FILM -- The Brood

We're just a couple of weeks from Thanksgiving! How about a film to remind you that your family isn't so bad?

The opening scene begins with the camera revolving around a therapy session led by Dr. Hal Raglan, who created a new revolutionary scientific method. He also wrote a controversial book entitled “The Shape of Rage” that explains his scientific method where he taps into people’s hidden anger or resentment. Dr. Ragan exposes the patients’ worst fear and demands that the patient expresses his suppressed anger. In the scene, the patient lashes out at Dr. Ragan, yelling at him and asking him why he was not a better Father.

As the patient becomes angrier, Dr. Ragan taps more into his emotions. This causes scabs and bumps to form on the patient. This new scientific method taps into psychological pains and physical pains.

Dr. Ragan also has a camp called The Psychoplasmatic Institute, where he is a psychologist over many dealing with traumatic events. One of his patients is Nola Carveth, who is the product of a broken home. Her parents divorced a while ago and both are alcoholics. As a result, poor Nola fears that she will also neglect her six-year-old daughter Candice. While Nola is going through intense, isolated therapy sessions, her husband Frank has custody over their daughter. Nola has a lot of hatred that manifest from her body and become “the brood”. The brood are little children with disfigured faces that are fueled by Nola’s emotions.

Whenever Nola confronts someone through her thoughts, the brood children exit through Nola’s body and act out her feelings physically, usually leaving the person dead. It sounds a bit complicated, but I promise it’s not!

Although this film is not gory, the make-up is pretty gross, so that’s good enough for me! The Brood has an emotional story line yet it remains a horror. Before the film was shot, David Cronenberg was in the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife for their daughter. Isn’t that a coincidence? I’m sure Cronenberg’s wife didn’t have “the brood” children running around killing people!

Out of all Cronenberg’s films, I feel this one is his most personal one. The actors and actresses did a great job, especially the little girl who played Candice. Majority of the movie she was silent; however, she witnessed a lot and acted well in it.

Overall, I recommend The Brood to people who love horror movies and enjoy science fiction. This film is also filled with plenty of profound emotion which was enjoyable.
4 out 5 queen skulls!
Still not sure if you want to watch THE BROOD? Check out the trailer below!