The Brood

Of course there is a market for this kind of cheesy B-grade horror but what its fans lap up – the tongue-in-cheek vibe that stems from the pyscho-babbling script, the hammy acting and the low-fi production values  - is exactly what will make the film largely unwatchable for most audiences.

Oliver Reed, whose career decline was already underway by now plays Dr Hal Raglan, an unorthodox psychiatrist who runs the Institute for Psycho-Plasmics and who is, typically enough for writer-director Cronenberg, experimenting with a technique for manifesting psychological problems in physical form.  In the case of Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) the issue is rage.  Her hubby Frank (Art Hindle) starts to get a whiff that things aren’t going too well with her "therapy" and yada, yada, yada...

By about half-way through the film it’s pretty much game, set and match – and there are absolutely no suprises as it wends its way to the end credits. Clearly Cronenberg’s script owes much to Nicolas Roeg’s vastly superior 1973 film Don't Look Now, which he has managed to dumb down in every respect. Oliver Reed and the classic 70s art design are the only things that, save for die-hard Cronenberg fans and lovers of trash cinema, make this almost bearable.

Available from: Umbrella Entertainment

 

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