The Brood
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- This article is about the 1979 film. For the Professional wrestling stable see The Brood (professional wrestling). For the Venice Beach crossover-thrash band see The Brood
| The Brood | |
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| Directed by | David Cronenberg |
| Produced by | Claude Heroux |
| Written by | David Cronenberg |
| Starring | Oliver Reed Samantha Eggar Art Hindle Harry Beckman |
| Music by | Howard Shore |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1979 |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CAD 1,400,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Brood is a 1979 Canadian horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. It stars Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle. It was filmed in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario.
[edit] Plot
Typical for Cronenberg, the film externalises human thought and emotion onto human physiology. In this case, an unconventional psychotherapist (Oliver Reed) has created a technique called "psychoplasmics." He encourages his patients to "go all the way through it" and allow their negative emotions (rage, fear, etc.) to cause their bodies to undergo (usually radical) physical change. A man verbally abused by his father develops welts over his body as a way of expressing his pain. Another patient develops lymphatic cancer, supposedly a manifestation of his self-hatred.
In the case of the principal characters, it causes a woman (Samantha Eggar) to parthenogenetically birth strange, mutated children and, via a telepathic bond, have them act out whatever negative emotions the mother is feeling at the time, with disastrous consequences when her therapist brings those emotions to the surface.
[edit] Production
In interviews, Cronenberg has said that this film was partially inspired by a painful custody battle with his ex-wife for their daughter Cassandra (who has since worked as an assistant director on several films, including her father's eXistenZ). Cronenberg has also condemned the censorship of the climactic scene in which Eggar gives birth to one of the monsters and starts tenderly licking it clean. This scene was "trimmed" in the United Kingdom, ironically causing many viewers to assume the character was eating her baby[citation needed].In 2005, the full uncut version was made available on UK DVD.
The Brood was the first Cronenberg film to be scored by Howard Shore, who has written the music for all Cronenberg's subsequent works except The Dead Zone.
[edit] Trivia
This film was #78 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
Transfer • From the Drain • Stereo • Crimes of the Future • Shivers • Rabid • Fast Company • The Brood • Scanners • The Dead Zone • Videodrome • The Fly • Dead Ringers • Naked Lunch • M. Butterfly • Crash • eXistenZ • Spider • A History of Violence • Eastern Promises • Maps to the Stars
