| Product: |
The Brood (DVD) |
| Date: |
15/05/06 (121 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: It's very odd and rather eerie
Disadvantages: Borderline silly
When Frank Carveth's wife starts to behave erratically around his daughter, she is admitted into the care of a renowned psychiatrist, Dr Hal Raglan. Dr Raglan's methods are unconventional, to say the least. Tapping into the disturbed psyche of his patients, Dr Raglan uses a pioneering effect that encourages his patients to manifest their psychological problems in a more physical manner. In front of an astounded audience, for example, Dr Raglan is able to coerce the suffering from one of his patients into sores all over the body of the wretched man.
Disturbed by his wife's seeming descent into worse and worse symptoms, Carveth eventually bans his wife from having access to their daughter when he discovers strange scratches and bruises all over the girl's body. Unable to prevent the man from barring his wife from seeing the girl, Dr Raglan pleads with Frank to allow his wife to continue seeing the girl, but he refuses to listen and instead enlists the support of his mother-in-law and one of his daughter's teachers to help him look after the girl.
One evening, delighted to be of assistance to the unfortunate man, Frank's mother-in-law is contentedly babysitting the young girl, when she hears a strange noise in the kitchen. One object after another is discarded onto the floor and believing there to be an intruder, she goes to investigate. As she peers round the kitchen door, she is bemused by the messy scene in front of her, blissfully unaware that a small, yet malevolent little hand is gripping her meat tenderiser with intentions unknown……
The Brood really is a very curious little film. Misled by the title, I had expected a film about a swarm of alien creatures, little remembering that this was not an X Men comic. Instead, I found a bizarre and rather disturbing investigation into the human psyche.
Think "Don't Look Now" meets " Pyscho" and you'll be part-way to understanding what The Brood is all about. It would be wise not to expect it to make much sense because, largely , it doesn't but it is twisted enough to keep you interested until the bitter end when all is revealed.
David Cronenberg's dark 1979 tale is an attempt to suggest the potential for human emotions to manifest themselves in a physical form. Dr Raglan is, of course, the experimental doctor, looking to push the boundaries of what is normal and venturing into the unknown for reasons largely ignored. All of Dr Raglan's patients have a disturbed past and, again for reasons unknown, he somehow manages to encourage a physical symptom to their very real problems. The main question you'll be asking yourself is quite why this would be of benefit to anyone concerned and to be honest, this question is never really answered. But in a science fiction kind of way, it's an interesting enough premise, nonetheless. And at the hands of David Cronenberg, of course, it becomes dark and really rather twisted.
I don't know what it is about midgets, but they really do give me the creeps. It's not just the fact that they are essentially adults in children's bodies. It's the way that they are out of proportion in every other way. Hell - even the Oompa Loompas were sinister, if you ask me. The brood of this film's namesake is a pack of vengeful midgets who seem intent on butchering everybody in Frank Carveth's life. Appearing mysteriously in people's homes and workplaces, they set about beating people to death with whatever they can find before calmly disappearing again. You thought that noise in the back yard was a cat didn't you? Look again. It could be a midget… Worse still, Cronenberg dresses them in childish little outfits of bright colours and cosy fabrics, completely at odds with the hissing, screeching malevolent little creatures lurking inside. Shudder. Believe it or not, this is the stuff that nightmares are made of and Cronenberg somehow manages to make it convincingly unsettling.
Despite being 26 years old, the film dates rather well (although it clearly benefits from some digital remastering.) Cronenberg never pushes things to the extreme and, working with the era's budgetary and technical limitations, he manages to put together quite a plausible tale. Despite the film's horror tag, it never really horrifies, seeming content, instead to be suspenseful and mysterious and generally being quite effective at both. Cronenberg never really gives the game away too early in the proceedings and although The Brood could never be described as the most exciting of movies, it is intriguing enough to keep you going until the end.
The cast is strong and well-selected. Oliver Reed is at his best as the sinister yet stoic Doctor Raglan. Is he a bad guy or a good guy? It's a question that is not really answered until the very end, but it will have you guessing all the way along. Wonderfully charismatic and suitably British, Reed is really very good. The star of the show, however, is Samantha Eggar who wanders the line between evil and misunderstood throughout the film's running time until she eventually plays her full hand. A regular in horror B movies, Eggar blends the camp with the vamp perfectly - and eventually lets it all hang out. Literally! Art Hindle (Frank Carveth) is perhaps a little less inspiring but still a convincing lead and still a fairly prolific TV and B-movie star. Cindy Hinds (Candice) was clearly nothing more than a childhood horror star and disappeared four years and movies later. She wasn't missed.
It's very difficult to know what to say about The Brood. Cronenberg himself described this as his personal take on Kramer vs Kramer - a tale about the physical manifestation of pain and suffering caused by parental separation. I'm not convinced, but it's an interesting take on a generally very strange little film. It is, essentially, a ninety-minute Tale of the Unexpected, pitched at the cinema audience of the era and left to mature ever since. Very odd indeed.
Recommended.
Summary: Cronenberg goes freaky and unleashes demon midgets on us
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