The Brood

A depressing psychological aspect, a chilling mystery, bloody murders, a repulsive physiological deformation of the human body, a shock-therapy controversy. All wrapped up in the delicately intimate, gloomy package of Cronenberg’s genius. The Brood is his most intense horror movie. (08/28/2005)

Cronenberg puts all the horror on the shoulders on the “killers dwarfs” wearing children overalls and wielding hammers, unfortunately, it’s mostly gratuitous and not very scary. You can't deny the chilling, bleak atmosphere, but if you can't take the core of all evil seriously, it can hardly frighten you or arouse any unpleasant emotions. (07/01/2008)

This time Cronenberg fully subordinated his classical trademarks (gynecology, psychiatry, body deformation) to the effect of self-efficacy. As a means of doing so, he chose little men in winter overalls with hammers in their hands and lots of long-winded chatter. The suspense is solid only up to the first two visits of the hissing kids, then after the finale (typical gradation) there is once again plenty of verbal filler, which is not even helped out by an incorrect scene of a school class standing around a teacher lying in a pool of blood. But I’ll give it 3 ½ stars for the drops of icy sweat on my back. (07/14/2007)

Except for the finale, it's only a horror film at times (though it's in those moments that its intensity is massive). As I gradually become more familiar with Cronenberg's films, I am slowly beginning to see the "spiritual" in them, and I honestly prefer it to his favorite explicit nastiness, which perhaps some people find daring, untethered, original, and unconventional, but they are the reason I don’t enjoy Cronenberg that much). What I especially appreciate about The Brood is the thorough and impressive expertise (to write just "analysis" would be insufficient) of the originally pure mother who is separated from her child and must live in forced isolation and estrangement from her family. Remarkable, non-mainstream, distinctive, impressive. (01/03/2011)

After second screening, The Brood is one of the more sluggish and lesser satisfactory works of David Cronenberg. Once you know where it's all headed, it doesn’t have the same impact (compared to that, for example, Scanners impressed me strongly on the second viewing). Nevertheless, with its ideas, naturalistic imagery, and chilly Canadian atmosphere, it is still an admirable work, the ending of which will surely be remembered by everyone. (02/18/2021)