The Brood (Uncut) Review Country : USA Year: 1979 Genre: Horror Format: DVD Running Time: 88 mins Distributor: Anchor Bay Pit of Horror reviews what is considered a classic Cronenberg piece and is certainly a mind teaser... Credits Written and directed by David Cronenberg, The Brood stars Oliver Reed as Dr Raskin, Samantha Eggar as Nola Carveth, Art Hindle as Frank Carveth and Cindy Hinds as Candice Carveth. Frank Carveth's wife Nola has been in the care of Dr Raskin for quite some time, undergoing controversial psychotherapy. Already suspicious of Raskin and his methods, Frank fears for his daughter's wellbeing when after picking Candice up from visiting her mother, he notices bruises and scrapes all over her body while bathing her. He thus sets out to discover exactly what is going on while patients are in Raskin's care. He comes closer to solving the puzzle when he stumbles across one of the killers who has just murdered his father in law. Conveniently the pint sized murderer keels over and dies in the shower room. As the viewer we have now learned that any rage directed to a person from Nola Carveth, in this case her father, results in them being murdered by what appears to be a deformed midget. And thus the autopsy commences and we learn that we are dealing with something not quite human, with no genitalia, belly button, unusual and powerful jaw structure (for improved biting power) and some kind of yoke sack which the little blighters feed from until it diminishes and they keel over. In short, it's one of Nola's brood and not surprisingly looks like an ugly version of Candice Carveth. When Candice's kindergarten teacher is murdered by two of the brood, who then kidnap Candice, this leads Frank to Dr Raskin and Nola. Dr Raskin surprisingly decides to try and help Frank get his daughter back, but everything gets a bit ugly. The pace of the movie as a whole is very slow, but the casting is good with all the major characters effective in their roles with some great spots of acting. With a nice stand out cameo type role from Robert A. Silverman as Jan Harthog. Somebody who himself has suffered at the hands of Dr Raskin. It is pretty obvious why Cronenberg built up a rapport with this talented actor. The Brood instantly feels like a film with a good production value for it's time, Cronenberg isn't messing around, but I just don't think it grips you quickly enough. Everything falls slowly into place, which I guess is the intention and the style of the time, but it really left me simply bored in places. By all means it is a movie which any self respecting horror fan should check out and it does showcase Cronenberg's visual prowess as a director and sports a memorable performance from the late Oliver Reed as the mysterious and much maligned Dr Raskin. The Pit definitely thinks you should atleast check this one out. You might love it, since in my opinion it is an aquired taste. VIEW THE TRAILER DISCUSS ON OUR FORUMS Review by Rich Carlin, for Pitofhorror.com