10. Mutant Genitalia
Try this for a movie pitch to distributors: Jeremy Irons plays identical twin gynaecologists (Beverly and Elliot) that share sexual experiences with women between them without revealing that they are two different people. The shier of the two brothers then falls in love with a nymphomaniac actress and becomes addicted to the same drugs as her, ultimately succumbing to paranoid delusions about women with mutated vaginas. Eventually the twins, believing themselves to be emotionally inseparable, elect to die together without ever really explaining why. It's a confusing film, but it is one of Cronenberg's best and features outstanding performances from Irons. The standout sections of the film revolve around Beverly's delusions, with him falsely believing that the women he is operating on have mutated vaginas that require specially-designed equipment. The audience is never quite certain if Beverly is correct about the abnormal genitalia or simply in a drug-induced fantasy, but when he assaults a patient with one his custom tools - "There's nothing the matter with the instrument, it's the body. The woman's body is all wrong!" - it is a genuinely disturbing moment. Effectively, he slashes at the vagina of his patient/victim aggressively with the phallic instrument in a scene that allegorises rape. In a film that, up to this point, has employed slow and psychological horror elements, it is a shocking scene that Cronenberg delivers with trademark relish.