(We thought this would make a nice companion piece for The Cutting Room’s Episode 007, where we discuss the works of Cronenberg)
David Cronenberg’s 1979 film THE BROOD revolves around a new-agey, experimental psychotherapy compound run by one Dr. Hal Raglan, brilliantly played by Oliver Reed. By all outward appearances, the psychiatric compound looks like an upscale Poconos Mountain ski chalet. Aside from the creepy Doctor and a handful of his staff, the facility is filled with a collection of weird sycophant psycho-therapy patients whose adoration of Dr. Raglan and his experimental methods, called Psychoplasmics, is disturbing, to say the least, giving the whole setting a cult-like aura.
The details of Raglan’s Psychoplasmics are intentionally kept vague throughout most of the film, but we come to understand that it involves something about the externalization of inner rage in an effort to exorcise inner demons and Freudian trauma. The methods are also vague, but role-playing with the Doctor himself evidently plays heavily into it. This is evidenced in a brilliant opening scene with one of Raglan’s psychically wounded sycophants.
One of the most receptive patients at the compound is Nola Carveth, a woman who is kept under tight wraps by Raglan, presumably because of her positive reaction to the treatments and because she’ll soon be used as a case study for Ragan’s ground breaking work, proving the efficacy of the treatments.
Nola’s ex-husband, Frank, is kept at arm’s length from Nola because part of the reason that Nola sought treatment in the first place was apparent trouble in their marriage. Their daughter, Candice, is caught somewhere in the middle of this, visiting the semi-isolated Nola periodically.
When Frank finds evidence of physical abuse on his daughter he confronts Raglan, questions his methods, and threatens legal action to disallow future mother-daughter visits.
This triggers a chain of events that includes the mysterious dispatching of strange dwarf-like, bellybutton-less, evil mutant children dressed in brightly colored snow suits. These troll-like beings look terrifyingly similar to Candice… and they proceed to kill both of Nola’s parents, Candice’s teacher, and kidnap Candice herself.
Meanwhile, Frank does some investigating and we come to understand with him that Psychoplasmics has grotesque side-effects that take the form of physical deformities, which are evidently the outward manifestation of half-successful treatments.
At length, Frank’s investigations lead him eventually to Nola herself, and culminates in a truly horrifying climactic scene so grotesque that it needs to be seen to be believed.
I hate to retreat into the safety of hyperbole, but it’s a scene unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s not often we see something truly unique in a movie, especially a b-movie like this one from Cronenberg, but here, that’s exactly what we have.
The film is certainly not without its flaws. Some of the acting is a bit hollow. The dialogue is leaden in areas and if you’re not in the right mood, the Olympic team of snow-suited mini-killers could strike an unintentional funny bone. But the flaws are more than balanced out by many tightly directed scenes and a premise that is fiercely original in its conception.
THE BROOD is an early effort from David Cronenberg, who would go on to direct the cult classics THE FLY and VIDEODROME and eventually the incomparably sublime SPIDER, HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and EASTERN PROMISES. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and he gets my respect and loyalty because I know whatever he does will be the singular vision of a passionate individual and not that of a hack artist cashing in on latest trends. He mines deeply personal territory in his films and the driving theme in THE BROOD is a primal fear of the powers of the opposite sex and the terrifying machinations of the female gender. Not your typical Hollywood fare.
It’s because of his courage and willingness to examine personal compulsion and fears that make Cronenberg’s work, even the films that aren’t quite successful, always unique and fascinating to watch.
As a final note, and perhaps most pertinent to the Horror Jungle forum, Cronenberg approaches his violence and gore in a celebratory, almost gleeful way, reveling in the details and horrors of the human body when transfigured by technology, here specifically, by the technology of psycho-babble. But he never goes too far overboard. He seems to have an innate sense of when a bucket of blood ceases to be horrifying and when it just becomes a joke. He plays with that line, but knows when not to go too far. In other words, he has a respect for the power that cinematic gore can wield, but uses it as a device to reinforce his psychological horror.
THE BROOD is easily a four star film.
