There are few things more entertaining for a film critic than analyzing a David Cronenberg film. Most of his films can be classified as horror, a genre that works through the deep inner turmoil of humankind’s fears and obsessions, all which makes for some thoughtful viewing. To top it off, he is a solid craftsman and a thoughtful filmmaker. Bad horror films are so easy to make that the genre tends to be dominated by hacks and clowns with no sense of timing, psychology or suspense. In that context, Cronenberg’s dark vision of human nature seems almost refreshing.
While better known for his mid-1980s work (“Scanners,” “The Dead Zone” and “The Fly”), Cronenberg’s most influential films are his first three features, “Shivers” (also known as “They Came From Within” and “The Parasite Murders” depending on which country you’re in), “Rabid” and “The Brood.” Of these, “The Brood” is probably the least known, although it stands out both stylistically and thematically.
Both “Shivers” and “Rabid” deal with the idea of sexual repression as expressed through disease outbreaks. In “Shivers,” a parasite slowly takes over an apartment complex, sending each of its victims into a sexual frenzy, causing them to spread the parasite to whomever they come in
contact with. “Rabid” dealt with a woman who becomes the unwitting carrier of a bizarre, sexually transmitted disease that causes people to randomly attack others. On the surface, both films seem to be commenting on the dangers of sexual promiscuity, leading some to label Cronenberg a Christian moralist. But Cronenberg was working on a deeper level with both films, slyly but effectively commenting on sexual repression and how sexual urges are an integral part of every human’s psychological makeup.
“The Brood” also deals with repression, but its dominating theme is divorce. In the film, a married couple with a young daughter is separated when the wife enters an intensive psychiatric program lorded over by Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed). After picking up his daughter from a visit with her mother, the father finds welts and bruises along the girl’s back. He bars the visits. Later, the wife’s parents are killed by what turns out to be a deformed, child-like creature. The father begins to suspect a relationship between the killings and his wife’s bizarre treatment. What he discovers is that his wife’s anger about her life has taken the physical form of freakish, sub-human creatures. Fueled by her rage, the creatures attack people she resents. Her parents were killed because she believes her mother beat her as a child and her father did nothing to stop it.
The obvious (read: false) subtext is in the form of a diatribe about the dangers of divorce and broken homes. But throughout the film, darker themes keep emerging. Our repressed aggression takes form no matter how much we try to hide it. We invent persecution in our minds to make ourselves feel victimized, thus justifying the harm we do to others. It’s a Freudian view of human nature and one that Cronenberg milks for all it’s worth. One of the film’s most striking images is of the horde of freakish children slowly moving toward its victim, their faces showing nothing but stupid rage and contempt. It’s a frightening testament of what parents can so unwittingly cause their offspring to become.
This is pretty abstract stuff for a horror film to be dredging through, but Cronenberg backs it up with some excellent suspense. His film makes use of the eerie quality of such a small thing being so malevolent, something the “Child’s Play” films would soon pick up on. What truly makes the film stand out is its intelligent design and well-thought-out subtext. The film makes a statement, something rare for a genre usually representing nothing more than the expression of knee-jerk morality. (What more do you need to understand the Reagan era than a hockey-mask-clad archangel punishing sin with a machete?)
“The Brood” doesn’t simply transcend its genre, it sets a standard by which films in the horror genre should be judged. That more films don’t meet this standard is a sign of how easy it is to go wrong.

[email protected]