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Title: The Brood (1979)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Oliver Reed | ... | Dr. Hal Raglan | |
| Samantha Eggar | ... | Nola Carveth | |
| Art Hindle | ... | Frank Carveth | |
| Henry Beckman | ... | Barton Kelly | |
| Nuala Fitzgerald | ... | Juliana Kelly | |
| Cindy Hinds | ... | Candice Carveth | |
| Susan Hogan | ... | Ruth Mayer | |
| Gary McKeehan | ... | Mike Trellan | |
 |
Michael Magee | ... | Inspector |
| Robert A. Silverman | ... | Jan Hartog (as Robert Silverman) | |
|
|
Joseph Shaw | ... | Coroner |
|
|
Larry Solway | ... | Lawyer |
|
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Reiner Schwarz | ... | Dr. Birkin |
| Felix Silla | ... | Creature | |
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John Ferguson | ... | Creature |
A man's wife is under the care of an eccentric and unconventional psychologist who uses innovative and theatrical techniques to breach the psychological blocks in his patients. When their daughter comes back from a visit with her mother and is covered with bruises and welts, the father attempts to bar his wife from seeing the daughter but faces resistance from the secretive psychologist. Meanwhile, the wife's mother and father are attacked by strangely deformed children, and the man begins to suspect a connection with the psychologist's methods. Written by Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>
A very personal film for Cronenberg who was going through a divorce during the time of its making, The Brood has all the Cronenbergian motifs, plus great characterisation and a great performance from all involved.
Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed) who is experimenting with metaphysical rage runs the Summerfree Institute. There he encourages his patience to indulge in allowing their inner anger to materialise in warts and blisters on their body. One of his patience is the demented Nola (Samantha Eggar) who has taken Raglan's therapy to the next stage. Her rage is apparently so potent that it results in The Brood, a savage group of dwarfs that emerge from the cysts on Nola's body. Unfortunately, Nola has another child, Candy and when her ex-husband, Frank (Art Hindle) finds that his wife is too unstable to look after their child he suppresses parental access. Nola goes even more insane and the brood ventures out to kill all those she believes have or may cause her harm. Although the carnage isn't excessively violent, the scene where Nola produces one of the dwarfs from a bloody sack and licks it clean leaves a nasty aftertaste.
Cronenberg has long been associated with fear of biological change, but is surprising that not many have picked up on his fascination, or dread of organisations. There's the Starliner Towers (Shivers), Keloid Clinic (Rabid), Summerfree Institute (The Brood), ConSec (Scanners), Spectacular Optical (Videodrome), Bartok Industries (The Fly), The Mantle Clinic (Dead Ringers), PildrImage Manufacturers (eXsistenZ).