The Brood
Oh THE BROOD, how I love thee. Is there any better horror film for Mother's Day than THE BROOD? Is there any better horror film for any day than THE BROOD? From Kindertrauma's inception, we've always felt a keen bond with this CRONENBERG masterpiece. Here is a film that deals with two of our favorite pet themes, "Tykes in Trouble" and "Kids Who Kill" (albeit mutant kids) and although we've mentioned it in numerous posts, we've yet to really stop and give it the proper attention it deserves. Why? Because I have been way too scared to. THE BROOD, like much of CRONENBERG's work, is just so damn interesting on so many levels that it has always attracted absolutely fascinating discussions from minds much sharper than my own. How could little old me objectively examine something so grand when my gut instinct is to just bow down and kiss its feet? I guess I'm just going to have to man up because we need a proper THE BROOD post up in here and it's not going to write itself. So here goes kids, I'm throwing my propeller beanie into the ring…
ART HINDLE plays Frank Carveth a guy with many an issue, the least of which is the fact that he seems to own only one pair of corduroys. Frank discovers wounds on his young daughter Candace's back and suspects that they came courtesy of his strange, estranged and partially deranged ginger-ex Nola (perfectly cast hand grenade in a housecoat SAMANTHA EGGAR.) At the time Nola is undergoing unconventional therapy in a safe trap house called the Somafree Clinic, and any question as to whether this treatment will be beneficial is answered by the fact that Nola's Doctor, Hal Raglan, is portrayed by a tightly coiled ham sandwich named OLIVER REED. We follow Frank as he learns that there is a hideous side effect to Raglan's cutting edge work. Raglan's patients' pain, once drudged to the surface, manifest into physical form. In Nola's case, troll like beast children are spawned and are set out into the world to express her rage mostly by smashing people on her shit-list in the face with blunt objects.
It might all sound a tad silly, but in CRONENBERG's hands (or should I say through his mind?) it ends up saying more about the human condition (and family dysfunction in particular) than all the hand wringing dramas you can think of combined. Inspired by CRONENBERG's own strenuous divorce, there is real venomous acrimony here. Some (including the director himself) claim THE BROOD is his answer to KRAMER VS. KRAMER, and if it is, than his "answer" is a smack of a wooden meat mallet to each Kramer's skull with perhaps an extra little whack for the Mrs. As worthy as THE BROOD's concepts about how the mind affects the body are, the larger truth unearthed involves how abuse lingers from generation to generation in a family like an unshakable hereditary disease. Now that I think about it, maybe both ideas are as compatible as broken vases and black eyes.
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. While doing a little background reading on THE BROOD (yes, I was wearing bifocals) I came across, I'm sure a very well meaning person, who was outraged by a particular scene in the film. In the scene (which was built to disturb and therefore must be considered successful) a woman is savagely (and some say hilariously) bludgeoned to death in front of a group of young school children. The disgruntled viewer was upset that such a scene would ever be filmed with children present. I personally assume that precautions were taken like, I don't know, telling the kids that they were filming a movie or perhaps editing things in such a way, but something about this person's indignant tone stuck in my craw. It seems to me that a lot of adults spend a lot of time worrying about what children witness on television or in movies (as well they should), but not so much time worrying about what behavior they witness in their own homes. This might sound off topic, but I think that it is partially what THE BROOD is about, the lingering effects of witnessing domestic abuse (physical, verbal and psychological) and the curse of absorbing your elders' insecurities and prejudices (not to mention, rage). Violence on the T.V. is scary (check out this site called kindertrauma…) but sometimes mom and dad and grandma and grandpa leave real lasting wounds that you can't simply turn off with the flick of a switch.
Was that a soapbox I just stepped off of? I apologize, but as I said I cannot even pretend to critique THE BROOD; the movie is just too damn awesome and over my head. In order to leave on a positive note though, I will add this, the score, (the first of many done for CRONENBERG by HOWARD SHORE) is so incredibly perfect that it makes you want to slap someone.
Name That Trauma :: Reader Emily K. on a Lady Cop Fighting Flying Fleshy Ribcages
I was hoping you guys could name this trauma for me!
I must have been 9 or 10 when I was babysitting these two little girls and flipped the channel to this creepy looking movie T.V. It came in at like a female cop with short blonde hair who I guess had been futilely trying to conceive a baby. She gets dropped into some sort of weird underground cavern, I think she was chasing a guy…and she's on top of all these nasty, flesh-colored rotting things that look like human rib cages… or the front part of the ribs at least. She's all freaking out and stuff and then these cages start flapping like bats and each side of the rib cage is a wing and she's all freaking out and starts running and crying trying to find a way out.
