Cromosoma 3 (1979) Online

~Spoiler~

The Brood is one of director David Cronenberg's best excursions into the realm of biological horror. The Brood is an examination of emotions (rage in particular) and how one psychiatrist allows his patients to release this rage. Once released, the emotion manifests itself in the form of warts, blisters, and boils on their bodies. But Dr. Raglan's star patient Nola has taken this therapy to the next level. Her emotions bring forth `children of rage' which do her unconscious bidding. This is not good news for her husband, Frank, and first child, Candy. Nor is it good news for anyone who has ever wronged her. This movie scared the hell out of me. One scene in particular outshines every gruesome act ever filmed. Nola has just revealed that the Brood are indeed born from her rage and her body. She bites open a womblike sac, pulls out her newest blood-soaked child, and licks the little beast clean. It's like a bad car wreck. You don't want to be seeing it, yet you can't turn away. My eyes were the largest they've been in quite some time. Cronenberg also got some great performances out of his cast. Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar really shine here in their doctor/patient roles of Raglan and Nola. I also identified very much with our hero played by Art Hindle. He's doing whatever he can to stay sane when his entire world is crumbling around him. He just wants to protect his daughter-which brings up my next point. The Brood is also a metaphor for divorce. The mother and father, when you shed all the horror, are having a custody battle for Candy. It is these two themes, divorce and rage, that are the heart of the flick and puts it three steps above the usual genre fair. The film hints that Nola was beaten by her mother at a young age and, in return, Nola may have beaten her own child. The cycle of violence has continued here. And there may not be an end in sight because Cronenberg closes the film with a shot of Candy's arm, covered in the same warts. I am beyond impressed with this film. Cronenberg (pre-1988) is one of the top filmmakers of the genre.

The Brood is undoubtedly the most personal movie Cronenberg ever made : we all know the film describes Cronenberg's vision of his own divorce (and the custody of his daughter Cassandra) ; at that time, his then-wife belonged to what he thought was a cult and he did kidnap his own daughter in order to protect her. Thus The Brood is full of rage, vengeance and death wish… It is a truly frightening story and, in its own way, a candid vision of one's personal tragedy. It seems to be a tale from the Grimm brothers, and, at the same time, a reflection on the powerful link between body and spirit. The script is surprisingly complex and rich, even if, in the end, there is definitely something childish in the movie, but in a positive way: the childish belief that "thoughts can kill" only tempered by the final sequence, when we understand that this little girl, so cruelly abused, will eventually reproduce what her mother developed. The image of this mother (Samantha Eggar at her best, revealing her tortured body that evokes a Roman goddess) is one of the most terrifying one in world cinema. The Brood is a key to understand one of the Cronenberg's major themes: the uncanny… How what is closest to us, family, mother, grandparents, might suddenly become the ultimate horror. What frightens us is not outlandish or alien, on the contrary, it's always part of our intimate universe (as in Videodrome).

One of Cronenberg's best films! It has some moments that will stick with you for a while. When the brood first appears and the beatings begin, I was not only disturbed by them, but the way that their faces look was burned onto my brain. I once read that Cronenberg calls this film his KRAMER VS. KRAMER. I think that's very interesting. He's taken the pain that he went through in his own life and manifested it in the physical form of these creatures. I find this kind of creativity to be associated only with some of the more visionary contemporary filmmakers. Cronenberg is that, there is no question. Performances by the late great Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle are perfect for the film. It is scary and disturbing and should be seen by all horror film fans. I find it to be a sadly neglected classic.

A very personal film for Cronenberg who was going through a divorce during the time of its making, The Brood has all the Cronenbergian motifs, plus great characterisation and a great performance from all involved.

Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed) who is experimenting with metaphysical rage runs the Summerfree Institute. There he encourages his patience to indulge in allowing their inner anger to materialise in warts and blisters on their body. One of his patience is the demented Nola (Samantha Eggar) who has taken Raglan's therapy to the next stage. Her rage is apparently so potent that it results in The Brood, a savage group of dwarfs that emerge from the cysts on Nola's body. Unfortunately, Nola has another child, Candy and when her ex-husband, Frank (Art Hindle) finds that his wife is too unstable to look after their child he suppresses parental access. Nola goes even more insane and the brood ventures out to kill all those she believes have or may cause her harm. Although the carnage isn't excessively violent, the scene where Nola produces one of the dwarfs from a bloody sack and licks it clean leaves a nasty aftertaste.

