The Brood

Rating:
Summary: Pick it up!
Review: Great movie. Had never heard of it until I recently saw it at my DVD store. Seeing who was the director peaked my interested and I'm very happy I picked it up. Very underated horror movie from a really good director.

Rating:
Summary: Child Care Nightmare
Review: I originally saw THE BROOD at a drive=in theater on a double bill with the movie Silent Scream. Silent Scream was on first and it was a little spooky. Then came The Brood and it blew my mind. Maybe it was because it was getting pretty late by the time the film started. Maybe it was because I was delirious from popcorn and cola. Or maybe it was because this movie delivered on all counts, grabbed you by the throat and wouldn't let go. Years later I saw The Brood again and it had the same effect, even though I am in my 30's now and not easily disturbed.

Director David Cronenberg has a way of disturbing the viewer. His films (Scanners, Rabid, The Fly, Shivers, etc) go beyond normal horror conventions and show us things that we don't want to see and that we don't want to know about. When he makes us confront these things, we are left writhing in our seats. It is effective and manages to take the viewer into areas they don't get to see in any other films.

The Brood gives equal time to two female characters. One, a young girl, the other a distraught older woman played by Samantha Eggar. Oliver Reed plays a psychologist whose methods and "secret projects" are dubious at best.

Scary things start happening when little, deformed, feral children start whacking people. These little critters are nasty. Cronenberg often hides the children in plain sight, causing you to suddenly realize that one of these little kidlets is hiding on the stairs or crouching in plain sight to us, but unseen by the character on screen. It is very effective in creating suspense.

The movie does tend to ramble at times, especially when Oliver Reed starts going on about his new age mumbo jumbo, and you are often left wondering what exactly the feral children have to do with anything. It all comes together in the end with some truly distrurbing imagery that will be burned into your mind forever.

I've seen the theatrical and VHS versions, but now that it's coming onto DVD in August 2003, I look forward to finally owning a copy. With luck the DVD will contain some extras. If you have seen other examples of Cronenberg's work, you may want to give The Brood a try. If you haven't, then this may be a good starting point. If you can stomach this, you should be able to handle his other works. While this movie isn't overly bloody, it is disturbing at times. Be warned.

I think I used the work "disturbing" about 10 times in this review. That about sums it up! A 5 star movie with 4 star pacing.

Rating:
Summary: A HORROR MOVIE MILESTONE!
Review: In David Cronenberg's movie ,he said,half-jokingly, "his version of Kramer vs Kramer", is a very personal kind of film-making. Fuelled by the angst of his own marital breakdown, Cronenberg proved he can handle a more intimate based character drama. The briitle winter setting and the eerie music add to the atmosphere of the movie. The result is a poignant , thoughtful film that must have suprised alot of people. Truly one of the best of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: A HORROR MOVIE MILESTONE!
Review: In David Cronenberg's movie ,he said,half-jokingly, "his version of Kramer vs Kramer", is a very personal kind of film-making. Fuelled by the angst of his own marital breakdown, Cronenberg proved he can handle a more intimate based character drama. The briitle winter setting and the eerie music add to the atmosphere of the movie. The result is a poignant , thoughtful film that must have suprised alot of people. Truly one of the best of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: cronenberg; hollywood's challenging pair of brass knuckles
Review: in the midst of a countless crop of directors lacking in personality or vision, there is david cronenberg.
he has, to this day, remained obsessivley true to a relentless, aesthetic vision.
this film and rabid are the two early masterpieces.
brood is gruesome and unsetletting, about as subtle as a pair of brass knuckles, but it is a highly personal film with many layered messages and, like all great art, it challenges you.
rise to the occasion.

Rating:
Summary: An unsettling but thoroughly moving piece from Cronenberg
Review: It is said by the great man himself that this is the closest he has ever got to making a sort of autobiographical film " and I don't want to come any closer " he feels. And in some respects you have to agree with him. The acting all round is superb and unlike in many of Cronenberg's films where the actors are almost wooden in their performance, none of them here are wooden in their performances. There's a sense of realism in this which you won't get from any other Cronenberg film. There's always a creepy sense " of what might happen " than the " wham bam you're dead " sort of horror movie

You don't really need me to tell you the story of the film since many others have commented on it. But I will say this is that Oliver Reed plays his part well. There's always an underlying threat of menace in his voice even when he's trying to convince Frank that he's on his side ( although you probably wouldn't think it at the time )

And as for those side effects that these people have while in his therapy are truly one of the most revolting things you'll ever see. Even though this film is menacingly restrained yet emotional, it'll take a strong stomach to see one of the more gruesome scenes of the film ( although it ain't as gruesome as Scanners or Videodrome )

However this is a film that has to be watched purely being for the reason that this maybe the only time that Cronenberg makes a highly personal movie.