Then all of a sudden she wakes up in a hospital and a creepy older lady is standing over her and starts cackling about how she's got her baby now and opens her dress to show a huge pregnant belly, only it's see through and you see a creepy baby growing inside and it's all nasty and opaque with nasty liquid and veins and stuff and the lady cop starts screaming and writhing in the bed; only when they pull the blanket off… her legs and arms have been chopped off!
The only other messed up detail I remember is when some guy she's looking at reaches and grabs hold on his upper lip and proceeds to pull up and rip his whole face off revealing a crazy looking nastiness underneath with no eyes or anything… just a creepy looking grin with teeth!
I've never been able to get those details out of my head for like 15 years and I never knew what the movie was called or what it was even about. I just remember I knew it was bad ‘cuz I made the girls I was babysitting watch something else out in the living room while I was rooted to the spot watching this nasty traumatizing stuff…gore has never been so eerily addictive!
Well, my searches thus far have been futile but hopefully someone on your site can enlighten me about this horrible kindertrauma I experienced!
UNK SEZ: Dear Emily, you have come to the right place because I know just the movie you are looking for! In fact I just finished watching an old VHS tape of it to double check and make sure. The movie is called NECRONOMICON and it is from 1993. It's an anthology film based on the work of H.P. LOVECRAFT and the part you remember was the third and final story "Whisper" which was directed by BRIAN YUZNA (BRIDE OF REANIMATOR). The film, as a whole, has an amazing cast of character actors that includes JEFFREY COMBS, RICHARD LYNCH, DAVID WARNER, BRUCE PAYNE and DENNIS CHRISTOPHER. This is a tough one to get on DVD but if you got one of them old-fashioned tape players you are in luck! Not everybody is too kind to this flick but I agree with you Emily, that the third segment is so whacked out it does kind of get under your skin!
Name That Trauma :: Reader Dan P. on Falling Females & Bad Birthdays
I have two, actually. Not sure if they're from the same movie or not. The first one involves a woman standing on a ladder which is in the hallway on the second floor, by the balcony. Someone (perhaps a child) pushes her off the ladder and she goes flying over the railing and hits the ground and dies. I thought that perhaps it was the scene in THE OMEN but it isn't. This is from a different movie.
The second trauma I have involves a birthday cake. I don't remember if it was a woman or a child, but just before or right after they blow the candles out, some sort of creature pops up from the cake and lets out some sort of ghastly scream. For a long time I was leery of birthday cakes because of this scene. Hope you can help!
UPDATE: The "Bad Birthday" trauma stems from the 1983 PETER WELLER classic OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. Special thanks to reader jaakko, and check the comments for a clip.
Name That Traumatot :: Round 7
Ten more traumatots, ten more movies to identify. How many do you know?
Name That Trauma :: Reader Sanjr on Soldiers Stalked by Crab Creatures
Salutations,
I got one for everyone that has had me going nuts for YEARS!!!
All I can remember for sure that it involved British or German soldiers during a war I just don't recall.
They were being preyed on by what I remember to be giant crab-like creatures (Yeah…that's right. Crab-like creatures). Why were the monster(s) there? I don't remember.
I remember one particular scene where a group of soldiers come upon a victim of said creatures & one of them vomits in disgust at the sight. That's all I remember, that & the poster which I believe was all black except for the eyes of the creature glowing in the dark….I think.
I don't even remember if it was in color or black & white but I'm leaning towards b&w.
The film traumatized me then & while I think I'm pretty much over it, I haven't seen it since (I saw it on the big screen by the way with my dad somewhere between '69-'73. I know that's a big time span but I'm pretty sure it was in there 'cuz I started going to the movies with my dad in '68 & I'm pretty sure it wasn't that year) so who knows?? I might just shrink into the fetal position if I got a chance to see it again.
I'm not sure I wanna do that but I do need to find out the name of the picture so if anyone out there has any idea what it is…then lemme know & free me of this torture!!!
By the way, this is the greatest website ever. I just thought I oughta throw that in. Thanx for rehashing the worst memories of my celluloid childhood.
Sanjr
Name That Trauma :: Reader PhantomWerewolf on a Book Cover Bearing a Haunted House & Ghostly Gal
Hey Aunty and Unk!