Cronenberg has long been associated with fear of biological change, but is surprising that not many have picked up on his fascination, or dread of organisations. There's the Starliner Towers (Shivers), Keloid Clinic (Rabid), Summerfree Institute (The Brood), ConSec (Scanners), Spectacular Optical (Videodrome), Bartok Industries (The Fly), The Mantle Clinic (Dead Ringers), PildrImage Manufacturers (eXsistenZ).

David Cronenberg has always possessed a flair for unique and disturbing visions infused with the trimmings of a genre that can be best referred to as "biohorror." "The Brood," his tale of hideous mutant children who do the bidding of mentally disturbed Nola (Samantha Eggar) under the care of new-wave psychiatrist Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed, with a quietly sophisticated Peter Cushing sensibility), is buffered by fine performances that veer away from camp. In a way, one of Cronenberg's achievements is writing such outlandish material and making it entirely convincing and visceral, as opposed to merely settling on B-movie cheesiness, which I admire. As is the case with most Cronenberg films, here 'reality' is made the most atypical place where man can reside, and the clever script is always one careful step ahead of the audience.

7/10

Another brilliant early David Cronenberg horror film, subtly stuffed with sexual obsessions and social criticism as it was also the case in "Shivers" and "Rabid", only the idea of this film is even more original and the tension is more overwhelming. "The Brood" quite often is a genuinely terrifying horror-highlight with grueling special effects as well as truly disturbing social themes. Cronenberg's own and intelligently written script once again focuses on humans' defining "inner-evil" (it's his hobby-horse) and blends real-life issues like child abuse and psychiatric patients with adorable low-budget horror topics such as mad scientists and eerie mutant killers. Nola Carveth is one of sinister Dr. Hal Raglan's "Psychoplasmics" patients that unleash their hatred through physical manifestations, like rashes or tumors. But Nola is an extreme case so her outbursts are also far more extreme than the other patients and she produces malicious dwarfs that kill everyone who comes near her husband and 5-year-old daughter Candy. The premise of "The Brood" sounds absurd and incredibly far-fetched but, believe me, it's alarmingly convincing and scary. Roger Ebert was wrong (again) when he claimed this is a boring waste of time. The guy simply doesn't know horror! The last 15 minutes are effectively nauseating, perhaps a little too controversial for some people, and the evil children are petrifying. What is it with little people that makes them so uncanny? "The Brood" is less gore than Cronenberg's previous two films (the aforementioned "Shivers" and Rabid") but the killings are nevertheless nasty and that one sequence inside the kindergarten classroom is more than enough to skyrocket the shock-value of this film. Horror/exploitation veteran Oliver Reed is sublime as the overly ambitious Dr. Raglan. Excellent stuff, David Cronenberg was (and still is) a genius filmmaker!

David Cronenberg's "The Brood" is both frightening and shocking. A tale of psychological horror guaranteed to make even the most jaded horror fan recoil in disbelief. The plot in a nutshell - In the care of an eccentric therapist (Oliver Reed), a woman (Samantha Eggar) undergoes an experimental form of anger management; while parallel to her treatment are a serious of bizarre and questionable murders. At the heart of the story is her husband (Art Hindle), who is in desperate search of the truth behind the strange goings on. The film is especially visually appealing; with perfectly framed scenes, cold & stark cinematography, and classy looking 70's costume design. The special effects though minimal throughout the film, are both amazing and disturbing. Cronenberg masterfully stages the murders in a thrillingly suspenseful and brutally violent manner, effectively balancing the terror between what is seen and not seen. It is questionable if filmmakers in today's world would be bold enough to make this film. The eerie musical score by (now veteran) Howard Shore creates an extra degree of tension to the unfolding events. The performances are all convincing, and definitely above par for a horror movie. With a shocking final twist; this movie is not to be missed, a highly recommended 9/10!

