From kaiju zaniness to Canadian psychological and body horror, we venture back across the Pacific to the Great White North to revisit our old friend David Cronenberg. After Shivers and Rabid, Cronenberg decided to get a bit more autobiographical in his approach, and thus was born (pun intended) The Brood.
The story centers on Frank Carveth, who’s currently embroiled in a custody battle with his ex-wife, Nola, over their daughter, Candice. Complicating matters, Nola is currently undergoing a radical psychiatric treatment known as “psychoplasmics” under the direction of Dr. Raglan at his semi-remote institute. Frank is galvanized to angry action after Candice returns home from a visit with her mother with bruises and scratches covering her back. But things aren’t exactly as cut-and-dried as Frank believes, especially when a string of murders occurs, targeting people close to Frank and Candice, including the child’s grandparents. As it turns out (spoilers here, if you completely ignore the title, at least), the murders have been committed by small, creepy, child-like creatures. Apparently, Nola has brought these critters into the world via sac-based parthenogenesis, and she subconsciously controls them through her emotions, all of which seems to have been caused by Dr. Raglan’s techniques.
Insert “What a story, Mark” clip here.
Yeah, this is a bit of a wild one, though nothing all that out of the ordinary when you take into account Cronenberg’s earlier works. As it happens, the basic idea of the story came about because of the director’s own ongoing custody battle at the time. This adds an interesting layer to things, with the symbolic nature of Nola’s “brood” all the more apparent: Our emotions during stressful circumstances can have at-least-partially unintended consequences for the people around us, especially our children.
The standout performance here comes from the venerable Oliver Reed, who really dives into the role of Raglan with clear verve. Every scene he’s in is immediately stolen from anyone else, though, honestly, the others don’t really put up too much of a fight. Sure, Samantha Eggar does fairly well as Nola, with ample opportunity to ham it up a bit and really put an exclamation point on her character’s mental instabilities, but most of the rest of the cast seems a bit out of their depths. Art Hindle does little else than meander about and remind me of Peter Dinklage (the resemblance is uncanny at times!), which definitely hinders his abilities as the lead here, and Cindy Hinds is strangely wooden most of the time as Candice (sure, you could explain some of this away with her being traumatized, but that’s communicated subtextually at best).
On the plus side, Cronenberg’s visuals are much cleaner, more vibrant here than in his previous efforts, an improvement I attribute to cinematographer Mark Irwin, who would go on to lens Cronenberg’s most famous efforts (and take home some hardware for Videodrome, The Dead Zone, and The Fly). There’s also a solid score, composed by Howard Shore, making a propitious film debut.
The Brood is an interesting film, one I can easily see being a bit off-putting for many (especially that climactic reveal), but it’s a damn solid flick and the harbinger of great things to come for Cronenberg.
Allusions of Grandeur 