Got a Name That Trauma for you guys, hope someone can help me out. Once again, this little trauma comes in the form of a book. I don't remember much about this book, I only remember that it was titled something odd. Something like "The House that Came to Life" or something of the sort. Anyway, on the front of this book was a really freaky lookin' old abandoned house, and on the center balcony of this haunted house was a ghostly woman.
Like I said, I don't recall much about the book having only looked at the pictures inside. I think there was something about a family moving into the haunted house… and there was a fire near the end. That's it. Hope someone can help me out!
Sincerely,
PhanWolf
Kinder-Editorial :: Kinderpal Mickster on the Horrors of Snoopy Come Home
Utter joy is what I felt when I first learned there was a feature length Charlie Brown cartoon, and it would soon air on CBS. What I didn't know was the traumatizing effect it would have on me as a child. One might assume it was Snoopy leaving Charlie Brown to live with his previous owner, Lila, that disturbed me, but that event was only a drop in the bucket of despair that is SNOOPY COME HOME.
Let us begin with the discrimination and prejudice endured by Snoopy. Right from the beginning of the film, Snoopy is cast out of all his favorite spots simply because he is a dog. A familiar deep voice (THURL RAVENSCROFT) sings, "No Dogs Allowed!" throughout the film. Even Woodstock is not immune to these senseless acts of bigotry. At the beach, library, bus, hospital, and apartment complex Snoopy is deemed unworthy.
Next, we are introduced to a future serial killer. As Snoopy and Woodstock are making their journey, they encounter a seemingly harmless little girl. The soon find, however, she is not harmless at all. Before you can say Lizzie Borden, Snoopy has a thick rope tied around his neck, and Woodstock is shoved into a cage. This diabolical girl likes her victims clean, so she proceeds to almost drown poor Snoopy in the tub. Her next step is to dress her victim, and play tea party where she purposely spills tea then blames Snoopy. She puts Snoopy across her knee and spanks him. This is truly twisted stuff. Snoopy makes a break for it and attempts to call for help. Unfortunately, she retches the phone from his paw and drags him to the local vet. Luckily, Snoopy escapes the vet's office and rushes back to the crime scene to help Woodstock get away. Nail-biting action ensues as the psychopath chases Snoopy and Woodstock through the house of horrors. In the end, Snoopy and Woodstock barely escape with their lives. I find it interesting psycho-girl keeps calling to her mother about her new pets, but there is no reply. My theory is the mother has already been dispatched PSYCHO-style by this miniature serial killer in the making.
The final death nail, for me, was the going away bash held for Snoopy after he announced his plans to live permanently with his former owner, Lila. When even Lucy begins crying over Snoopy's imminent departure you know it is for real. I cannot recall if I made it through the entire going away party before slipping off to my bedroom to sob uncontrollably. Once again, as she always did, my mother came looking for me. She encouraged me to return for the rest of the movie. Happily, I returned just in time to see Snoopy come home to Charlie Brown.
Many years later, I shared this film with my niece. I wondered if I had been a total wimp when I had watched the movie as a child. I soon found my niece had an almost identical reaction to the movie. I, like my mother, had to coax her into finishing the movie.
Little Otik
Perhaps the one thing your Aunt John knows even less about than birthing babies is the actual desire to have one in the first place. Really, the last thing I need is someone else to ruin my figure, or a write a tell-all book about my disdain for wire hangers. Despite my intrinsic lack of maternal yearnings, I found myself drawn into the dilemma of the childless Czech couple in surrealist director's JAN SVANKMAJER's LITTLE OTIK. After the hopelessly impotent Karel (JAN HARTL) fails at impregnating his barren wife Bozena (VERONIKA ZILKOVA, a dead-ringer for HOPE DAVIS if there ever was one), he carves her a baby boy from a gnarled tree root. Bozena is instantly smitten with her psychotic-looking PINOCCHIO, which she names Otik, and begins mothering it as if it were a real child.
Director SVANKMAJER skillfully sets up the action to first seem that Bozena is so far removed from reality that she really thinks her swaddled root is a living and breathing baby. Alas, Bozena is not completely bonkers, though her later actions speak otherwise; Otik is quite the animate object with an even bigger appetite to match. Without spoiling too much, let's just say he successfully moves from the bottle stage to solids in record time.