The Brood juxtaposes divorce, anxiety with parent-child relationships, with a story that is basically crazy vengeance that turns to ugly territory sooner than later. Like Scanners, it's only gruesome in short spurts (some pun intended), and while it's noticeable Cronenberg doesn't have too much of a budget to work with, he pushes the seamless, straightforward style to a high pitch; you know something bad will happen just as long as it has something to do with little Cindy (Candice Carveth).

The body and spirit and duality, per usual for Cronenberg, figure in, yet there's something that makes the Brood much more affecting as soon as it ends: we're dealing with the deconstruction of family (one also could see this in more sexually frustrated and emotionally demented context in Dead Ringers), and as it turns out by the end things won't ever really be "happy" despite things being all wrapped up in a grisly and bloody manner. Cronenberg may had been going through some of his own personal demons during this period (i.e. divorcing his wife), and this could be almost like it's own 'brood', a shot of cinematic horror right from the subconscious in the guise of a conscious look at how probing the mind can only work so much, and that certain problems can never be solved.

Basics first: Oliver Reed plays a psychiatrist who is more like a hypnotist, as he performs an unusual procedure in a trance state with his patients to rid them of their past trauma with family members or other by getting it to break out in rashes or hives or even (if it's malicious enough as with one man) cancer. With Nola (Samantha Eggar, definitely in the highlight of her career), she breaks out much differently, and with full knowledge of what she can do from Raglan. Little creepy children in parkas who lack navels start killing off members of those Nola was close to, including her parents, a woman her ex-husband Frank (Art Hindle) is interested in. Frank is at a loss what to do, but he does know her daughter is in grave danger even before this happens, as she has scratches and bruises on her back. How can the murder spree cease?

At first one might wonder if this also has to do with the little girl's detached performance, with moments of despair wrapped in a corner. This is actually more of a concrete vision of what the divorce had done, even though it looks even creepier and more disturbing that it can't be explained why she doesn't cry or freak out when she finds her grandmother beaten by hammers. There's a disconnect that Cronenberg seems to be exploring, and even when there seems to be a flimsy way of showing what the hell it is that Ragel really does, or how he hasn't been kicked out of business yet, his scenes are perfectly ambiguous: we can't totally be sure how he does it, but he does it, and it's almost his own worst creation with the case of Nola. But what's scarier, far more scarier than any typical serial killer or masked being or un-dead, is that there can never really be change to Nola, to the monster that she carries out of her womb (one of Cronenberg's most notorious images), and it's a frightening implication on how uncompromising love and hate go together.

If the lingering sensation that this might be far too much of a psycho-analysis type of horror movie, don't fret; the little mutant kids or whomever are some of the most terrifying beings you'll ever see. Ever. They make Chuckie look like a Cabbage Patch doll, with their make-up distorted and gray, their expressions always that of something mechanical, and in a presence that calls to mind what they might have tried to do in cheap 50s sci-fi movies, only here done more expertly in not showing much at first, and then showing just enough to get the idea later on. It adds a whole savage element to the picture, where it wouldn't be if it was other beings like adults that were manifested (probably even just as unsettling as the ending is with the scene where they kill Frank's would-be girlfriend at her job, which is teaching kindergarten).

Overall the film isn't quite as structured or paced from the start like one of Cronenberg's best (it's not until the first big killing scene, and then Nola's father's drunkenness, that the film really kicks into second gear), but there's enough to qualify it as a must-see from a director who challenges himself just as much as the genre, that there can be some exploration of the soul and the actual sickness of the mind *behind* the usual bloody slayings and conventional characters that populate these movies. Think of it as Jung at the drive-in.

Although I have watched David Cronenberg's "The Brood" a number of times, I still find it unbelievably disturbing. From the beginning until the ending credits, it is unsettling horror at its morbid best.

