The Brood

What can I say about this film? The late great Oliver Reed stars, David Cronenberg directs and it's bloody terrifying! Just when you thought that Don't look now was the ultimate in scary midget films, another emerges that has scarier midgets!

The story is about a woman who is undergoing an experimental kind of psychiatry, and how she has been separated from her husband and daughter. The father would prefer not to have his daughter visit her mother at all but he is bound by law. Soon it emerges that the daughter shows signs of being abused by her mother. Couple this with some deaths and you have yourself the making of one scary plot

I love Cronenberg's work and this film I am pleased to say is no exception to his usual excellence. Everything is perfect, the score the scares, the acting and the constant feeling in your belly that something could go wrong at some moment in time. One thing in this film that shocked me more than anything else, was the fact that when people were being savagely attacked, the child actors they had would witness it happening! If that was me as a kid I am sure I would have been scarred for life.

In short (no midget joke intended) I would recommend this film for any horror occasion. I perfect example of how this type of film should be made. I just wish that perfect examples of horror would rear their ugly heads more often. Sadly, modern shock flicks are proving a little lacking. I can only pray that David Cronenberg gets back to making the kind of films that matter!

Rating 4 out of 5

See it if you liked:
Don't Look Now
Children of the Corn
Scanners

What does IMDB say?

Review by Stephen King