Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely brilliant

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

David Cronenberg films are always interesting, even when they are a mixed bag like this one. Leonard Maltin glibly summarized the film as, "(Samantha) Eggar eats her own afterbirth while midget clones beat grandparents and lovely young schoolteachers to death with mallets." Needless to say, Maltin was not a fan of the film, but what it's really about is a recently divorced father going through a custody battle with his ex-wife, Eggar, who is in a mental institution under the care of psychiatrist Oliver Reed, who has his patients undergoing an experimental treatment. Things get weird when the father tries to cut off contact between his daughter and her institutionalized mother after discovering bruises, when the aforementioned mutant homunculus creatures in little hoodies begin killing the various caretakers of the young girl. As with all Cronenberg films, it's more than a simple straight horror film and contains substance behind the horror, this time tackling divorce, parenting, and possibly an undercurrent of anti-feminism (Cronenberg himself was going through a divorce and custody battle at the time), though I'm not quite sure if the story is an indictment of this one selfish individual female character or if it's an indictment of an entire movement. Cronenberg films are thematically quite consistent and I haven't noticed any strains of misogyny or anti-feminism in his other films, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Also, as with most Cronenberg films, there are elements of "Body Horror," which for those unfamiliar with this horror sub-genre, is not the same as graphic bloody horror, but is when the horror is derived from unnatural graphic transformation, degeneration, or destruction of the human body (think "Eraserhead," "From Beyond," or Cronenberg's "The Fly"). The body horror elements in this film are pretty repellent and will likely turn off most audience members. The film's rather austere presentation will also alienate most horror fans, who are the ones who'd likely get into the body horror elements, which leaves this film with a pretty narrow band of people who will enjoy off-putting intellectual art-house horror. Overall, I don't know that I would recommend "The Brood" to most viewers, but I found it a fascinating and interesting film, despite it's pacing and narrative flaws. FUN FACT! Oliver Reed was arrested by the Canadian police during the production of the film after he made a bet with someone that he could walk from one bar to another without wearing clothes in freezing cold weather.

"Long live the new flesh!" – the very remarkable sentence from "Videodrome" by James Woods in that moment seemed belated as David Cronenberg already made strong statement with body horrors like "Shivers", "Rabid", and "The Brood". Having previous experience with Cronenberg's work, "The Brood" is not different from his earlier works – it is also filled with externalizations of unconscious into some organic forms, creatures or non-human living organisms.It's very much a film of its time. It's slow paced, characters are weak and inconvincible, I felt no true horror in the story and setting, except the perversion of motherhood and presence of "mad scientist" (and even Oliver Reed couldn't make Dr. Raglan mad enough) who was "playing with the brains of his patients". Even with all that being said, I really respect Cronenberg's directing as he succeeded in creating detached sense of reality – throughout whole movie you will be suck in the "plot" like there exist nothing else in this world – Cronenberg's signature is omnipresent.After I've watched the film, I thought – well, it obviously doesn't work as horror for me, but there is strength in portrayal of little girl. From the very beginning, she is completely quite and anemic. The devastating effect the divorce of her parents has one her is evident, mainly in the fact that there is no safe place for her – wherever she is, it's only death, terror and violence. Even her grandparents were divorced and have had terrible marriage (both Barton and Juliana are alcoholics). Near the very end, there is dialogue between her parents; in the middle of arguing mother said that she would rather kill their daughter than let her father have the custody arousing a tremendous rage in her father and ended by being strangled by him. When there is continuity of rage, unhappiness and absence of love among parents (sorry if I am pathetic) – childhood itself is horror.I've read that, at the time of making this movie, Croneberg personally went through divorce and custody trials, and somehow I like to believe that this film was greatly inspired by his terrible experience and frustration.

I like the idea of horror movies but they're usually very disappointing and predictable and dull. This one was quite enjoyable. I was actually tense at many times and swore at the screen due to my confusion at what was going on. But I liked it. I would smile in relief after a weird or suspenseful scene.I don't know why, but for some reason, Cronenberg seems to have earned my respect. I've only seen a couple of his movies (The Fly and A History of Violence), but I feel like I understand his movies. He seems to take film seriously as an art form and tries to make interesting stuff without restricting himself. He seems to have a freedom similar to David Lynch who I also seem to click with - their movies are weird but make sense in some subconscious, twisted way. So you go on their dark journeys, restraining yourself from early judgement, trusting that somehow it all leads somewhere, means something even if you're not immediately sure what.I have to say the main guy's acting was not great (the father), however Oliver Reed was awesome and the crazy lady was intense (her eyes freaked me out BIG time). Horror movies often seem to suffer from terrible acting or, at least, a dull or dark mood. My brother dislikes them for that reason, Ebert seems to have had a similar opinion. The Brood partially suffers from this: the whole plot seems a bit depressing, like there's no hope at all. It would help if the father and daughter were happier or had more chemistry. Their lives seem very boring. There's no colour or laughter or smiles to contrast with the darkness brewing. The girl's simple innocence and vulnerability does work though - you feel more worried when things happen.The scary parts were very well done. They were completely bizarre and unexpected. I had no idea what was going on or what to expect next. But it was riveting and disturbing in an entertaining way. There were times I was definitely expecting something to jump out and nothing happened or vice-versa which is refreshing. There could have been a bit more comedy or even drama to give meaning to the horror though.By the end, most things were satisfyingly explained (or you can work them out for yourself). It generally all made sense and is probably more creepy once you know what's really going on. I think any horror fan would like this movie quite a lot. For others, it's still interesting for its strangeness. I'll always remember it for its many wtf and omg moments.

This movie was very good, the concept is great, the horrible scenes are great but not "real" enough. IF ONLY they had great special effects back then, it could have been a 10!Cronenberg, (who directed one of my favorites, "The Fly", has a great idea here. He seems to have some actors he likes, for example one guy who had "an unfortunate experience" under the care of the psychologist, was also in "Scanners" (another favorite). This doesn't come close to as good as The Fly or Scanners, but it's still pretty good.IF ONLY the little mutant children looked more realistic, it would have been perfect... It's a little 70-ish, if you can't overlook the older style of filming and acting you may not like it...