Under the care of Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed), Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) is undergoing a radical and controversial form of psychiatric treatment called "Psychoplasmics". Psychoplasmics takes the role-playing of psychotherapy to a new level by training the patient to release his pent-up rage and physically expel that rage from his body. Sounds weird? That is only the beginning. Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) is Nola's estranged husband who suspects his wife of physically abusing their daughter Candace. After vowing to protect his daughter legally, murders committed by strange deformed children begin to occur.

To say anymore would be to stifle The Brood's terror-ific mystique. However, I will suggest that you consider experiencing this film on an empty stomach with the lights on. After viewing, don't be surprised if you feel compelled to make amends with anyone you might currently be at odds with.

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg who brought us sci-fi hits such as "Scanners" and the remake of "The Fly" also created some of the strangest and most frightening psychological horror films of the 70's and 80's. "The Brood" is one of his best. Although this is one of his first films, and got by on an extremely low budget, its twisted storyline, style and mood offer a considerable treat for fans of this genre. Cronenberg's style is bizarre to the extreme, combining a lot of sexual symbolism with graphic violence in order to closely examine the darkest side of human nature. Cronenberg casts Oliver Reed as Dr. Hal Raglan, an acclaimed psychologist using a new technique called "psychoplasmics" to identify deep-seeded feelings of anger in patients and manifest them physically. Samantha Eggar plays his most tormented patient who develops an external womb that gives birth to a breed of deformed children that violently act out her vengeance on those she vents her anger on during her therapy sessions. Art Hindle is her ex-husband desperately trying to protect their daughter from her crazed mother meanwhile the little monsters attack and kill everyone who has ever ticked her off. The characters are sympathetic (especially Hindle), and Eggar is disturbing as the mad mommy. The cold winter mood of the film is quite effective, and it all adds up to a final showdown at the clinic between the doctor , daddy, and the evil kids. The ending is as grotesque and bizarre as anything you will ever see in a movie as Eggar is shown giving birth to the slimy infants. Cronenberg's direction is average, and some of the material is a bit unexplained such as the motives of the doctor. One cannot tell whether he is trying to help or hurt people. Nonetheless, this is brilliant and demented stuff from the Canadian master of horror, and is a must see for fans of psychological horror. Cronenberg also directed "Shivers" (aka They Came From Within), Rabid, and Dead Ringers. They are all noteworthy.

Many rank VIDEODROME as Cronenberg's greatest film, and although I agree that it is a great film - I personally enjoy THE BROOD more than any of his other entries. It's creepy in it's build-up, with an ending that is completely over-the-top and unexpected...

The story is pretty in-depth but basically is about a couple, where the wife is involved in some sort of experimental psychotherapy from a shady therapist to deal with anger issues. At the same time a group of dwarfish looking freaks is causing a rash of murders and the woman's husband and their child are caught in the middle. It gradually becomes made known that the wife is at the "center" of the issue, until all is made known in the "shocking" conclusion...

Cronenberg continues with his common themes of transformation, mutation, and body-horror in THE BROOD, and is personally my favorite example - though films like RABID, SHIVERS, VIDEODROME, and several others are close runners-up, as I'm a fan of most of Cronenberg's work in general. A great film with some truly unnerving and shocking sequences...Definitely a "must-see"...9/10

"The Brood" is one of the best horror movies ever made.Oliver Reed is really memorable as a Dr Hal Raglan who preaches the radical therapy of psychoplasmics which encourages patient's bodies to manifest their suppressed angers.The script is very intelligent,and there are several really creepy scenes.The gore is pretty mild-the scene where Samantha Eggar opens her gown to reveal the sores and baby sac attached to her body and then proceeds to bite into the sack and lick the bloody afterbirth off the baby,is actually the most disgusting bit!All in all if you haven't checked this one yet,try to find it!Higly recommended.10 out of 10!

Dr. Hal Raglan (The late Oliver Reed) is a controversial psychologist, his work is designed to help release the disturbed emotions in his patients. His star patient Nola (Samantha Eggar) is keep in isolation but her negative emotions are more troubled than expected. Her husband Frank (Art Hindle) suspects that his daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) is hurt and abused by her mother on visitation days. Frank thinks that Dr. Raglan odd therapy is nothing more than a fraud. He needs proof to destroy his creditability but Frank slowly discovers, there is some brutal murders happening. It seems to happen, when Nola vents her fury during her sessions with Dr. Raglan. Frank needs to discover the truth, what is behind these disturbing killings.

