I've been wanting to get around to this one for a while now. I've been an avid watcher of horror movies since I could walk. I used to sneak up late at night after my parents went to bed so I could watch the stuff I wasn't supposed to in the early 70's.
For whatever reason, I loved the stuff and couldn't get enough. I loved being scared of the monsters, murderers, etc. But I can honestly say there were only a handful of films that truly scared the hell out of me as a child. This is one of them... and it didn't even come out until I was ten. This is one of those films that you do NOT want to show to your young'uns. They will have nightmares.
*** NOTE - Those turned off by any presence of pregnancy or related subject matter may want to skip this one. ***
"The Brood" is one of David Cronenberg's earlier offerings. He may be a commie bastard, but by god he could write and direct good horror movies in his younger days. This one is supposedly inspired by his real life nasty divorce and custody battle he was going through at the time, and boy does it show in the story.
This is a difficult movie to review here, due to so much content involving characters of such a young age, so much of what I would like to post, I will not be cause I don't feel it would be appropriate here. But in doing so, much of the weight of what is happening in the movie, and much of what terrifies the viewer is left out.
I'll explain the best I can, however, and if you haven't seen this treasure, and you're a serious horror fan, this is simply a must-see.
So Samantha Eggar is a troubled mother who is tucked away up at Oliver Reed's special psychiatric hideaway in the woods, receiving his unique "psychoplasmic" treatments. These mental treatments result in the manifestation of the patient's anger into actual physical changes in their bodies. In most cases, these are rashes or boils, or even cancerous tumors brought out through the expression of their rage. But in Samantha's case, these manifestations are taken to a further level...
*** Spoiler Alert *** If you haven't seen this movie, and are a real horror fan, stop reading and go watch it.
Since Samantha's mental issues revolve around her own motherhood, her angers manifest themselves in the form of growths that actually form into little beings, which grow like fetuses in a sac from her abdomen. She produces these mutants at a rapid rate, and they grow quickly, but not past the size of a dwarf.
We don't really find this out until much later in the movie, which is part of why it's so scary in the earlier parts when these "brood" come into play, since a good look is never given of them early on.
So as she expresses her angers, these brood, who are connected with her mentally, automatically go out and do her bidding, releasing her anger toward those she scorns.
The first victim is her own mother, who is babysitting her young daughter at the time. As she goes into the kitchen to investigate a noise, she is surprised by one of the brood. The audience is not given a good look at the creature at this point, but if you're watching closely, quick flashes tell us it's small and looks to be wearing a snowsuit of the type we used to wear in the 70's. And this is part of what makes it so scary.
Granny is jumped by the broodling who is wielding a meat tenderizer that happened to be convenient in the kitchen. A savage bludgeoning about the head is the result...
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When the daughter hears the noise and goes to the kitchen for a look, she finds poor granny like this...
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She then catches a small glimpse of the perpetrator through the railings on the stairs before it darts away...
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This brief glimpse is what horrified me the first time I saw it. It was expertly crafted to be a "blink and you miss it" moment, so as to scare you, but not give enough away to let you know what the hell it was.
When I saw that single second worth of film the first time, it was late and I was watching it alone in the dark, as usual. It scared me so bad I got up and shut the TV off right there. Then I slept with my bedroom light on all night.
It wouldn't be until later on, during some Saturday afternoon "Creature Feature" episode that I would get to see the full movie. But the damage had already been done...
You see, my grandparents' old house also had a staircase with a small railing like that, and we children were NEVER allowed to go upstairs. We went our entire childhood not knowing what was up there waiting in the darkness. So every time I was there henceforth, I looked at those railings and wondered if one of these creatures was lying in wait up there in case we dared to be nosey...
Anyway, on with the show... There are a few other deaths that I won't feature here because they're men. But when the mother thinks something is going on between the kindergarten teacher and her husband, a couple of broodlings visit the school where the daughter is.
Fans of Cronenberg's early work will know he's Canadian and that's where he made his films, too. And given their nice, cold winters up there, broodlings dressed in hooded snowsuits and scarves blend right in at the school.
They take out the mother's anger on the teacher, and once again, through convenience, they are armed with little mallets that were present in the classroom. You know, the kind used to teach kids how to pound little pegs into holes? Oh, you don't remember those? Well here... have a gander...
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This is a scene I doubt anyone would ever film today, in our current political climate of liberal candy-assery. This woman is savagely beaten to death right there in front of the whole class of kindergarteners, and the camera pans to them and shows their horrified reactions. There's no way they would film that nowadays. They MIGHT add in the individuals digitally in post-production or something, but even that would be pushing it in today's climate of EVERYTHING being inappropriate.
Art Hindle rushes in just a moment too late, and now his daughter is missing, having been ushered out and back to her momma by the broodlings. He kneels to inspect the dead teacher, then in an act of kindness that could only be Canadian, he puts one of the class members' drawings over her bloody face to shield their poor eyes, lol...

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So it's off to the woodland retreat to visit momma and the good doctor. By this time, Oliver Reed has realized the drastic results of his treatments, and evacuated the rest of the facility. He sends Hindle in to deal with the mom, and he goes up to the bunkhouse full of broodlings to rescue the daughter.
Well, as you might imagine, things don't work out so well, and momma gets angry. When she does, the brood goes into auto-anger mode, and the battle is on. Hindle is forced to strangle his wife downstairs while Oliver Reed is upstairs going at it against the brood at about 20-1 odds. He doesn't fair so well, but Hindle throttles his wife while she holds the new fetus she just tore out of the sac on her belly and as she dies, the brood dies with her, as they were one in the same.

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Strangle fans should like this 35 second scene, as considerable attention was paid to Hindle's close-up expression as he throttles her. I can't help but wonder if this scene didn't inspire Tarantino to film Waltz strangling Diane Heidkruger the way he did in Inglourious Basterds.
In fact, when I look at this scene now, I can't help but put 2 and 2 together and wonder if Bluestone was called in as an expert consultant for the wife's death. After all, it was filmed up north, and he is Canada's most renowned strangler... so it's not a stretch to think he might have even been hired as a stand-in for the throttling itself. Since the camera cuts back and forth between Hindle's face and Eggar's throat, those could be Blue's veteran hands doing the actual deed... Yes, yes... I think that's the story I'll stick with...
Again, there are many screencaps that I would like to have included here, but for obvious age reasons, I did not. I can't recommend watching this entire flick highly enough if you're into horror. The way it was shot coupled with the chilling soundtrack = WIN.
However, I get that many here are perhaps only interested in the female deaths, so if there is enough interest, I can edit down a montage of the death scenes and upload it for you all. Either way, there is certainly content here for nearly everyone to enjoy. Just remember to leave the lights on... Cheers! - indie