Review of The Brood (1979) by Stephen M — 13 May 2008

I would still class "The Brood" as the best of early Cronenberg, but I watched it again recently and was slightly disappointed by it. It wasn't as well paced or plotted as I'd remembered.

As well as being a continuation of Cronenberg's particular brand of body horror, the movie is actually a deeply personal and very perceptive comment on the psychological damage caused to children by their parents' messy break-ups, informed by the director's own recent divorce.

Unfortunately, by demonising the mother (Samantha Eggar) and making the father (Art Hindle) a flawless white knight, the movie sometimes feels uncomfortably like a cheap shot at Cronenberg's ex- missus.

Up until "Videodrome", Cronenberg hadn't the cachet or the budgets to attract top quality stars to play his leads, though he usually found established stalwarts for the supporting roles: Barabara Steele ("Shivers"), John Saxon ("Fast Company"), Patrick McGoohan ("Scanners") and, best of all, Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar in "The Brood", both of whom are excellent.

Compared to Stephen Lack in "Scanners", Art Hindle is charisma personified, but he's still not particularly memorable. For all its faults, this is a uniquely disturbing horror movie, well worth seeing.