Review of The Brood (1979) by Jeff B — 09 Jun 2009

Certainly an interesting story by David Cronenberg. I really knew nothing about this film before I saw it, so I was in for quite a few surprises. It's definitely one of the classic early Cronenberg films like Scanners and Rabid and Videodrome.

I like the way the film unfolds. A good opening with Oliver Reed having a therapy session with a patient while an audience watches. Then the killings start happening and things start getting weirder. I like that the "killer" is pretty much revealed, it's got such a creepy look. And the scene in the classroom has pretty much been labeled a classic film moment in my book.

As for the ending, well, that was quite new, you don't see that too often. I couldn't tell you what was going on, but it was certainly, well, Cronenberg.

I enjoyed the film, it's a cool film with a lot of suspense (especially the scene near the end with Reed). It's funny, after I watched the movie I read Leonard Maltin's review of it. He gave it a bomb, and I couldn't help but laugh reading it. Sure, the film's pretty over the top and it's probably a cult film by now, but I liked it. There are better Cronenberg films out there, but he should be happy to have this one on his filmography.