The Brood (1979)

The movie opens with a Dr. Raglan giving a demonstration of his new technique of helping those with mental issues work thru the pain.  In the crowd is a man named Frank, who the audience soon discovers is the husband of one of Dr. Raglan’s patients that is there to pick up his daughter.  But when Frank returns home with her and realizes that she has been beaten he threatens to refuse his wife access to their daughter.  Of course the good doctor reminds Frank that the courts always favor the mother and that his threats could backfire.  Soon after Frank’s mother-in-law and father-in-law are attacked and killed by what appears to be a deformed child.  Frank realizes that in some way the children are connected to his wife and the therapy that Dr. Raglan is using on her.  When his daughter disappears from her school Frank goes straight to his wife and the doctor to find out what is going on. 

I’m a sucker for killer kid movies and this is one of the best that I’ve seen.  As a subgenre the killer kid movie has been done to death, but here the story is unique and unlike anything that I’ve ever watched before.  The origin of the children, which I won’t ruin, allows their appearance to be “off” in a way that works to make them very creepy looking.  Plus I was shocked at the amount of violence that the movie is able to direct at children.  They are smacked, tossed around, and blasted with a pistol!  The movie manages to balance a decent amount of character development with a story that never gets slow or boring.  Though I will admit that the movie is much more exciting when the killers are around.  The performances of the cast are all top notch, with Art Hindle and Oliver Reed being especially good.  I’m a huge Oliver Reed fan and seeing him, particularly the therapy scenes, getting a meaty part to work with is nice to see. 

In addition to the mayhem done to the evil children mentioned above this movie also delivers some decent kills by the children.  The death of the grandmother early on isn’t terribly gory, but is pretty damn brutal in the way that it is shot.  I did find the attack and killing of the teacher in the classroom to be a bit silly looking, but then the room was filled with children extras, so how brutal could it be?  The same goes for the last killing, which also takes place in a room full of children.  The rest of the technical stuff, like picture, lighting, and sound are all professionally done.  But then that is what I would expect from a director like David Cronenberg.

One of the things that I found interesting about this movie is the fact that the director was going thru what was reported to be a nasty divorce.  With that in mind some of the things the characters say and do in this movie is shed in a new light.  While not perfect this is a cool little movie that I’m glad I checked out.  It isn’t very expensive to get your hands on and I recommend that everyone pick it up if possible.  You won’t be disappointed. 

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer