The Brood (1979)

By the late 1970s, David Cronenberg had already established himself as one of Canada's most distinctive genre voices, with low-budget provocations like Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977) marking him out as a director willing to push horror into genuinely uncomfortable psychological territory. The Brood arrived in 1979 as something of a culmination of that early period, a film produced through a combination of Canadian outfits including Elgin International Films, Mutual Productions, and the Canadian Film Development Corporation. It was made, by Cronenberg's own admission, during a painful divorce and custody battle, and that personal rawness seeps into every frame. Whether or not you read the film as autobiography, it functions as one of the more pointed horror examinations of family breakdown and institutionalised psychology that the decade produced. For a broader sense of where Cronenberg's career eventually led, you might want to have a look at the review of A History of Violence, a much later and more polished work from the same director.

The film runs 92 minutes and centres on Frank Carveth, played by Art Hindle, a father trying to understand what is happening to his wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) while she undergoes an experimental form of psychotherapy at a private institute called the Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics. The therapy is administered by Dr Hal Raglan, a charismatic and morally ambiguous practitioner whose methods involve patients physically manifesting their psychological trauma. Eggar, best known at the time for her Oscar-nominated turn in The Collector (1965), brings a raw, frantic energy to Nola that the film genuinely needs. Hindle, meanwhile, carries the straight-man investigative role with reasonable conviction, even if his character is the least showy of the central trio. Then there is Oliver Reed as Raglan, a casting choice that pays off considerably. Reed in this period was a formidable screen presence, capable of projecting authority and unease in equal measure, and anyone who has seen him in Lion of the Desert will recognise that particular quality he brings to morally complicated figures. The supporting cast, including Henry Beckman and Nuala Fitzgerald, fills out the domestic and institutional world around the central drama without drawing undue attention to itself.

The film sits comfortably within the body horror tradition that Cronenberg was effectively codifying during this period, though it also reaches toward the domestic thriller and even, at moments, the kind of slow-burn supernatural mystery that was fashionable in 1970s horror on both sides of the Atlantic. It was not a massive commercial event on release, but it found its audience and has retained a respectable cult following ever since, the sort of film that gets re-evaluated upward every few years as Cronenberg's broader reputation grows. For a sense of what else was coming out of Canada in and around this era, there is also the site's review of Futureworld, another genre film from the 1970s that plays with science, bodies, and existential unease in its own way.

The Brood (1979) is a strange, unsettling blend of psychological thriller and body horror that feels like David Cronenberg working through his own anxieties about family, therapy, and repressed rage. It starts strong (eerie, slow-burning, and genuinely creepy) as a man investigates a mysterious institute run by an unorthodox therapist (Oliver Reed, magnetic as always). The atmosphere is thick with dread, the pacing deliberate, and for a while, it plays like a supernatural mystery with disturbing emotional undercurrents. But as the film unfolds, it veers sharply into full-on B-movie territory: grotesque creatures, bizarre pseudoscience, and a climax that leans heavily into Cronenberg’s signature body horror. The shift isn’t seamless (it’s jarring, almost surreal) and the logic of the story begins to fray under the weight of its own weirdness. What began as a chilling meditation on parental trauma ends up feeling more like a midnight movie oddity than a cohesive horror piece. The acting is solid across the board, especially Reed, who brings gravitas and quiet intensity to every scene. But the script asks a lot of the audience without always earning it. You’re left less scared than puzzled, impressed by the boldness, but unsure what it all truly means. The Brood is fascinating, flawed, and undeniably unique, a cult film that’s more interesting as a concept than as a satisfying narrative. Worth watching for Cronenberg fans or lovers of offbeat 70s horror, but don’t expect clarity. Just embrace the weirdness.

That tension between the film's ambition and its execution is really what stays with me. I find myself thinking about The Brood more than I enjoy it in the moment, which is perhaps the most honest way I can put it. There is something genuinely haunting in its central conceit, and Reed alone is worth the price of admission, but the overall experience is a bit like watching someone try to land a plane while also redesigning the cockpit mid-flight. If you are the kind of viewer who enjoys horror that provokes more questions than it resolves, and you have got a taste for the rougher edges of 1970s genre cinema, you will likely find plenty to chew on here. For everyone else, approach with patience and low expectations of narrative tidiness. Sometimes the most memorable films are the ones that refuse to quite hold together.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1979  | Watched: 2026-04-13

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from David Cronenberg: A History of Violence (2005)
More with Oliver Reed: Lion of the Desert (1980)
More from Canada: History of the World in Three Minutes Flat (1980) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) · Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) · Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)