The Brood (1979) Limited Edition 4K UHD/ Blu-ray Box Set Review
The Brood (1979) Limited Edition 4K UHD/ Blu-ray Box Set Review
THE BROOD Limited Edition 4K UHD/ Blu-ray Box set is set for release on 31 March 2025 and will also be available as a Standard Edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray. The set is presented in a stunning rigid slipcase complete with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi and comes packed with a slew of brilliant special features including a new commentary, interviews with cast and crew and an archival interview with director David Cronenberg.
They say that when it comes to writing, always write what you know, and that’s exactly what Cronenberg did with THE BROOD, his fourth feature film. In penning a film where mutant children attack anyone that their mother feels anger towards, Cronenberg drew upon his bitter child-custody battle, against his ex-wife, for his daughter Cassandra.
He considered his ex-wife unstable and was less than thrilled when she announced that she would be relocating, with their daughter, to California. To stop this from happening, Cronenberg took his daughter from school on the same day whilst ensuring a court order had been filed preventing his ex-wife from leaving with Cassandra as planned.
By lifting dialogue from actual arguments he’d had with his ex-wife, Cronenberg pulled the breaks on a script he had been working on about a war between psychics and shaped his bitter child-custody experience into THE BROOD. Securing his largest budget to date Cronenberg was able to get name actors Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar cast. The resulting film is considered by many critics as a transitional point for the director, seeing him mature from his B-movie roots of both SHIVERS and RABID whilst still providing decent shocks too.
Art Hindle (star of the original BLACK CHRISTMAS and 1978’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) stars as Frank. His institutionalized wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) is receiving unconventional therapy called psychoplasmics from the equally unconventional Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed), a therapy designed to assist with releasing his patients’ suppressed emotions. Frank, and the very disturbed Nola, are battling for legal custody of their young daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds)
Upon picking up Candice following her visit to see Nola he notices bruises and scratches on her back. Concerned and outraged Frank advises Dr. Raglan that his daughter will not be visiting his mother at the institute again. Raglan is concerned that this will impair the progress and work that he has been conducting with Nola but Frank won’t be swayed into changing his mind.
It soon becomes clear that when Nola becomes enraged that the individual she is angry towards meets an unexpected and violent death soon after. The murders are being committed by short, odd-looking children that are not big on speaking but very handy when it comes to smashing someone’s head in. But who are these freakish-looking children and where do they come from? Frank’s investigation ends with a bloody and shocking climax at Raglan’s Somafree Institute, and it is an ending that still, after all these years, has the power to be profoundly disturbing.
Oliver Reed, no stranger to the horror genre with his THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and BURNT OFFERINGS turns in a solid performance graced with his customary quiet, almost whispery voice. He was one of those actors who could say more with a glance adding an undercurrent of menace to his performance. Samantha Eggar, who described making THE BROOD as the strangest experience of her career, captures Nola’s disturbed persona and helps pull off THAT scene at the story’s end by making the unbelievable play as if real.
Second Sight have dished up a number of wonderful extras for their release of THE BROOD. Meet the Carveths was the extra that I was looking forward to the most, an opportunity to listen to Art Hindle and his THE BROOD on-screen daughter Cindy Hinds reflect on their experience of working on Cronenberg’s movie. Unfortunately, here, both Hindle and his co-star Hinds are hampered by the awkward interview set-up courtesy of Fangoria editor Chris Alexander.
The set-up for the interview uses the cliché of having film stars interviewed in an auditorium, all with large bags of popcorn, with which Hinds looks hugely uninterested. Alexander is often facing away from those he is interviewing and looks to have his back to Hinds. It’s embarrassing to watch, and I felt an insult to Hinds who is cold-shouldered out. Both actors look far more comfortable when they are back at the school that featured in the movie and as Art Hindle previously proved on the original BLACK CHRISTMAS extras that he has enough spark and verve to make for an entertaining host, perhaps they should have let him run with the whole feature instead.
One common theme in the disc’s extras, aside from obviously personal recollections about working on the movie, are tales about working with the infamous Oliver Reed, the main one being about bailing him being out of prison after taking on a bet to walk down the street naked, which obviously he did.
As with most of Cronenberg’s offerings THE BROOD’s tone is cold, clinical, and wordy, effortlessly making the outlandish believable – especially with THAT climax which even manages to out-shock the film’s earlier schoolteacher murder scene, which was a scene that saw the censors requiring cuts in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
THE BROOD is bizarre, uncompromising, and raw, pulling off the impossible by making an outlandish premise feel both real and grounded. It’s well acted, packs a punch and for genre fans there’s really no need to further persuade you to purchase this release. The film is not without faults but it remains more impressive with each subsequent viewing. A must.
Special Features
A new 4K restoration approved by Director David Cronenberg
Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
UHD presented in HDR with Dolby Vision
New audio commentary by Martyn Conterio and Kat Ellinger
Audio commentary by William Beard
Meet the Carveths: an interview with Actors Art Hindle & Cindy Hinds by Fangoria Editor Chris Alexander
Producing the Brood: an interview with Executive Producer Pierre David
The Look of Rage: an interview with Cinematographer Mark Irwin
Scoring the Brood: an interview with Composer Howard Shore
Character for Cronenberg: an interview with Actor Robert A Silverman
Anger Management: Cronenberg’s Brood and the Shapes of Cinematic Rage – a video essay by Leigh Singer
Cronenberg – The Early Years: an archival interview with David Cronenberg
Limited Edition Contents
Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Krishna Shenoi
120-page book with new essays by Jenn Adams, William Beard, Craig Ian Mann, Carolyn Mauricette, Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Amber T, Alexandra West, and Scott Wilson
Six collectors’ art cards
