Chad

DaveyJoe

Very excited to revisit this. I hope you guys enjoy my pick, this is also available to stream on Hulu Plus in HD:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/449584

Tom Creo

My favorite Cronenberg.

Undeadcow

I love the idea of The Brood, it's abstract and gutsy born of 1970s pop psychology focus. Perhaps this is the only movie ever where thick padded winter jumpsuits are used as pivotal plot devices. The creatures didn't feel as menacing as I recall despite their eerie child-like appearance. The theme of mental "children" versus actual biological child with struggling parents at the end is brilliant and more horror movies would do well with this type of intelligent scripting.

I still prefer Videodrome, which I think holds up better on repeat viewings, and Scanners but The Brood is prime Cronenberg. Excellent subset pick, I enjoyed revisiting it.

The Brood is one film that definitely could have used a sequel to follow Candice with her traumatic childhood issues and festering child sores.

SethDLH

I doubt I'll watch it this year but that makes no difference that this is in my top 3 Cronenberg films and is just a fantastic film overall.

Gobear

I'm glad I revisited this. It's not my favorite Cronenberg, but it is still a horror classic. I wonder where Dr. Raglan got such a deal on a bulk order of snowsuits.

ntnon

Either they took it down or they hid it well, because it didn't show up for me earlier... so I'm glad for the YouTube link above or I wouldn't have been able to watch it.

It was nice to see Oliver Reed - and in an ambiguous role, too - bringing his menacing air to an otherwise fairly quiet role. Utterly mad, but eminently watchable.

Not sure what it was all about, but I enjoyed it. (I assume it was 90% allegory and 10% genuine fears over genetic mutations from pregnancy medications.) The main guy didn't seem like a great step up in the parenting department, but at least he wasn't completely insane... Nice pick.

rbrown498

I saw this YEARS ago (20? 25?) on VHS and didn't particularly like it.

Tonight's viewing, however, changed my opinion in a big way. It's now in my top five Cronenberg films. It may be the only Cronenberg film that has actually scared me a little. I got BIG-time gooseflesh when the creature that killed Grandpa was revealed to Frank Carveth, and I jumped and actually cursed out loud when the Mike character showed up on Frank's doorstep.

jacob_b

I really enjoyed it (my first Cronenberg film) but I didn't like the way it ended, in particular, the crazy mother with the birthing and everything. Just seemed very offputting and strange. I knew she had something to do with the kids, but yeah, wasn't a fan of how they turned her mother into an alien creature or whatever.

brainee

I doubt I'll watch this for this year's challenge. But this is a favorite of mine too. I remember hearing about this movie as a kid in the 80s. Pre-internet, you were really limited for archived sources of critical reviews. In our house, we had Leonard Maltin's gigantic movie review book. I'd flip through the book, looking for interesting reviews of movies that I hadn't heard of (but I might be able to find at a video store). For The Brood, Maltin gave it his lowest rating (BOMB). The review was only 2 sentences long (spoiler-hidden since it unfortunately gives away the most shocking murders):

BOMB or not, I had to see that movie then! And while it's one of those movies it's hard to say you "enjoyed", parts of it were striking and unforgettable. And I had an early lesson about how many professional critics were full of shit, especially when it came to horror movies.

As an aside, don't you hate when critics think that if they hate a movie it gives them license to spoil it for other people

Spiderbite

Maltin is/was an idiot! Where have this fucked up movie been all my life!?!?

For whatever reason, I have never seen or even really heard of this movie. I have never been a Cronenberg fan so that is probably why I haven't payed attention to it. Goddamn it was awesome. Perfect pacing, great tension leading to a totally fucked up but cool ending. The main actor always creeps me out due to him pissing me off like crazy as a kid in the remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. I was expecting him to be the surprise bad guy the entire time due to that.

Anyway, loved the quiet menace of Oliver Reed as someone else mentioned above. The main chick gave a great, wacked out performance (and it just occurred to me that she gave another strong performance in a movie I watched earlier for the first time this month, Curtains). Even the main kid, Candy, was creepy and she wasn't even evil.

Such a ballsy move to film the killing of the Kindergarten teacher right in front of a bunch of real Kindergärtners. Any of those kids seeing a psychiatrist today?

And what a phenomenal jump in quality from Shivers and Rabid to this. Wow!

I loved this movie. Was definitely worth the 8 bucks to Hulu right there!

My rating: ***** out of *****