The Brood (1979), David Cronenberg


A shady psychologist, Dr. Hal Raglan (played by an especially creepy Oliver Reed), comes up with a new (and quite dangerous) form of therapy, which he calls "psychoplasmics"; a technique in which people's innermost feelings are manifested in a physical deformity. He works out of a very David Koresh-esque compound, called the Somafree Institute. Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle star as a married couple, Nola and Frank, having issues due to the wife's severe depression caused by childhood abuse at the hands of her mother. She goes off to Somafree in search of relief, but what she actually gets is much, much more terrifying than expected. Think Kramer vs. Kramer if a brood of little demon children were assisting Mrs. Kramer in the divorce proceedings.

This movie starts off really, really slowly. Do not get discouraged. Your patience will be rewarded in the end. The acting is actually pretty superb, which you don't often see in exploitation films. I wouldn't put it among my favorite Cronenberg films. But I think even his less than perfect films are still better than most movies out there. The man is a genius!

Grade: A-

Nightbreed (1990), Clive Barker

This is probably the only movie I've ever seen where monsters are good guys, and humans are bad guys. Said monsters reside beneath a graveyard, in the city of Midian. They never venture outside of Midian, and therefore, go on about their existence causing no harm or annoyance to the inhabitants of the surrounding town. But alas, the mere fact that the "naturals" know that they are there is enough. David Cronenberg plays a psychiatrist bent on eradicating the monsters, at any cost. However, it seems that he himself desires to be a monster but was not allowed? And therein lies the reason for revenge. Or not? It's kind of a hard movie to explain.

A lot of people say this is an allegory of being gay. There are a few lines that really, really stick out when you watch the movie with this in mind. But I guess you could say that most of Barker's work is a metaphor of the many facets of being a gay male in a hetero-dominated world. So essentially, he is simply writing what he knows.

I watched this last night at a bar, on a projector. I wish I was rich, I would buy myself a projector, because that's the way movies should be watched. Anyways, I think I may have been the only person there who actually enjoyed this film. Most people found it to be boring and cheesy. If only the Director's Cut were available! The studio cut out about 25 minutes of Barker's original film, attempting to make it more marketable as a slasher movie of sorts. All they really did was cut out things that were pretty integral to making it an interesting story and added in things that left it open for sequels. Sequels that never even happened. Thanks a lot, Hollywood!

David Cronenberg was perfect in this movie, with those steely eyes and those weird ass glasses. And his hair! My god, that man has a head of hair that even I am jealous of. Craig Sheffer seems like he's probably a douche. The dude who played the sheriff? Clearly more stoked on being in a movie than learning to act. The only boobs in this are monster boobs, so sorry pervs. Regardless, it is a pretty cool movie. A must-see for Barker fans. Keep your fingers crossed for that Director's Cut, dudes!

Grade: B

eXistenZ (1999), David Cronenberg.

Cronenberg's obsession with grotesque imagery and objects shaped like deformed genitalia continues. My boyfriend thinks that this should be watched after Videodrome, as a companion piece. I think he's right. There are a lot of similarities between the two movies, it seems as though eXistenZ is almost sort of an update of Videodrome. Instead of television getting in your head, now it's video games. The lines of reality, technology, and fantasy are blurred again in much the same way.

There are a few cheesy moments, but now I realize that those moments are a very important tool in this movie. They are Cronenberg's way of letting the audience know that they're witnessing life in the game, as opposed to in "reality." I really think that the story as a whole is not that unbelievable. I think we will see a game like this in our lifetime. He has a lot to say about free will and its questionable existence. Maybe even our own questionable existence. And as always, even the simplest of things is made overtly sexual. (Maybe sensual is a more appropriate word?)

A lot of people think that Jude Law was miscast in this part. I disagree! I think he is at his best in sci-fi/suspense movies, as opposed to rom-coms. (Seriously, Alfie is an atrocity.) His boyish looks coupled with the fact that he was relatively inexperienced at the time, compared to his co-star (Jennifer Jason Leigh), gave him a sort of naivete that made his role all the more convincing. I also noticed that, although the viewer is to assume this movie took place in the future, there was a serious lack of the cliche futuristic elements usually used in such a movie, further adding to the sense of realism. It's definitely a movie that begs repeat viewing. After this crazy challenge is over, I'm probably going to revisit this.

Best Line: "I'm feeling a little disconnected from my real life. I'm kinda losing touch with the texture of it. You know what I mean? I actually think there is an element of psychosis involved here. " -Ted Pikul

Grade: B+

Videodrome (1983), David Cronenberg


James Woods plays Max Renn, a cable TV programmer on the hunt for something new and obscene to offer his viewers. He stumbles upon a particularly disturbing show, "Videodrome," and is immediately sucked in. One fateful night, he shows the program to his new girlfriend Nikki (who just happens to be one of the hottest babes ever, Ms. Deborah Harry), and it's pretty much all downhill for Max and Nikki from there. Hallucinations, conspiracies, murder, uncomfortable S&M sequences, weird chest vaginas, and the most disgusting looking videocassettes in the history of film... this movie truly has it all.

This is a movie that has been reviewed thousands of times, I see no need to do so. If you haven't already seen this, what are you waiting for? It's a classic. It's creepy. And it is particularly relevant in our reality TV-obsessed times. Long live the new flesh.

Best Line: "You'll forgive me if I don't stay around to watch. I just can't cope with the freaky stuff." -Barry Convex

Shivers (1975), David Cronenberg


A new man made breed of parasite, spread any number of ways, turns the inhabitants of an island into stark raving mad sex fiends! It doesn't matter if you're male, female, black, white, young, or old- these little guys are equal opportunity. This film predated the AIDS epidemic by several years, pretty powerful foreshadowing if you ask me.

At first, I thought the bugs looked like penises. But as the movie went on, I realized that they're more scatologic than phallic, so no symbolism there. (Or is there?) The scene with Barbara Steele in the bathtub really played on a common fear amongst females; something very unwanted, and very, very icky entering your most private of private places. Between this and the bathtub scene in Nightmare on Elm Street, I think it's pretty safe to say I am a "shower-only" kinda girl.

There were some really fucked up scenes that reminded me a lot of The Shining. You know, as we're being shown around the hotel, looking into all the rooms, seeing all the little slice of life things that make you glad the movie is not taking place in that room. The scene with the old man and his daughter, and the scene with the children on leashes, particularly. The latter of which brings up another thought. Do you think Cronenberg could get away with the scenes involving the sexualization of children in 2008? No way. I see why they were included- because otherwise, the audience would be left asking how the parasite affected the children of the island. I am interested to see if the remake touches on this at all.

But I digress. If you can see through the seemingly ad-libbed dialogue and wooden acting, there is a message there. My first reaction after the movie was: "So... what's the downside? I mean, you don't die. You just have a lot of sex." I was just kidding, of course. You can come up with any number of conclusions, I personally think it was about living in excess and becoming a slave to your vices. Zombie movies are always so moralist!

Best Line: "Roger, I had a very disturbing dream last night. In this dream I found myself making love to a strange man. Only I'm having trouble you see, because he's old... and dying... and he smells bad, and I find him repulsive. But then he tells me that everything is erotic, that everything is sexual. You know what I mean? He tells me that even old flesh is erotic flesh. That disease is the love of two alien kinds of creatures for each other. That even dying is an act of eroticism. That talking is sexual. That breathing is sexual. That even to physically exist is sexual. And I believe him, and we make love beautifully. " -Nurse Forsythe

Grade: A-