#114: The Brood

Release Date: May 25th, 1979

Format: Criterion Collection on Blu-ray

Written by: David Cronenberg

Directed by: David Cronenberg

4 Stars

David Cronenberg’s The Brood seems to me to be the Canadian cousin of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. If Lynch’s nightmarish film metaphorically explores the male fear of having a child, Cronenberg’s nightmarish film metaphorically explores the male fear of sharing a child with a partner that you no longer want to be with. 

To put it more bluntly, I think Cronenberg’s movie is an allegory for what it’s like to date a crazy broad. 

The symbolism works well, and like all Cronenberg movies that I’ve seen, I appreciate his complete disregard for compromising his vision. This is a film that features demonic children in snowsuits breaking into an elderly couple’s home to murder them, an elementary school teacher pummeled to death with mallets in front of her students, and a horrific birthing scene in which the mother licks blood from her newly born infant. 

It’s some weird, wild stuff. I loved it.

But underneath the graphic imagery, this is a movie that emanates from the fragility of the male subconscious. It’s a movie that’s fearful of powerful women (unstable or not). It’s a movie that’s afraid of emotional vulnerability. It’s a movie that’s afraid of psychiatry. It’s a movie about fear.

So, come to The Brood for the Canadian demon children, but stay for Cronenberg’s uncompromising vision and provoking subtext.