Written and Directed by David Cronenberg (The Dead Zone, The Fly "1986", A History of Violence) made an horrific, sometimes disturbing horror film. The movie starts off as a strong drama, then slowly goes to the unknown. There is terrific performances by the late Reed, Eggar and Hindle. Hinds does a good job as the victim in the film. One of the highlights is the memorable music score by the Three Time Oscar-Winner:Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Se7en, The Silence of the Lambs). The feature is especially well shot by Canadian Cinematographer:Mark Irwin (The Blob "1988", Passenger 57, Scanners).

The DVD is the Uncut Version of the picture. This version runs 92 Minutues, although the DVD Cover is credited as a R-Rated Version. DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an clean Dolby 2.0 Mono Sound. The only extra is the original theatrical trailer. It would have been nice, if the movie had an running commentary track by the director. Robert A. Silverman has an scene-stealing performance in a supporting role as One of Ralgan's former patients. "The Brood" starts out as a slow-moving drama, then the movie is gets much better with horrific and memorable scares. Certainly one of Cronenberg's most fascinating films. Don't miss it. (****/*****).

Early horror classic from director David Cronenberg remains one of his most intelligent and utterly shocking films!

Troubled woman under experimental therapy begins to manifest her rage in the form of violent, mutant children that menace her husband and young daughter.

David Cronenberg has long been known as a director with a love of the bizarre and The Brood ranks high on the cinematic weirdness scale. Yet from this eerie tale comes a very real-life message of the destructiveness of child abuse. Story-wise this film is a true gripper, with plenty of suspense and some down right nightmarish scenes. The plot builds to a finale that is terrifically intense; the final revelations being quite chilling. Cronenberg's direction is well-polished creating a haunting atmosphere and the special makeup FX are unforgettably good. The violence however is occasionally graphic so it's not for all tastes. In short, The Brood isn't for the squeamish.

The performances are excellent. The late Oliver Reed is splendidly sinister as the odd psychotherapist. Samantha Eggar does a haunting performance as the disturbed mother of 'the brood'. Art Hindle is good as always as Eggar's understandably worried husband. The supporting cast is also good.

For horror fans, The Brood is a must-see classic. It's certainly a frightening journey that won't be forgotten. One of Cronenberg's greatest films!

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Brood (1979) was a film made by the master of psychobabble clinical horror David Cronenberg. He's the master of this genre, one that he created during the 70's. A genre that's in a class all by itself. The Brood is another one of his cinematic works that delivers the goods. He creates a thinking man's scare film. Like most of his other works, Cronenberg uses psychosis and the medical community to base a terror that only man can create.

Art Hindle stars as a man who's wife (Samantha Egger) is having a multitude of emotional problems. Whilst under the care of a mad genius psychiatrist (Brilliantly portrayed by Oliver Reed who shows a lot of restraint) using a radical form of therapy for his patients. Like all mad geniuses, not everything goes according to plan (or does it). The doctor creates something in his star patient that he ultimately regrets. It has to be seen to be believed!

One weird film. I enjoyed this one very much. What I like about Cronenberg is that he rarely creates truly good or bad characters (well the films that he has completely control over). Everyone has a motive no matter if it's right or wrong. That's what I like about him, he makes you think!

The film was restored a couple of years ago on D.V.D. It's the original uncut version and it is even creepier than the U.S. theatrical release. Check it out!

good stuff...

Highly recommended, but not for everyone.

David Cronenberg is a director who knows how to make his Horror films dark, original, bizarre and uncompromising, and "The Brood" of 1979 is a great example for that. "The Brood" is arguably one of the man's creepiest, most atmospheric and best works, and another film that treats bizarre psychological horrors that break out and become reality.

