The Brood

David Cronenberg’s highly disturbing horror about a woman who’s able to externalise her inner torment and manifest it into a brood of killer offspring.

David Cronenberg’s highly disturbing body-horror imagines a new form of therapy in which patients externalise their inner torment to such a degree that they manifest physical growths. Dr. Hal Raglan’s (Oliver Reed) star patient (Samantha Eggar) has taken the technique to the next level - managing to give birth to a brood of vengeful killer offspring, bent on enacting her subconscious desires.

This brutal and emotional allegory on the consequences of divorce and child custody was directly inspired by Cronenberg’s own painful break-up (he’s jokingly referred to it as his version of Kramer vs Kramer). It remains both Cronenberg’s most personal film and the standout example from his early period run of body-horror films.