Enjoyable and effective, with some pretty good freaky moments
-
A creature that actually made me squirm. Classic Cronenberg that takes the film you think you're about to see and delivers it to you x100. Now I really need to watch Videodrome.
-
A very interesting take on the end of a relationship and on the emotional stress such thing entails. It's certainly very Cronenberg-esque, with all the references to psychological transformations taking physical form. Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar both deliver very intense performances.
It reminded me at times of Andrzej Zulawski's Possession, where the "divorce" issue also manifests itself in a physical (and sinister) form.
-
Only just got around to seeing this and I am glad that I did. Oliver Reed is so intense that I reckon that he could stop your heart beating if he put his mind to it. He is perfect for the role and every scene he is in is both over powering and uncomfortable. The general plot of this film is very disturbing and mostly weird. Everything from the weird little people/children to the obscure child birth scene. The child birth scene has Cronnenberg's style written all over it. A film to make you think and a film to make you acknowledge the bizarre human psyche.
-
An OK horror movie with a silly premise. Very ehh compared to Cronenberg's best (NAKED LUNCH, EASTERN PROMISES), or even most mediocre (COSMOPOLIS).
...
Now if I have nightmares about evil dwarves biting and pummeling me to death tonight, I can reassess what I think of THE BROOD.