Frank Carveth (Art Hindle), father of an eight-year-old daughter, attempts to contact his troubled wife Nola (Samantha Eggar), who is doing a form of unconventional therapy with the eccentric and sinister Dr. Raglan (played by the great Oliver Reed). When he digs deeper into trying to uncover a swindle or scandal behind Dr. Raglan's theories of 'psychoplasmatics', people around him are beginning to be murdered by fiendish dwarfish creatures... Cronenberg's Horror films often include some kind of supernatural connection between psychological skills and actual events ("Shivers", "Rabid", "Scanners", "The Dead Zone"), and this is also the case here - in a highly bizarre, highly original and highly uncanny manner. I do not want to spoil anything by going into detail, but I can assure that "The Brood" has an incredibly creepy plot, and some genuinely terrifying and deeply disturbing moments. The performances are very good. Art Hindle makes a good protagonist but the two main attractions in the cast are Samantha Eggar and Oliver Reed. Reed, who was brilliant in any role he played, is perfect for the role of the sinister Psychiatrist. Eggar is brilliantly psychotic in her role. It is said that Cronenberg went through a divorce and custody-battle at the time he wrote the script, and that the role of Nola is modeled after his ex-wife. If that is true, it must have been a nasty divorce. Cindy Hinds, who plays the daughter, delivers some very good, sometimes eerie child-acting. The visual style of the film is impressively dark, cold and bleak, as in most Cronenberg films, and filmed in nice Canadian locations. As most Cronenberg films, "The Brood" isn't for the squeamish, as it features some disturbing as well as disgusting gore moments.

Overall, I do not wish to go too deep into detail about why this film is so great, but be assured that it is. "The Brood" is a creepy, dark, atmospheric, intelligent and original gem that is not to be missed by a Horror fan.

The Brood is not another horror or sci-fi film about telepathic powers or telekinesis and it is also not just another film about deformed people or animals presented as vicious killers. That's what makes it particularly intriguing. It's about inwardly compressed emotion vented outward in physiological ways. That right there is a brilliant concept. It opens as a man breaks out in welts all over his body during a session with Oliver Reed's breakthrough psychologist, as a way of expressing deep-seated anger towards his emotionally abusive father. It's by this token that weird, hideous creatures are birthed, and as the plot unfolds, we come to understand their emotive causes for their attacks.

It's an early work by David Cronenberg, a filmmaker who does not simply make science fiction and horror movies. He uses the most downreaching, internal, abstract emotions to flow through a story of dark, often supernatural horror. There is always an indescribability to his films, including each and every one of them, when it comes to their pace, their elusive effect, and the direction of their stories. I was disappointed, however, as someone who knows Cronenberg's later films very well, to find The Brood to not have that mysterious emotional effect through any of those indescribable qualities that are usually present in his work. In fact, for a film which is all about emotion and its guises, it's quite cold. Each of the central characters is completely wooden and so is the film-making itself.

At the same time as his characters' bodies are forever augmenting, decomposing or both, Cronenberg's art has its own inventive mutative fluctuation, and here the low-budget exploitation crust casts off for a chilly, detached arrangement not unlike Bergman's Face to Face a few years earlier. The plot would outshine The Bob Newhart Show as the recognized '70s psycho-jargon send-up if not for Cronenberg's fascinating intricacy and resolute implementation, an growth and fine-tuning of his texture for psychosomatic horror.

The Brood isn't a great film by any means due not only to its lacking of feeling that is shocking considering its credentials but also to typical cheesy sequences of suspense and violence. However, I will always look at it as a particularly interesting piece of sci-fi/horror camp that stands out against the rest.

A great early film from the one and only, "Baron of Blood."

A husband is going through a hard time in his life when he must care for his daughter after his wife was sent away to a mental institution. The doctor running the institution is respected in his field, but controversial in his methods and there is a smell of something foul in the air. Things only get worse for the husband when his in-laws are killed some strange little monsters and his daughter winds up with scars after visiting her mother in the hospital. Added to that the doctor refuses to talk about the man's wife and he seems to treat her as somewhat of a prized patient giving her special care. He goes, on his own to investigate and discovers the horror behind everything that happened... The Brood.

