The Brood
(1979) 92 min.
Rated: R (Gore)
Country: Canada
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★★
A husband is fighting for the custody of his daughter from his wife who is in a therapy facility.
Synopsis:
The movie opens with Frank Calverth (Hindle) trying to visit his wife, Nola Calverth (Eggar), at the Somafree Institute. It’s an institute run by Psychotherapist Hal Raglan (Reed).
Frank discovers bruises and bite marks on his daughter Candice after she visited her mother. Upset, he tries to talk to Dr.Raglan and wishes to stop Candice from seeing her mother, who she believes is doing this to her own daughter. Dr.Raglan assures Frank that he cannot have Candice taken away since her visits were allowed prior to Nola being admitted to the institute. Frank tries to pressure Dr.Raglan but Dr.Raglan also states that he will use legal force.
Frank drops off his daughter at his mother-in-law’s house. Candice’s grandmother, Juliana, is an alcoholic who starts to show Candice some photos. While they share memories someone breaks into the house. Juliana goes to check on the noise and is attacked by a small, quick creature. She is left dead and bloodied on the floor when Candice finds her.
The police call in Frank and tell him about Juliana’s death. Candice was unharmed, but traumatized into forgetting about what happened. Barton, Frank’s father-in-law, comes into town for his estranged wife, Juliana’s funeral.
Frank goes and visits Jan Hartog whom he heard about through his lawyer. Jan is having his own lawyer prepare a case against Dr. Raglan. Frank is claiming psychological damage against Raglan while Jan is claiming physiological damage. Jan claims that with enough time with Raglan, Frank’s wife will have physiological damage. Raglan’s belief is psychoplasmics which is the manifestation of emotion physically on the human body. Jan shows Frank bulbous growths of cancerous lymphoma on his neck which he believes was caused by Dr.Raglan’s treatments.
Barton attempts to contact his daughter, Nola, at the Somafree center. Dr. Raglan confronts him and denies his request to tell Nola about the death of her own mother saying that she’s at too critical a stage in her therapy. Barton leaves angrily vowing to return.
Frank hurries to pick up Candice at school and sees that her teacher, Ruth Mayer, is taking care of her. Frank invites her over to his house for dinner. Their nice evening is interrupted by a drunk Barton calling Frank and asking him to join him in going to Somafree and “kicking their asses”. Frank leaves hurriedly to stop Barton.
Barton, meanwhile, is drunkenly wandering around at Juliana’s house (which was their shared home while married). Suddenly he gets attacked by a small creature in a red jacket. It hits his face repeatedly with a glass paperweight and kills him. Frank arrives at the house and finds Barton’s body. He too gets attacked by the creature but it seems to die right in front of him.
At the Toronto police headquarters. The police initially believe that the creature is merely a deformed child that someone kept hidden away from public view.
At Frank’s house Ruth Mayer picks up the phone and Nola is on the other end. Nola recognizes Ruth from the school Candice goes to and assumes she is having an affair with her husband.
Frank is in the coroner’s room and the creature is displayed on a table. The creature has a cleft lip, no sexual organs, no teeth, no navel and was born with a sac of nutrients which was depleted causing the creature to starve to death.
In her therapy sessions, Nola begins to blame Ruth Mayer and wants her to leave Frank alone. The next day Raglan sees the creature on the front page of the Toronto newspaper. Raglan plans to get rid of all his patients in the main housing facility. One of his patients, Mike, goes to Jan for help.
Frank meets up with Jan and Mike. they inform him how all of the patients have been kicked out of Somafree except for Nola.
Frank drops off Candice for school and that same morning two creatures attack Ruth Mayer with hammers. A child goes out to call for help and Frank runs into the building, but it’s too late. Ruth is dead and Candice as well as the two creatures are gone.
Frank is panicked but has no idea where Candice was taken. Mike appears at his house and confesses that Raglan had a bunch of “kids” in a workshed that Nola is taking care of. Frank races off to the Somafree facility and runs into the nearby woods. He finally finds the large shed.
Frank confronts Dr. Raglan as he exits the shed. He pulls his gun on Frank and explains that the creatures are manifestations of Nola’s rage in humanoid form. When Nola got annoyed with Candice it was the brood of creatures that beat her and caused the bruises on her skin. Raglan convinces Frank to walk into the shed and placate Nola with an act. Frank is to pretend he wants Nola back so that Raglan can sneak past the calm brood and take Candice out.
Frank talks to Nola who is hesitant to believe him. She reveals her body to him. She has growths that are sprouting tiny sacs that grow and hold creature fetuses. She opens a large one with her mouth and licks off the fluid. Frank can’t hide his disgust and Nola gets angry feeling that Frank has lied to her. Meanwhile, Raglan tells Candice to run out as the raging creatures attack and kill him.
Nola claims that she’d rather Candice die than have her given up to Frank. At this, the brood run after Candice who hides in a closet. The creatures try to break down the door and she screams. Frank, hearing Candice’s desperate screams, attacks Nola, choking her to death. Frank goes up to the brood’s room and takes Candice out. She’s in a state of shock. Frank drives her home. The camera pans down to reveal that Candice has little nodules on her skin.
Review:
The Brood is probably one of the better Cronenburg films and really crafts a sense of horror and dread for tiny children in snow suits. I would say that The Brood does for snow suits what Don’t Look Now does for red hooded coats.
It’s a great example of the body horror Cronenburg is known for. The physical mutations and cancerous growths on Jan and Nola as well as the rage children themselves with harelip and androgynous features. These are all things that are rooted in real world biology taken to extremes. That makes them all the more horrifying.
The one key drawback about the film is the outright rage and physical violence against Nola by Frank. Nola, in her mind, is unaware of what the brood does or how they act. Raglan has deemed her too fragile to ever be truly aware of anything going on in her life, even the death of her parents. Raglan, if anyone, is the villain since he’s the one who encouraged the rage children to come out of Nola. Nola, by all accounts, is merely confused and possibly even set up against Frank by Raglan. With the life of his daughter in jeopardy Frank strangles his wife. And yet even Candice is forming mutations and growths on her arm as if to suggest she’s just as bad as her mother.
Other than that bit, the tumultuous psychological battle that both parties in an estranged marriage display is fairly well depicted in a more gruesome and literal way here. That makes it all the more engaging and engrossing.