The
Brood (1979)
Directed
by David Cronenberg
Starring
Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
Frank
and Nola Carveth are going through a hard, messy custody battle for their
daughter Candice. This is made a little harder because of Nola’s stay and
treatment at the Somafree Institute, receiving “psychoplasmic” treatments from
Dr. Hal Raglan. The treatments bring out the repressed pain Nola hid most of her
life, turning them into something that physically affects her. When the
treatments increase in intensity, brutal murders start coinciding with them. Small,
child-like tormenters are savagely attacking and killing those who have harmed
Nola before and those who would keep Candice from her. With precious little
time to act, Frank and Hal are going to have to confront Nola’s issues to stop
the children of her rage.
The
action is brutal and tense. People are stalked in their own homes and murdered
in public during the day. All this is made a little more horrifying because the
acts are carried out by what ostensibly are children. Hive minded, deformed,
rage manifestations, but children nonetheless. The baggage that comes with
children makes the rage babies all the more disturbing. Once you see how these
kids are born through the physical manifestation of Nola the movie just sends
you well outside of any comfort zone you have.
The
use of special effects and makeup is fairly sparse, but what does appear is
quite good. The makeup for the evil kids manages to be disturbing while
remaining pretty minimal. There are little changes that drastically alter how
you see them, like slightly off features and rather nasty looking harelips. Nola’s
makeup is terrifying, disgusting, and absolutely spectacular. It’s a truly
twisted and perverted form of motherhood and pregnancy.
For
the most part, the acting is pretty solid. Oliver Reed makes for quite the pompous
Doctor Hal Raglan. Samantha Eggar is creepy in her motherly actions and
inability to healthily process relationship troubles. Art Hindle doesn’t really
do all that much with the lead role of Frank. Not a lot to rave about on the
acting front.
One
could make the argument that The Brood
condemns feminine power and the role of mothers in the family unit. One could
even argue that the movie portrays emotional repression as a virtue, something
that becomes dangerous when it’s undone. The fact that David Cronenberg was
going through a bitter divorce and custody battle while writing The Brood would certainly bolster both
those arguments. But, none of that stops the movie from being really good and a
fine example of the director’s work in the body horror sub-genre. Leave it to
Cronenberg to turn his own troubles with women into a captivating horror movie.
8 out of 10
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