The Brood (1979) Video Review & Discussion

[Vektdrome Video]

A discussion & review of the therapeutically terrifying Cronenberg horror classic The Brood (1979) hosted by Mike Ebright & Jake Sedell!

Watch it now on the Vektdrome Video YouTube channel!

Please let me know what you think of the review if you decide to watch it, feedback is really important to me so if you want to share your thoughts/opinions on it I'd really appreciate it.

Also if you'd like to discuss the film further on here I would be more than happy to! 

[WorldForgot]

Just from the thumbnail I get the feeling y'all are fans of RedLetterMedia/Half-in-the-Bag?
Will watch imminently. Digesting some pizza first, though.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I edited the size tags out of your post (it looked too spammy), but otherwise this is cool. 

[Jeremy Blackman]

Welcome! Hope you stick around. 

[WorldForgot]

Dig the vibe, and the three camera set up works well. No notes other than it's kinda long so it might help some viewers if you had like timecoded 'parts' or themed segments noted in the description. Not a necessity but might help organize the video or keep some others interested.

Police Story's such a slap-a-rooni. Sure y'all will enjoy that one ~

Speaking of Police Stories, in Bruno Dumont's thread I found it serendipitous that Cronenberg was the Jury Prez presiding over L'humanité's winning. That film largely functions as a warped procedural. I bring this up because something you two orbit around in this video is both the "silliness" of some of the Brood's attacks (and their appearance) as well as the "detour" of the autopsy.

Detour's a good word for it, I think, and especially in relation to what Cronenberg must have picked up on regarding Dumont's frequency of warping tropes.

In a sense by veering off the expected - or given - path of the film's true through-line, we're allowed a glimpse into its wider scope. That is where Cronenberg's statement is allowed to be as loud as the symbolism because it implicates the expectation of form within its thematic thesis. Is our repression inhumane, in the way the Brood is? What alien anatomy can we reproduce? It creates just enough resistance against the family-crisis narrative (within an understood procedural trope) for something to click perhaps on what other-wordliness we impose on ourselves, just as the filmmaker can impose on our expectations.

Lolerz at Chrimbus special Dee Vee. I always thought it was the other way around and that Tim & Eric wanted to highlight those uncanny faces from The Brood, haha. Didn't know Don Post's name until I watched your vid, and I've been a fan of Halloween I and III for years! Cool to finally know what's what there! 

Something I'm always impressed by iz how consistent Cronenberg's approach to his theses have been even at smaller budgets and early in his career. Shivers and The Brood are just as accomplished as Videodrome and Crash, although they are jagged and scrappy. And personally I like Shivers and The Brood more than Scanners, in-part because of how they respect the B-Movie sensibility without sacrificing Cronenberg's academic mindset. Monster movies about humans. Mad respect to the pervert sage.

[WorldForgot]

The passion really shows! Lean in to the personal style you two share & cherish, any film nerds interested in this stuff will definitely be understanding of technical kinks. Personally I don't mind this length of YouTube video, and actually prefer it to podcasts because of how you can incorporate visuals. The auto-focus didn't bother me too much, and didn't even notice the sound stuff!

That's interesting about what you cut out! In a way I wonder if that's something you could maybe get creative with as you shape what the channel becomes? Like obvi it's up to y'all's preference, but seemz to me like ranking within a filmography is already more distinct than just a rating scale. Though I did laugh anytime Dee Vee was on screen ahah. Whichever way you swing it, the insight into your perspective combined with film history or analysis iz what will keep people hooked.

Your consideration of how Cronenberg allows us room to infer dynamics of who "mommy" and "daddy" refer to was great. Kinda funny how decades later he'd literally make a movie about Jung and Freud.