How to Build a Better Monster

The womb of doom and "The Brood"

The Brood. Director: David Cronenberg. 1979.

WARNING: Contains plot spoilers

WARNING #2: I’m diving into this “analysis” without reading any criticism (Oh Amazon.com gods, please send me my books!) and without having much critical background in the horror genre. Additionally, my brain is still warming up from summer vacation. I apologize for any lack of clarity and insight on my part, but I’m still trying to work out this film. I will extend and revise my work after more research and additional viewings.

At the Somafree Institute, Dr. Raglan treats patients with a new therapy called “Psychoplasmics.” Those that Raglan treats are emotionally unstable, and during therapy, he assumes the identities of people with whom his patients are angry. He encourages their rage to be directed outward, thus showing progress in the form of bleeding sores on their bodies.

There is one patient, a woman named Nola, with whom Raglan seems especially fascinated. He keeps Nola in separate quarters (thus causing jealousy among other patients who suspect she’s receiving special treatment) and has even barred her husband from visiting her for the duration of treatment. Nola has been isolated for several years, but she suddenly takes a new spin in her progress.

Although Nola is contained within the institute, her family members become victims in strange circumstances. First, Nola’s daughter Candy exhibits strange wounds across her back, immediately prompting her father, Frank, to accuse Nola of abuse. The situation becomes more bizarre when a small, strange figure breaks into Nola’s mother’s kitchen and bludgeons her. Soon after, Nola’s father meets his death in a similar fashion.

After seeing these attacks and observing Nola’s therapy sessions with Dr. Raglan, we realize that Nola’s anger is manifesting itself in a new way. When once she turned her inner turmoil into bodily scars, she is now capable of turning that hatred outward – as an extension of her body.

As the film progresses, we learn that despite being in isolation, Nola has somehow spawned a colony of children who travel beyond the institute to attack their mother’s enemies. Upon first glance, the children resemble Nola’s biological daughter Candy, who has fair skin and blonde hair. They even wear snowsuits similar to her Candy’s. However, their faces are ghoulish, and their behavior is murderous.

The Brood portrays the womb (and in turn, woman) as a device capable of giving birth to INhuman life. And after watching the film, I can’t help but think of other instances in film and fiction where women’s bodies are often portrayed as fertile nests for monsters, aliens, and demon children. In The Astronaut’s Wife, an alien inhabits an astronaut’s body in order to impregnate his wife with its extraterrestrial seed. Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls concerns itself with human-vampire crossbreeds and the continuation of the species. The list of texts and films dealing with species crossbreeds and alien impregnation could go on and on, I’m sure.

In spite of the fact that Nola has produced evil children, this is not a sufficiently horrific portrayal of her as a monstrous woman. It seems that the viewer is most taken aback when Nola reveals that she is pregnant again, and there is a huge amniotic sac hanging from her belly.

By today’s standards, the special effects in The Brood are lacking; nonetheless, this scene terrifies. When Nola opens her nightgown to reveal to Frank the pulsing entombed fetus, he nearly gags. We too are shocked. This image becomes even more grotesque when Nola raises the sac to her mouth and tears it from her body with her teeth. Then, with a blood-smeared face, Nola begins to lick her newborn clean with primitive, animal-like passion. She gives in to her maternal instincts, and Frank (as well as the audience, I assume) cannot help but feel disgust.

Frank then proceeds to strangle Nola, and consequently, the brood dies.

And after this, I am left wondering what MADE Nola so monstrous? One could argue that she is a good mother, afterall; she cares deeply for her children. Her fierce independence and her supernatural ability to conceive children completely on her own – without a male partner – is what accounts for Nola’s freakishness. Perhaps what Frank most fears is that Nola has rejoiced in her role as a single mother, and has survived (thrived, even) without a husband and father to her children.

Posted by Kate Cielinski at September 13, 2004 8:10 PM