The Brood

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This article is about the 1979 film. For the Professional wrestling stable see The Brood (professional wrestling). For the Venice Beach crossover-thrash band see The Brood. For the Marvel Comic villains, see The Brood
The Brood
Directed by David Cronenberg
Produced by Claude Heroux
Written by David Cronenberg
Starring Oliver Reed
Samantha Eggar
Art Hindle
Harry Beckman
Music by Howard Shore
Editing by Alan Collins
Distributed by New World Pictures
Release date(s) 1979
Running time 92 min.
Language English
Budget C$1,400,000 (est.)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Brood is a 1979 Canadian horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle. It was filmed in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario. In 2004, one of its sequences was voted #78 among the "100 Scariest Movie Moments" by the Bravo Channel.[1] [2]

A novelization was written by Richard Starks.

Contents

[edit] Plot

An unconventional psychotherapist (Oliver Reed) has created a technique called "psychoplasmics." He encourages his patients to "go all the way through it" and allow their negative emotions (rage, fear, etc.) to cause their bodies to undergo (usually radical) physical change. A man verbally abused by his father develops welts over his body as a way of expressing his pain. Another patient develops lymphatic cancer, supposedly a manifestation of his self-hatred.

In the case of the principal characters, it causes a woman (Samantha Eggar) to parthenogenetically birth strange, mutated children and, via a telepathic bond, have them act out whatever negative emotions the mother is feeling at the time, with disastrous consequences when her therapist brings those emotions to the surface.

[edit] Production

In interviews, Cronenberg has said that this film was partially inspired by a painful custody battle with his ex-wife for their daughter Cassandra (who has since worked as an assistant director on several films, including her father's eXistenZ). Cronenberg has also condemned the censorship of the climactic scene in which Eggar's character gives birth to one of the monsters and starts tenderly licking it clean. This scene was "trimmed" in the United Kingdom, ironically causing many viewers to assume the character was eating her baby[citation needed]. In 2005, the full uncut version was made available on UK DVD.

The Brood was the first Cronenberg film to be scored by Howard Shore, who has written the music for all Cronenberg's subsequent works except The Dead Zone.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. BravoTV.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
  2. ^ Trivia for "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments". imdb.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.


[edit] External links

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Films by David Cronenberg