(good) Horror Films discussion
The Brood (David Cronenberg)
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i'm definitely putting shivers on my netflix queue, if i have not already done so. thanks again for the recommendation.when i admire a director as much as i do cronenberg, i try to see all their films, especially the early stuff. as you say, there are usually some golden moments that shine through, and you can see the seeds of their obsessions.
I watched this over the summer and was pleasantly surprised. I was most disturbed by the physical anomalies that the mother had developed from birthing her little brood and the the absence of the navel...glad this one showed up in my mailbox.
and the idea that the brood ran on this neural energy, had a bank account of it in the way of a kind of stomach, etc. ....it's familiar enough, but totally alien all at the same time. that's why it's scary.in this way, cronenberg has always impressed me as someone who pays a rather unique homage to the b-horror and sci-fi films of the 50's. it may be an obvious thing to say (or it may not), but I would imagine cronenberg having a fondness for films like attack of the 50-foot woman or the brain that wouldn't die. i mean, he did a remake of the fly...and those recent films with viggo mortenson (sp?) have the feel of mc carthy-era films. it's clear that he came of age in that period and it left its mark on him.
The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1977)
David Cronenberg knows how to get under our skin. For decades he has explored terrifying landscapes within the human body in order to affect us on a primal level. He is acutely aware that we fear illness, disease and death, and he challenges us by suggesting that we may be capable of morphing organically into monsters that resemble the familiar. Like his one-time collaborator William S Burroughs, he is obsessed with a world where the viral can strike the organism with horrific repercussions.
In Videodrome he walked a dialectic tightrope posed by questioning video images – are they aimed at us and influencing our psyches in detrimental ways, or is our psyche polluting video with a tortured and murderous intent? In early films like Rabid he created communicable diseases linked to sexual desire that left the infected in states of flesh-eating rage. In later works like Existenz, the boundary between flesh and cyber worlds was blurred, and the battle for control over the passageway of those borders is played out between the totalitarian and the utopian.
In The Brood, a new-age therapy uncovers the body’s ability to manifest anger in strange ways. The appropriately stoic Oliver Reed plays Dr. Raglan, director of a clinic where clients engage in therapies that produce a various flesh-pods, from rosy sores and blemishes to larger fleshy protruberances that resemble a variety of wild mushrooms. B-Horror stalwart Samantha Eggar plays the clinic’s Queen Bee, who goes the extra mile to produce a brood of mutants that act out her internal states of anger and rage.
While Mommy is submerged in what otherwise resembles Freudian therapy, husband Frank is trying to raise their daughter and keep her from falling prey to these mutant murderers dressed as snow-bunnies. She witnesses attacks on her grandmother and teacher before finding herself at the mercy of their hollow eyes, animal-like claws, and pastel colored winter-wear. The desire to disguise the terrifying as the everyday bides faithfully in this early Cronenberg classic.
While our crafty Canadian makes a valiant attempt at establishing a slow crescendo of suspense in the first two acts, the film suffers from some awkward pacing and stilted exposition. Once the mutant attacks begin, the pace rolls smoothly in the second half, amplifying savagery and psychological torment. Cronenberg never fails to coax a bit of humor from a few of the more disturbing moments. Samantha Eggar hams it up during her descent into matricidal torment.
Cronenberg fans can find examples of his mature style in this early film. Although The Brood has its flaws, it also exists firmly in the tradition of his fine body of work.