The story is told in a very classical sense of the word horror, almost like Poe with a slow beginning, a sense of doubt and confusion in the middle, and a shocker and a kicker of an ending. And, as all good horror, there is some great visceral metaphor mixed in to the story. With this film David Cronenberg put himself on the road to the ranks of the horror film-making elite. 8/10

Rated R: violence, gore, and some profanity

Throughout his career, David Cronenberg has frequently set out to redefine the word downbeat, and this movie is no exception. It also is another example of his fascination with mutation (The Fly, Videodrome, Rabid, eXistenZ).

A husband and wife are struggling as she has been admitted for psychiatric analysis under the care of a doctor whose methods are, erm, unorthodox. The husband is distrustful, and soon becomes reluctant to allow their child to visit.

At the same time, a group of children are carrying out violent and vicious attacks on people connected with the doctor.

The 'evil children' scenes are highly disturbing and, though this is a slow burner, building tension and claustrophobia supremely well, the last twenty minutes are heart stopping. Stick with it, gore hounds, you will get your reward.

Whilst not one of Cronenberg's better known movies, it is a worthy addition to any horror buffs collection.

Unless you have a strong stomach, steer well clear of 'David Cronenberg's The Brood'. The Canadian 'venereal horror' director's 1979 horrorshow is - as is typical of this truly unique filmic visionary - brilliantly cerebral, graphically violent, and deeply disturbing. This psychological horror film focuses upon the bizarre work of Doctor Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) who practices a controversial new psychotherapy named psychoplasmics, at a clinic named the Somafree Institute (note the Aldous Huxley reference).

Raglan's star pupil is the distinctly off-message Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar), whose rage at her abusive mother and estranged husband literally gives birth to homicidal midgets who enact Nola's violent inclinations with tragic results. Her bewildered husband, Frank (Art Hindle), becomes increasingly troubled by the clinic's highly unconventional methods and suspicious insistence upon secrecy. As the body count piles up, Frank becomes irreversibly drawn into Nola's strange new world, and soon realises that there may be no turning back.

Man, Cronenberg is so relentlessly original; his brood of bedlam is so unlike anything else except, well, his other work. Reed is excellent as Raglan; he exudes an air of quiet menace, and his naturally commanding screen presence works wonderfully here. He immerses himself in the role; there is no trace of the 'What have I gotten myself into?' flavour to his performance. And this serves to make his character all the more believable.

And Robert A. Silverman (credited as Robert Silverman) also appears as the unpleasantly afflicted Jan Hartog; Silverman can be seen in another Cronenberg classic, 'Scanners', which arrived two years after 'The Brood'.

For fans of horror, 'The Brood' is highly recommended viewing. To anyone else, images of a maniacal midget with a meat mallet 'tenderising' a woman to death, and another woman licking lovingly at her own afterbirth, may cause offence. For some reason.

Though best known now for HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, Cronenberg has made more than his fair share of good material for the horror circle for the past 30 years.

I bought THE BROOD on VHS tape years ago but never made it more than a few minutes into it because it begins deadeningly dull... however after finally buying the DVD for $4.00 at Walmart and hearing it was the full uncut version and in nice quality... I took a stab at it again on a rainy afternoon and was surprised to see that it's really worth slogging through the slow spots.

Original subject matter, eerie violin music by Howard Shore, and good acting by a mostly unknown cast. Eggar and Reed get top billing though their characters are tertiary to the father and daughter caught up in different stages of a battle with murderous midgets who are borne of psychological malevolence. There's only a few graphic murders, but they are suitably violent and brutal and aren't gratuitous... really what effective horror movies should be all about.

Watch for the excellent scene where two of the mutant freaks attack a kindergarten teacher in front of her traumatized students! If only the whole movie could have attained that level of shock, it would probably would be better remembered today, and not in the bargain bin at Wal-mart for $4.00.

The unconventional psychotherapist Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) uses a unique technique developed by him to expose the repressed feelings of his patients. Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) brings his daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) home after spending the weekend visiting his ex-wife Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) that is interned in Dr. Raglan's Somafree Institute. He finds bruises on Candice's body and he tells Dr. Raglan that he will not bring Candice to visit Nola anymore. Meanwhile Dr. Raglan learns that Nola was abused by her mother and not protected by her father when she was young.

