The Brood

I should be doing my end of year list thing which is usually fun to do and is actually popular. At the moment I can't be arsed with it. Maybe Its a mood or maybe its something more. I can't even be bothered analysing why. Hopefully I'll get around to it next time.

I watched David Cronenberg's The Brood for the first time the other day and was blown away at how good it was.  I love some of his other films Existenz in particular but also Videodrome & The End Of Violence.  The Brood had become quite a mythical film for me and I thought well I better watch it.  When my wife was a small child of around 5 or 6 she was exposed to this film.  She then had nightmares for a very long time following that, with good reason (The Brood is v demented). She never knew the name of the film but her and her sister referred to it as Alien Space Babies.  One day in a high school film studies class a clip of The Brood was featured.  Finally Emma knew what the film was.  Anyway it was many years later when she was working in a certain cafe in Richmond in Melbourne that she served a bespectacled gentleman with a Canadian Accent.  This man praised her coffee making abilities saying something like "That was the best coffee I've ever had in my life." Minutes later the cafe owner pulled her aside and asked "Do You know who that was?" She replied "No." Then he said "That was the film director David Cronenberg!" She was shocked that she was face to face with the man who'd traumatised her childhood and she didn't even know it was him.  Suffice to say she didn't watch The Brood with me the other night.

Spoiler Alert! The alien space babies wreak havoc on Candice's school teacher and granny after popping out of her mums tummy due to bad thoughts! Now that's entertainment. Cindy Hinds who plays Candice the 5 year old is particularly good as are the evil brood.  Oliver Reed's character, Psychotherapist Dr Raglan, is incredibly creepy. Also loved Robert A Silverman as the disturbed but right on Jan Hartog. Not forgetting the performances of Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle as Candice's parents. Don't ever be persuaded to have Psychoplasmic Therapy otherwise you may spawn a brood of killer alien space babies of your own.  I'm pretty sure they got the idea for Alien right here as well things like Childs Play.  Upon finishing viewing of the movie I referred to Leonard Maltin to see what his verdict was.  He gave it a rating of a bomb giving me new found respect for anything in his movie guide that's awarded this rating.  What should it have some shit about Rosebud or some trite message to get it its deserved 4 stars Leonard?  Fuck off Maltin!