Rating:
Summary: An unsettling but thoroughly moving piece from Cronenberg
Review: It is said by the great man himself that this is the closest he has ever got to making a sort of autobiographical film " and I don't want to come any closer " he feels. And in some respects you have to agree with him. The acting all round is superb and unlike in many of Cronenberg's films where the actors are almost wooden in their performance, none of them here are wooden in their performances. There's a sense of realism in this which you won't get from any other Cronenberg film. There's always a creepy sense " of what might happen " than the " wham bam you're dead " sort of horror movie

You don't really need me to tell you the story of the film since many others have commented on it. But I will say this is that Oliver Reed plays his part well. There's always an underlying threat of menace in his voice even when he's trying to convince Frank that he's on his side ( although you probably wouldn't think it at the time )

And as for those side effects that these people have while in his therapy are truly one of the most revolting things you'll ever see. Even though this film is menacingly restrained yet emotional, it'll take a strong stomach to see one of the more gruesome scenes of the film ( although it ain't as gruesome as Scanners or Videodrome )

However this is a film that has to be watched purely being for the reason that this maybe the only time that Cronenberg makes a highly personal movie.

Rating:
Summary: Let me brood about this for a minute.
Review: Kooky. This was a spaced out movie. It involves, in one phase, a father trying to protect his daughter. The girl's mother is a patient in some kind of special institution where the head doctor focuses on drawing out aggression in role-playing sessions. The mother is held in a kind of isolation, but she's allowed visits with the daughter. But, when the father finds bruises and scratches on the girl, he starts raising hell. Already, he sees the doctor as a big fat quack, and now he's convinced the the mother is doing harm to the daughter. The father begins trying to get some dirt on the doctor, towards eventual legal action.

A series of murders are committed by these ugly, pig-nosed little creatures that outwardly appear to be children---all of whom, for some reason, favor varicolored parkas and hats. It becomes apparent that these monsters are in some way connected with the woman, because the rage is pointed towards those she believes have wronged her. At one point, they manage to capture one of the creatues, dead by then, explaining that it has no teeth, no sex organs, and no belly buttons---supporting the theory that they were somehow manufactured rather than born. I got the basic structure of the idea, but they never did eloborate upon the connection between the guided anger and the physical creation of its extensions.

Anyhoo, the doctor is an ambiguous character at best; evidently he knows fully about the creatures, the fact that they stem physically from the woman's anger, and has possibly been goading the process along. He keeps a collection of them, the brood, in an attic room. Eventually the creatures take the little girl, since, I guess in some way, they're all kinds of surreal, imperfect clones. When the mother is calm, the monsters are dormant. Later on, they show a crude, freakish fluid sack, an extension of her body, where the monsters grow in fetus form. I guess that was kinda cool, but still, it just seemed like they jumped from A to C with the storyline. Either way, it's a reasonably entertaining movie, something you can watch more than once.

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent horror
Review: One of the great horror films about dysfunctional families, The Brood is David Cronenberg's 1980 masterpiece based in no small part on his own messy divorce around the time of the writing of the film. In it he gives vent to his frustrations and anger about relationships, but because he is one of the most intelligent filmmakers around, the script is literate and this gives the film its momentum. The events cohere, the characters are strong and credible, and the casting is equally excellent.

Frank Carveth's wife Nola (Samatha Eggar) is a patient at the Somafree Institute run by Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) whose magnum opus, The Shape of Rage, sums up his philosophy of psychological practice--that our inner rage will inevtiably express itself in outward manifestation. The opening scene of Raglan's dramatized session with one patient, Michael, reveals Michael's boils when he takes off his shirt to show the doctor how he really feels about his father.

When Nola was very young, her mother treated her very badly and now Nola's rage is profound. She and Frank have a daughter, Candy, about whom there is intense disagreement--Frank does not want Candy to see her mother at the Institute every weekend because of potential harm, and Nola needs her to be there. When a kindly, young, pretty schoolteacher helps Frank with Candy, Nola finds out and assumes Frank and the teacher are having an affair.

Mysterious murders occur, all apparently committed by one or more midgets or deformed children, all having a vague resemblance to Candy. To tell any more would be to give too much away. In the lead roles, Eggar and Reed are excellent, as is Art Hindle as Frank. Also great are the actors who play Nola's parents.

This is a much overlooked film which should definitely not be missed. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Great Acting
Review: The acting is definitely all that saved this movie. Oliver Reed is wonderful (as always). If you like him as much as I do then try Burnt Offerings as your next "horror" flick with him in it.