Another film that felt like a first time watch because 1) it's been over 30 years 2) Criterion's restoration is so good that it almost feels like a different film from the VHS I rented when I was in my teens.

I forgot how in line this film is with Cronenberg's fascination/obsession with body horror. I re-visited thinking that I would like it better after all these years but quite honestly, still low in my Cronenberg ranking.

Criterion release is great. So much on the disc including interviews, tv spots and Cronenberg's 2nd feature Crimes of the Future, which I've never seen and will so soon.

I'm 100% sure I'd be an awesome mom. I'd have the perfect balance of being there for them when they needed me and giving them their space whenever they truly needed it in order to become independent and fully capable of existing without me. The main reason I'd be an awesome mom though is because when my child is 12 years old I would show them how I made a home video of all the good scenes in The Brood that I recreated shot for shot shortly after they were born. They'll love it and they'll be like "you're the coolest, mom! can we watch Suspiria now?" and of course they can because I'm raising children with great taste.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Undoubtedly the best film to come from director David Cronenberg in the '70s, The Brood does take a decent bit to get going & Art Hindle's prominent character isn't all that exciting to follow around here, though I did find the rest of the film to be mostly solid work, and a reasonably effective piece of horror deriving from the imaginative mind of Cronenberg.

Oliver Reed & Samantha Eggar's relatively fine performances, menacing deviant children, and a truly nightmarish climax of the film definitely make The Brood worthy of its elevated status as one of the more notable works from the director's filmography, and it's also very understandable at how this one is fairly personal to him as well.

David Cronenberg turning his own ugly feelings about his messy divorce into a disturbing dive into psychological scars of family. Art Hindle’s blank face is the perfect foil to such dissection and the film has some of the most effective horrifying images put on film particularly when they are the most simple (as a 15 year old those little deformed hands coming from under the bed really did a number on me). Even the pure little girl sight is disturbing. And then there is the moment in which the ex-husband arrives in the school to murdered body of the teacher and all those little children crying. When it comes to psychological damage, The Brood has something for everyone.

Liked this more on rewatch. As a movie it's flawed, but as a contraceptive device, it's about as good as they come.

scary hammer-wielding killer kids in snowsuits and Samantha Eggar's external womb are never going to be not fucking terrifying. while the shape of Cronenberg's rage is conceptually powerful, though, his obvious and deeply personal pessimism seems to me misplaced, and the film is somewhat unbalanced by some misogyny seemingly directed at his ex-wife. while Art Hindle never plays an upstanding spouse, exactly, the core idea of his wife's inchoate rage spawning uncontrollable murderous offspring -- a condition that spreads to their actual daughter -- is somewhat simplistically tossed off: bitches be crazy. the fear, suspicion and jealousy here is intrinsic, unexplained, and inevitable but never interrogated; this is like an R.D. Laing family nexus seminar before he was discredited.

Don’t Look Now by way of Psycho, Cronenberg’s eye for the nasty and repulsive gelling superbly with Howard Shore’s Herrmann-esque score. This is one of those films Roger Ebert ripped to total shreds in his earlier days, something I can’t make sense of considering this isn’t striving to be anything more than a well-oiled exercise in genre madness. It’s cheap, gory, and nonsensical in the best kind of way. I was quite surprised to see how many child actors were on screen in some of the more horrific sequences, looking on open-mouthed as the body-horror took its shape. There’s no way some of those kids weren’t traumatised making this.

Check out my Horror Film, Science Fiction List, and Psychological Thriller lists!

The Brood is a fantastic Canadian psychological body horror written and directed by David Cronenberg. It follows Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) attempts to reveal a mad doctor (Oliver Reed)’s unusual psychoplasmic therapy on his institutionalized and raging wife (Samantha Eggar) who will soon be a mother, while a series of bloody attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with his investigation in Toronto. People around Frank start to get hurt by these mysterious children killers.

Cronenberg crafts a suspenseful and psychologically dark story in The Brood, a horror tale that comments on mental health, the mad doctor, and psychopaths! It is actually very cool to see Toronto in the 1970’s depicted as the city itself than somewhere in the USA, and the 70’s aesthetics and vibe are just very fun.

Compõe junto de Possession (1981) o subgênero mais assustador possível: terror de relacionamento.

And this is why I NEVER want children.  N E V E R. 

Com Shivers e Rabid eu não pude deixar de sentir que, apesar de possuírem uma premissa interessante, a condução da história não foi tão boa quanto poderia. Já em The Brood a apresentação dos elementos, o ritmo, a trilha e a construção da tensão se elevam significativamente e tornam o filme muito mais envolvente e interessante que os anteriores. A forma que o Cronenberg achou para falar de processos traumáticos é espantosamente realística, apesar dos elementos sobrenaturais. Eu realmente fiquei impressionada com o rumo que o filme foi tomando, e com o fechamento espetacular das últimas cenas.

Disgusting and beautiful

I like the fact that every little creature child shit have the same outfits with different color... Like the power ranger !

I only watched this because I specifically remember watching the ending scene on YouTube as a child

Jesus.

Not a top tier Cronenberg for me

My mom taught kindergarten for a number of years, and her stories lead me to believe this is an accurate depiction of such a classroom.

7/10

It has an interesting premise, that through a new kind of therapy called psychoplasmics a persons strongest emotions can be made to manifest themselves physically, but I think maybe the budget of this early Cronenberg film maybe couldn’t live up to the vision of the director. It’s lacking a certain “visceralness” that comes through in later offerings like The Fly or Existenz.

bom, mas cronenberg tinha muitos problemas mals resolvidos com a ex-mulher, metade pro final desse filme começa a engatar, mas o começo é um pouco difícil de te comprar, principal bem sem graça e efeitos fraquinhos.