David Cronenberg matured from the schlocky social allegories of Rabid and Shivers to a more sophisticated form of psychological drama with The Brood 1979, a body horror classic that does for parenting and divorce what Jaws did for swimming. Art Hindle stars as Frank, a divorcee who finds bruises on his young daughter after her weekend visit to her estranged mother Nola Samantha Eggar in an experimental new institution run by the mysterious Dr. Raglan Oliver Reed. Before long, Frank discovers that Nolas psychoplasmic therapy, designed to bring buried childhood traumas up to the surface, is making her give birth to a legion of snowsuit-clad children with cleft palates and no navel, who murder anyone that tries to get close to him or his daughter. The killers appearance is a likely nod to the diminutive slicker-sporting killer in Dont Look Now.

A deeply personal film responding to Cronenbergs own recent separation from his first wife with all the paranoia about bad mothers and all the sympathy toward hapless dads that might imply The Brood transcends its premise with its visceral images and serious treatment, earnestly raising tough questions about how nothing breeds monsters like child abuse. Operatic, scary, and sad, The Brood might be Cronenbergs masterpiece.

a particularly nasty little number Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

an emotionally realistic horror movie about the collateral damage of divorce Carrie Rickey, The Criterion Collection

About the series

No Future For anyone whos not so sure the children are our future, a film series devoted to the best monstrous births, creepy orphans, spectral kids, and possessed teens genre cinema has to offer.