The Brood (1979)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Art Hindle, Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Susan Hogan, Robert A. Silverman, Henry Beckman, Nuala Fitzgerald, Gary McKeehan, Michael Magee, Cindy Hinds. [R]

The grotesque, stunted “children” of disturbed psychotherapy patient Eggar terrorize the targets of mama’s rage with blunt instruments (you read that right). Bitter, disgusting, but oddly fascinating horror film came from writer/director Cronenberg during a personally taxing time in his life, and there’s a sense of life imitating art in what unfolds—the manifestations of his acrimony can be seen in its vindictive attitudes toward feminist authority and its brutal violence. Highly-praised by some, but decidedly not for all tastes, and featuring a nearly unwatchable scene of bestial tenderness where one of those spawns is licked clean of bloody afterbirth (judge for yourself, but you may want to bring a barf bag). Howard Shore’s first of many film scores for Cronenberg, and like a lot of horror/thriller soundtracks of the time, it plunders Psycho’s shrieking strings for the attack scenes.

69/100