According to Wikipedia "the term body horror in films is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body. Such works may deal with disease, decay, parasitism, mutilation, or mutation. Other types of body horror include unnatural movements, or the anatomically incorrect placement of limbs to create 'monsters' out of human body parts." Now I can't say for certain if David Cronenberg invented the body horror sub-genre but I can tell you this. When Cronenberg makes body horror films he is the best at what he does and the next three films I'm reviewing in this special are no exceptions.
So on with The Brood; we start off with live therapy session performed by Dr. Hal Raglan (played by Oliver Reed) who specialized in a new technique called psychoplasmics. Which according to Wikipedia “encourages patients with mental disturbances to let go of their suppressed emotions through physiological changes to their bodies." Among the crowd of on lookers is Frank Carveth (played by Art Hindle) whose wife Nola Carveth (played by Samantha Eggar) is one of Raglan's patients. After the live session Frank picks up his five year old daughter Candice Carveth (played by Cindy Hinds) from Raglan's institute and headed home. Upon there while Frank give Candice a bath he notice a dozen scratches and bruises on her back suspecting that Nola may have abuse her when she visited her. Frank confronts Raglan at the institute demanding to see Nola but Raglan refuses. Not fully comfortable that Candice is in possible danger by her mother or any of Raglan's patients, Frank decides to seize any visitation rights until Raglan proves that Nola hasn't harmed her. A little bit later Frank drops off Candice at her grandmother (Nola's mother) Juliana (played by Nuala Fitzgerald). Back at the institute Raglan performs a session with Nola; here he learns how Nola was severely beating by her mother when she was a kid. Back at Juliana's place she hears loud noises coming from the kitchen and goes to check. Once in the kitchen she's immediately attacked by dwarf-like child who beats her to death with a meat tenderizer. Moments later Candice enters the kitchen and spots her grandmother dead on the floor. Later elsewhere, Frank gets a call from the police informing him that his mother-in-law is now dead and Candice maybe traumatized by the event. In other therapy session Nola reveals to Raglan how her father never protects her from her abusive mother. I know I want to feel sorry for this poor woman but no and you'll see why later. Frank tracks down one of Raglan's former patients named Jan Hartog (played by Robert A. Silverman) at a nursing home that apparently ends up with lymphoma cancer caused by the psychoplasmic therapy. This makes Frank completely convinced that Raglan's psychoplasmic treatment is invalidated. Later Raglan is confronted by Nola's father Barton (played by Harry Beckman) upset that Nola has not been told about her mother's death before he storms off. Later after picking up Candice from school Frank gets a call from his father-in-law apparently drunk and angry. So Frank heads off to talk him down while Ruth (played by Susan Hogan) who was accompanying Frank stands behind and watches over Candice. At Juliana's where Barton is he starts to have a breakdown until the dwarf-like child appears and bludgeons him to death. Frank arrives at the house only to his father-in-law dead and is immediately attacked by the dwarf-like child until it starts to die.
Back at Frank's house Ruth answers the phone only to be Nola who misinterprets that she and Frank are having an affair before raging out and hangs up the phone. At a hospital an autopsy reveals that this child has incredibly anatomical anomalies such as having no navel meaning it was never born the same as a normal child has. The next day after reading a newspaper about the murders of Nola's parents; Raglan decides to close down his facility and sends all of his patients’ home exception for Nola. Later Frank meets up with Jan along with one of the patients from the facility who tells him that Nola is still there as the "queen bee of the disturbed children". Now what could this mean? At the school as soon as Frank drops Candice off at the school; two dwarf-like children sneak into the classroom where Candice and Ruth are and proceed to beat Ruth to death and walk off with Candice in tow. Frank heads back to the facility to confront Raglan once again here he reveals to Frank that the dwarf-like children originated from Nola herself they are the result of her rage as the psychoplasmic therapy causes her to parthenogenetically give birth to these "Brood" children. Not only that but they seem to respond to her rage on whomever she thinks of and go kill that someone. Raglan tells Frank to go talk to Nola in order to distract her while he sneaks in a work shed to get Candice out. Frank approaches Nola pretending that he wants the two of them to be a family again to be what it was. It seems to work until she reveals to Frank her "psychoplasmic birthing" as a large womb-like boil forms from her belly. She then rips out a fetus and....proceeds....to....lick it clean. Nola notices the disgust on Frank's face and gets angry setting off the Brood to attack Raglan; he managed to shoot down a few of them before he dies. Heh might as well die like a bad ass. Still in rage Nola states that she'll kill Candice before she let anyone else take her. This sets off the Brood to attack Candice; with no choice Frank chokes Nola until she dies which kills off the Brood. The film ends with Frank and Candice driving away and we get a close up shot of Candice developing small boils on her arm. Oh....crap.
My Final Verdict: This film despite being very little on being suspenseful it still somehow grabs you in. The concept of one person can form a being from their own body out emotional willpower can be scary. And makes you feel paranoid of that person to form some being out of emotional thought and comes after you.
Next time David Cronenberg Month continues with the 1986 remake of The Fly stay tuned.
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