Frank leaves Candice with his mother-in-law Juliana Kelly (Nuala Fitzgerald) to work, but she is attacked by a dwarf-like creature and brutally murdered. Her ex-husband Barton Kelly (Henry Beckman) comes to town for the funeral, but he is murdered by the same creature. However Frank kills the creature and the autopsy shows that it is not a human offspring. Then Candice's teacher Ruth Mayer (Susan Hogan) has an argument by phone with Nola and she is murdered in front of her class by two creatures that abduct Candice. Frank heads to Somafree and discovers the secret of the deformed children.

"The Brood" is among the best horror movies by David Cronenberg. The plot is very well constructed and the gruesome conclusion is disturbing. The idea of Nola licking the fetus was conceived by Samantha Eggar and censored by censors in Canada, United States and United Kingdom. However the Brazilian DVD presents the uncensored version at least of this scene. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Filhos do Medo" ("The Sons of the Fear")

We could always count on the daring David Cronenberg to give us some genuinely intense and also quite interesting excursions during what fans tend to refer to as his "body horror" period. This is perhaps his creepiest story of them all, and a rather personal one as the director was going through a divorce and custody battle at the time. He makes his own comment on the therapy trends of the time while at the same time telling an upsetting tale of the ways that the sins of the previous generation(s) can visit themselves on future generations.

Art Hindle ("Black Christmas" '74, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" '78) co-stars as Frank, whose unstable wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) is in the care of a pop psychologist, Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) who's pioneered something dubbed "Psychoplasmics". Nola's his star pupil, and eventually we find out why: she's giving life to diminutive, bipedal creatures that are basically the products of her rage. Whenever she's angry with someone, either consciously or subconsciously, then WATCH OUT.

It's easy to understand how Cronenbergs' early work wouldn't be for everybody, as this does get unpleasant and graphic, but the material is undeniably compelling for those who have the stomach for it. The actors just draw you right into this odd world where psychiatric techniques can have physical after effects on human bodies that are akin to getting cancer. Hindle is solid and believable, Eggar compulsively watchable, and Reed, whose voice rarely rises above a whisper, is under stated and riveting. Other vivid contributions are made by Henry Beckman and Nuala Fitzgerald as Nolas' parents, Susan Hogan as kindly schoolteacher Ruth Mayer, and Cronenberg regular Robert A. Silverman in one of his typically amusing off kilter performances / roles as the vindictive Jan Hartog.

Old pro Mark Irwin is the cinematographer on this show while Howard Shore delivers another of his grandiose, spooky music scores.

Often shocking, always infused with a sense of gloom, and blessed with one of the craziest money shots Cronenberg has ever devised, "The Brood" is impressive stuff for those horror fans looking for experiences that are both smart and fun at the same time.

Eight out of 10.

Great and much underrated Cronenberg movie. Samantha Eggar is excellent in important and difficult central role and Oliver Reed simply sensational in the lead. Some reviewers have suggested otherwise, but this hits you from the very start. We do not know what is going on but the drama is so affecting we are swept along whilst we struggle to make sense of what seems to be happening. At turns brutal and tender, this fantastic piece of cinema, apparently made just after the director had gone through an acrimonious divorce, has all the hallmarks of being an angry personal statement, intelligently argued but driven by fury and passion.

I really enjoyed David Cronenberg's film called The Brood. It is about a woman who is being cared for by an eccentric psychologist called Dr. Raglan(Oliver Reed). Who uses theatrical techniques to breach the psychological blocks in his patients. When their six year old daughter comes back from a visit with her mother and is covered with bruises the father Frank Carveth attempts to stop his his wife from seeing their daughter. But the psychologist Dr. Raskin will not stop his wife from seeing the girl. whilst this is happening his daughter's teacher is is attacked by two strange looking deformed children. Her father starts to believe that it is to do with Dr. Rankin and a psychotherapy cult which he may have something to do with it. This film was quite disturbing at times. I thought that Oliver Reed played a very good part in the film.