IFWT #58 - The Brood (1979)

57 episodes in our back catalogue and we’ve never covered a David Cronenberg film yet. I know, we’re just as surprised as you are! So this week we’re rectifying that injustice by taking a look at one of his lesser regarded movies, but perhaps his most personal. The Brood was borne out of difficult circumstances, namely a painful divorce and child custody battle, elements which Cronenberg explores in his own, twisted way. Frank & Nola Carveth are separating, and their daughter Candice is torn between them. Frank is trying his best to care for her while Nola is confined to the Somafree Institute, receiving controversial psychiatric therapy from the mysterious Dr. Raglan, who is ‘coaching’ her to let go of her repressed emotions. A meditation on the animosity and destructive anger that can fester during a separation, and the bizarre and even dangerous ways people use to cope with such a situation, it has all the elements we love to discuss in a movie, and thus it’s a perfect subject for the new In Film We Trust deep dive.