The Brood

After second screening, The Brood is one of the more sluggish and lesser satisfactory works of David Cronenberg. Once you know where it's all headed, it doesn’t have the same impact (compared to that, for example, Scanners impressed me strongly on the second viewing). Nevertheless, with its ideas, naturalistic imagery, and chilly Canadian atmosphere, it is still an admirable work, the ending of which will surely be remembered by everyone. (02/18/2021)

A depressing psychological aspect, a chilling mystery, bloody murders, a repulsive physiological deformation of the human body, a shock-therapy controversy. All wrapped up in the delicately intimate, gloomy package of Cronenberg’s genius. The Brood is his most intense horror movie. (08/28/2005)

I was expecting monster horror and I got something completely different, but I haven't seen a horror movie with mutated goblins yet, so why not. David Cronenberg once again does a great job with the atmosphere especially in the final third, but this time he didn't satisfy me enough in the first half to make me cheer with excitement like I did in the second half, so I can't in good conscience give it 4*. Definitely Croneneberg's best horror film after The Fly and Shivers. (01/08/2014)

Cronenberg elevates this rather childish horror premise of mutant dwarves capable of murdering their victims with almost anything beyond the prized genre average of the 1970s with intense psychological pressure and a smartly plotted screenplay. Unfortunately, as good as it is to watch even after all these years, and the enigmatic figure of the formidable Oliver Reed (why didn't this guy break into the world of big screen movies?! ) perfectly combines a violent, typically Cronenbergian plane with intimate conversational depth, today it's impossible to shake the dust of obsolescence off the story and ignore the fact that little thin-lipped children aren't scary and don't fill the audience's experience nearly as much as the oppressive atmosphere built by Cronenberg, Shore and the cast deserves. 70% (07/22/2016)

The scene where a woman gives birth to another child is so grotesque that it will stick in your memory permanently. The same applies when the young creatures attack little Candice. I wouldn't want to be in that young actress's shoes. The film might turn some peoples’ stomachs, but its power lies not in visual disgust but in the abhorrence of the human psyche and what people are willing to do to achieve their goals, no matter what they may be. (11/22/2013)