Providing a perfect foil to the harried parents with the killer (tree) tyke is the downstairs neighbor girl Alzbetka (KRISTINA ADAMCOVA). The parallels between Alzbetka and THE BAD SEED's Rhoda Penmark, on the surface, are somewhat obvious: the tow-headed plats, the expressionless affect, and the precocious ingenuity needed to dispatch a pesky pedophile. What differentiates Alzbetka from Rhoda is her subtle transformation from one-note creep to full-fledged Mother Hen. When his parents abandon Oztik, Alzbetka, just short of strapping on one of those BabyBjörns that bother me so, picks up the slack and steps in as the ‘tween surrogate mother figure. As she is cleaning out her mother's refrigerator, ADAMCOVA steals the movie out from everyone, when the third and final act becomes, more or less, her story.
Known for the animated shorts MEAT LOVE and FLORA, which both make cameos in the film, director SVANKMAJER brings his passion for food, signature animation style, and eye for disconcerting close-ups to LITTLE OTIK. Despite its lengthy run-time (2 hrs. 6 min.), the hypnotic visuals speed the movie along. The next time one of your mid-to-late thirties gal pals starts kvetching about her biological clock, sit her down and make her watch this film. Motherhood is really not for everyone, and it is not without its consequences.
*Special thanks to Reader Tara S. for bringing this gem to our attention!
Baby Blues
2008's BABY BLUES (be careful there are two films from ‘08 which bear this title!) is a snarling little wombat of a movie and, like a misanthropic reality show contestant, it's not here to make friends. A minimum of blood is actually spilt on screen, but its subject matter crosses a line that is sure to leave thin-skinned viewers clutching their pearls and mentally designing picket signs. Helen Lovejoy, ya better sit down, this movie is about a mommy who kills her very own children! Now, it's a well known fact that the fairer sex is completely incapable of such atrocities in real life and that the history of the world has absolutely zero examples of a mother injuring her own children, but here it is anyway…they've gone and made a female version of THE SHINING!
This is a difficult little movie folks, and that's why I like it. It's not easy watching a mother decide that in order to properly clean house some moppet heads have to roll, but horror never signed up to be easy. In fact, horror pretty much yearns to make you feel a bit uncomfortable and my advice is to let it. I'm saying this because some viewers really are taking offense to this movie, which, in a way, I think is a good thing. Can someone please explain to me why Jack Torrance can run about swinging an axe at his family and wind up with his grinning mug on a Spencer's Gifts refrigerator magnet, but as soon as a Mom decides to grab a meat cleaver and follow suit people get all fidgety? Sounds like some ol' fashioned sexism to me! C'mon, there are not enough female horror icons as it is out there. I think it's time we got behind our trauma-mommas and support their right to go nut-zo! Sure this mom actually snuffs an infant (off camera by the way) and I know nobody likes that idea much but omelets or eggs people? Do you want your delicious scary omelets or do you want to keep your boring eggs?
As illustrated by our list of the 10 MOST HORRIFYING MOVIE MOMS, there is a rich history of killer moms in horror cinema, so what is so especially unnerving about this one? (I mean besides the whole infanticide bit.) My guess is that part of the unease comes from the fact that BABY BLUES catches the viewer off guard by showing a pretty accurate and sympathetic view of mental illness in the beginning (I was reminded of the brilliant CLEAN, SHAVEN) and then it abruptly morphs into full on genuine stalk and slash by the end (Mom really does give Michael Myers a run for his money.) It's a sharp turn to ask of an audience within such a short time. This clash of tones becomes shriller still when the poor soul we watched fighting off crying jags and audio hallucinations earlier in the film begins spouting out one too many clever zingers ala "Here's Johnny!" It's sort of like watching the LIFETIME Channel with one eye and FEARNET with the other, but gee; didn't I just describe the greatest thing ever? I'll admit that the logic defying closing scene is nearly impossible to swallow, but I chomped my nails like a cob of corn throughout the film and that's more than enough for me.
Directors LARS E. JACOBSON and AMARDEEP KALEKA do a great job spotlighting images of warm domestic paraphernalia and creating ominous environments out of the typically mundane. There are some great performances here too from actors you'll no doubt see much more of in the future. COLLEEN PORCH as "Mom" fearlessly goes from alpha to omega and brings to mind ANGELINA JOLIE when she still had some moxie and lived on Earth (oh, the halcyon days of GIA). RIDGE CANIPE as the final kid never seems less than real and that too can be said of the young actors who play his siblings. JOEL BRYANT as "Dad," besides providing a much-needed dose of gravitizing stability, has now earned the title of permanent Kindertrauma pin-up (I had to explain to Aunt John that the title BABY BLUES was a reference to postpartum depression and not JOEL's peepers.) This movie is certainly not for everybody, but if you dig real horror and are not afraid of a little squirming you should check it out. Heck, I'll go one further and call it the perfect Mother's Day gift!
