Review #266: 'The Brood' (1979)

Psychotherapist Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) has founded a breakthrough technique called 'psychoplasmics'. This unconventional new technique involves sessions where deep rooted anxieties and memories manifest themselves in a kind of hypnotic state where the patient and doctor can play different roles. This causes the patient's bodies to change as a result of these sessions. Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) discovers bruises on his daughter's body, and knows that it is the doing of his mentally unstable wife Nola (Samantha Eggar), who is under Raglan's care. As Frank tries to form a case against Raglan, various people begin to be murdered by disfigured children who seem to be protective of his daughter.

It's a glowing testament to Canadian director David Cronenberg that a film such as The Brood, a relatively low-budget, silly-sounding horror, can get itself made, let alone avoid being a catastrophe. For a film about killer-children that appear out of nowhere that butcher people in various and inventive ways, the film is remarkable. It's not scary like I would imagine it once was, but it is certainly unnerving. But this isn't just a great horror film, this is simply a brilliant piece of film-making. This simply should not work. But it does. And it is possibly his finest work to date.

Cronenberg's style is unmistakable. His distinct style of character-building before unleashing shocking pieces of crazy horror is usually backed-up by a great script and genuinely brilliant film-making. It is a style that he would hone and develop into other great films of this era - Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988) - all fantastic films, all memorable pieces of horror. The Brood really comes alive in the exchanges between Raglan and his patients. Opening with a long scene in which Raglan and an emotionally damaged patient with some serious father issues interact in front of an audience, the scene is blandly shot with a black background. Yet for what is just a long conversation becomes immediately engrossing thanks to some fantastically complex dialogue, and builds a tense atmosphere that would prevail throughout the film.

The film is amazing throughout, but nothing prepared me for the ending. Obviously I won't reveal it, but it's a divine mixture of the truly inspired, the sickening, and the outright ridiculous. No other film-maker could make such a scene so horrifying and effective, yet not make you question what you are seeing. I'm not sure what was happening in this era, but there was definitely a fear of women and their capabilities when it comes to birth, and this was reflected in some films of the time - Larry Cohen's It's Alive (1974), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Xtro (1983). Directors seemed to have a fascination with the gruesomeness of birth and the power that it holds. Cronenberg has calmed down of late, making dramas such as A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007). Both are solid films but his true legacy lies in the films made between 1975 and 1988, where he made some of the best horror films ever made.


Directed by: David Cronenberg
Starring: Art Hindle, Samantha Eggar, Oliver Reed
Country: Canada

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie