{"id":16717,"date":"2015-10-13T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T04:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=16717"},"modified":"2015-10-13T11:28:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T15:28:25","slug":"david-cronenberg-the-brood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2015\/10\/13\/david-cronenberg-the-brood\/","title":{"rendered":"David Cronenberg: The Brood<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
Review of The Criterion Collection\u00a0Blu-ray edition.\r\n\r\nThe Brood\r\n<\/em><\/strong>d.\u00a0David Cronenberg (1979)\r\nSpine: #777\r\nBlu-ray Release Date: October 13, 2015\r\n\r\nScreen captures below are taken from The Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc, but resolution has been reduced from 1920x1080 to 900x506 and slightly compressed. You may click on them to view the 900x506 image.<\/pre>\n
I’m sure I’m not alone in this, thanks to the rows upon rows of horror films for rent on VHS at local stores, but I first came upon\u00a0David Cronenberg’s The Brood<\/em>\u00a0when I was far too young.\u00a0It succeeded at frightening me for years\u00a0— those little terrors\u00a0running amok in\u00a0places like the home and school where a\u00a0child should feel secure\u00a0—\u00a0but anything beyond the more gruesome images on the screen went completely over my head.\u00a0It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I learned that\u00a0The Brood<\/em> was a very personal film to Cronenberg, perhaps even his most personal. I was\u00a0surprised to hear\u00a0that the straightforward thriller I remembered could be “personal.”<\/p>\n
I recently\u00a0revisited and reconsidered The Brood<\/em> on its new Criterion Collection release. It terrified me again, only this time\u00a0the lasting\u00a0terror was born not from the horrifying scenes but rather\u00a0from the devastating shots of the child at the center of the film witnessing events with uncomprehending, indelible fear. The Brood<\/em> is a disgusting, profound, and nuanced masterpiece that explores the frightening world of\u00a0intrafamily conflict when deep-seated anger and humiliation is brought to the surface.\u00a0Though it sounds\u00a0tongue-in-cheek, I don’t think Cronenberg is\u00a0at all wrong to say, “The Brood<\/em> is my version of Kramer vs. Kramer<\/em>, but more realistic.”<\/p>\n
\"The<\/p>\n
When The Brood<\/em> begins, the Carveths are already a broken family. Frank (Art Hindle)\u00a0and Nola (Samantha Eggar) are fighting for custody of their five-year-old daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds). Frank and Nola had a rocky marriage, and we’re led to believe that Nola and her own traumatic past were the primary reason it failed. In fact, when the film begins Nola is a resident at Somafree,\u00a0a kind of psychiatric treatment facility run by Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed).<\/p>\n
\"The<\/a>
Oliver Reed as the trailblazing psychotherapist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Dr. Raglan has developed a technique he calls “psychoplasmics.” He sits with his patients and performs the role of someone involved in their traumatic past — often, for example, a parent. He goads the patient on, encouraging — or provoking —\u00a0them to release their formerly suppressed emotions physically, meaning that all of the anger or humiliation inside of them passes through the skin and exhibits in a physiological change outside of their body. The physical form of the\u00a0anger is then lanced, theoretically. The patient is able to move on, feeling much better. As we watch the therapy with Nola, we learn that her mother was cruel and abusive and that her father was neglectful. She has been traumatized herself and now, sadly, the trauma is being passed to her daughter.<\/p>\n
\"The<\/a>
Samantha Eggar as Nola Carveth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Frank is incredibly upset to find that Candice, who had just spent a few days with her mother at the institute, has come home with bruising and scratching.\u00a0He leaves Candice with\u00a0Nola’s mom, Juliana,\u00a0and\u00a0rushes to Somafree to tell them he will no longer allow Candice to come visit her mother, though he knows he doesn’t have any solid legal footing to support his position.<\/p>\n
While he is there, a hideous child-like creature enters Juliana’s home and brutally beats Juliana before heading upstairs. Candice does not witness the actual murder, but she sees the aftermath and then looks up at the banister to see the child-like creature watching her. The police find Candice upstairs sleeping when they arrive.<\/p>\n
\"The<\/a>
Just one member of the brood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Obviously, Candice cannot process all that is going on, and its here where I think The Brood<\/em> really succeeds. She seems to know these horrific children. Though she looks wary, she goes with them when they come for her. For their part, they seem to protect her. When they escort her from the gore they suggest that all they are doing\u00a0is for her own good.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
They cannot protect her, though. No, indeed, their very presence continues to cause incomprehensible trauma to Candice, and the most gut-wrenching shots in the film do not even show the wicked children: we\u00a0see Candice alone in the frame, hunched in a corner,\u00a0plugging her ears, trying to shut her eyes, but always unable to block much at all from all that is going on around her as people fight over and ostensibly for her.<\/p>\n
\"The<\/a>
Cindy Hinds as Candice Carveth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It’s an effective horror story, especially since the final scene shows that the horror has not stopped — it may be\u00a0buried,\u00a0but not deeply.<\/p>\n
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Supplements:<\/strong><\/p>\n