The Brood [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: David Cronenberg David Cronenberg

Overview

Canadian director David Cronenberg followed his graphic vampire variation Rabid with this multi-layered, speculative horror film which addresses the way the repressed demons of the psyche can force their way to the surface. Psychologist Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed), director of the controversial Psychoplasmic Institute and author of the book "The Shape of Rage," encourages his patients to outwardly manifest their anger and fear (aided by some experimental drugs), which then takes physical shape as actual sores, cancers, or strange new organs. One of Raglan's more successful patients (from his point-of-view, anyway) is Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar), who is undergoing therapy following a painful divorce from her husband, Frank (Art Hindle). When Frank discovers evidence that Nola may have injured their daughter, Candice (Cindy Hinds), he begins to suspect Raglan's techniques but is unprepared for the most horrifying by-product of her rage: a progeny of sexless, dwarflike mutants who are born for the sole purpose of acting out her violent fantasies of revenge. Containing only enough energy to carry out their murderous tasks, the brood is dispatched to kill Nola's parents, then a woman she believes is having an affair with Frank. By the time Frank discovers the origins of the tiny offspring, they have already abducted Candice and taken her to the institute, where Frank must confront Nola in person. Although it contains one of the most visceral and nauseating scenes in movie history (during the film's climax), this nevertheless remains the most subtle of Cronenberg's early horror projects, with a strong subtext about the devastating effects of divorce.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/13/2015
UPC:	0715515159111
Original Release:	1979
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:32:00
Sales rank:	2,788

Special Features

New documentary about the making of the film and Cronenberg's early work, featuring actor Samantha Eggar, executive producer Pierre David, cinematographer Mark Irwin, assistant director John Board, and special makeup effects artists Rick Baker (Videodrome) and Joe Blasco (Shivers, Rabid); New, restored 4K digital transfer of Cronenberg's 1970 feature Crimes of the Future, supervised by the director, plus a 2011 interview with Cronenberg about his early career; Interview from 2013 with actors Art Hindle and Cindy Hinds; Appearance by actor Oliver Reed on The Merv Griffin Show from 1980; Radio spot

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Oliver Reed	Dr. Hal Raglan
Samantha Eggar	Nola Carveth
Art Hindle	Frank Carveth
Nuala Fitzgerald	Juliana Kelly
Cindy Hinds	Candice
Henry Beckman	Barton Kelly
Susan Hogan	Ruth
Michael McGhee	Inspector Mrazek
Gary McKeehan	Mike Trellan
Robert A. Silverman	Jan
Nicholas Campbell	Chris
Felix Silla	Creature
Reiner Schwarz	Birkin
John Ferguson	Creature
Christopher Britton	Man In Auditorium
Michael Magee	Inspector
Joseph Shaw	Coroner
Larry Solway	Lawyer
Mary Swinton	Wendy
Jerry Kostur	Construction Worker
Elijah Siegler	Samson
Howard Shore	Composer

Technical Credits

David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg	Director,Screenwriter
Pierre David	Executive Producer
Claude Heroux	Producer
Victor Solnicki	Executive Producer
Joe Grimaldi	Sound/Sound Designer
Maris Jansons	Key Grip
Allan Cotter	Special Effects
Bryan Day	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Throughout his career, David Cronenberg has uncovered new, often grotesque ways of externalizing the repression and alienation of contemporary life. Rarely, though, has he taken as restrained a route as he does with The Brood. The director introduces the central premise of his story -- mutation as therapy -- in the first sequence, but its full implications are mapped out only in stages, culminating in a truly chilling finale that veers from stark, otherworldly suspense to set piece gross-out. Shivers, Cronenberg's feature debut, moved at a similarly deliberate pace, but it was full of violence and gore almost from the start. In The Brood, Halloween-style point-of-view sequences build a sensation of lingering unease while jump cuts and cutaways help maintain dramatic tension during the action sequences. Cindy Hinds, as the pale, blank-faced Candice, echoes the scary children of Village of the Damned and anticipates the similarly hapless heroine of Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist. Samantha Eggar's haughty, self-obsessed Nola, meanwhile, establishes the Cronenberg ice-queen archetype that Genevieve Bujold would fill so indelibly in Dead Ringers. Although hardly the most influential of the director's early and mid-period horror exercises, The Brood stands up as a fully realized study of modern discontent given terrifying shape. The stars, special effects, and larger budgets of his later films sometimes give his messy subtexts too slick a sheen, but here the naturalistic production values and affectless art direction complement a storyline of slowly unfolding dread.

All Movie Guide - Brian J. Dillard