David Cronenberg’s (Naked Lunch, Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, The Fly, Scanners, Spider) The Brood, the last film in his early period, paints a stark picture of rage placed alongside divorce. However, by contributing to the nightmare child cycle of the time, beginning with Roman Polanski’s Rosermary’s Baby and including such works as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive, Richard Donner’s The Omen, before culminating with Fritz Kiersch’s The Children of the Corn, Cronenberg’s work also serves as a meditative, however bleak, assessment of new age psychotherapy and its potentially damaging effects if placed in the wrong hands.
After separating from her husband, Frank Carveth (Art Hindle, Invasion of the Body Snatchers , Black Christmas, Porky’s), Nola (Samantha Eggar) enters the Somafree Institute, headed by Doctor Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed, Gladiator, The Devils, Women in Love), who has devised what he refers to as “psychoplasmics,” a radical new therapy which evokes transference of one’s anger as it manifests itself in physical aberrations such as boils, cancer, etc. However, once Raglan abandon’s his other patients for Nola, and then Nola herself, all amid a series of bizarre murders and the kidnapping of the Carveths’ daughter, Candice (Cindy Hinds, a precursor to the twins in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining), Frank goes in search for answers.
Cronenberg has always demanded his works be more than standard horror fare. Regardless of how far removed from normative storytelling a film by the auteur may be, it nonetheless posits a different manner in which to view a segment or faction of society. With The Brood, Cronenberg presents a scathingly satirical portrayal of pop psychology, which was prevalent in the 1970’s, as we are witness to the devastating effects of Haglan’s theories and his omnipotence after Frank consults a lawyer (Larry Solway), who advises the disgruntled father to avoid a court battle because, after all, “He [Halgan] is a doctor.”
Yet, with any Cronenberg piece, the work is not limited to one theme or idea. We watch as the director reluctantly, but nonetheless courageously, drives his story to its logical conclusion as he fictionalizes his tumultuous divorce from his wife (in interviews, he stated that the considered the work to be his version of Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer): Children of abusive parents, who were themselves products of abuse, will more than likely be abusive in time. Though the notion is far from original, the manner in which Cronenberg presents this real world horror, as always, retains the viewer’s interest.
The work is not only original in its execution and thought-provoking in and of itself, The Brood is subtle in its narration. The audience is kept, much like the film’s protagonist, in the dark throughout much of the movie, as we attempt to piece together, at first the murder’s identity, then–after the culprit(s) is revealed–endeavor to assimilate what we’ve been given and its relation to the principle characters. Cronenberg’s masterstroke is his depiction of Raglan, whom we are lead to view in one particular light, before the director shifts his audience’s alliance at the film’s climax.
I am reluctant to speak of the visual horror of the film, primarily conveyed by the Brood, for those who haven’t seen the film. However, without giving away too much, when Cronenberg finally reveals the genesis for the creatures, a very interesting scenario arises in which the topic of parthenogenesis is presented (as we realize just how much rage a particular character houses) as biological mass production for the satirical sake of convenience quickly follows.
The only criticism I have of the film is the score, which is the first of many contributions between Howard Shore and Cronenberg. We are given to believe–due to the soundtrack–that an ominous presence or event is just around the corner, oftentimes to no effect. When heightened moments are occurring, the audience is subjected to a less-than-subtle Bernard Herrmann rip-off, à la Psycho.
David Cronenberg’s The Brood stands as the director’s masterpiece in his early period as he depicts a less-than-hopeful view of pop psychology set against the long-standing effects of child abuse. As always, Cronenberg grants us an interesting venue for such ideas via a storyline that only he could fathom and bring to virtuoso light.
-Egregious Gurnow
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- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
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- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
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