A remarkable body horror film, fluctuating between psychoanalytical explorations of divorce and manifestations of repressed rage. Screening as part of the All Tomorrow’s Scars. Directed by David Cronenberg film programme.
The Brood
- Date:
- 17 Jul 2026,
19:30–21:05
- Age restrictions
- 18+
1979, David Cronenberg
Canada
92 minutes, English with Russian subtitles
Starring: Oliver Reed, Art Hindle, Samantha Eggar, Henry Beckman
T
Frank and Nola are going through a divorce. Frank is most concerned about their five-year-old daughter Candice, who is having a hard time coping with her parents’ separation. Nola tries to sort herself out in a mysterious institute of experimental psychoanalysis, whose director preaches the release of repressed rage. Terrifying rumours circulate about his methods—but who is really to blame for the horror that has spilled beyond the institute’s walls?
Shot from The Brood, 1979
The first major moment of transition between David Cronenberg’s exploitative body-horror movies and his probing psychological masterworks, and offers the best of both worlds.
— Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
Cronenberg’s sixth feature film shocks not so much with visually repulsive imagery as with the minimalist ruthlessness with which he dissects the very process of the break-up. The real horror here is not the blood and gore, but the scenes in which the characters finally engage in frank conversation with one another.
