Like many directors who began their careers in the 1970s, David Cronenberg started in the horror/exploitation genre because those kinds of films were easy to finance and rarely made a loss, but even though Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977) featured porn stars and graphic mayhem, they were clearly aiming higher than the lowest common denominator. Inspired by Cronenbergs own divorce, The Brood (1979) is a jet black comedy about a custody battle-embroiled father who realizes his wife has given birth to murderous clones, while in Scanners (1981) and Videodrome (1983), the director investigated such themes as telepathy and reality-morphing television. These early films are Cronenberg at his unhinged best, showcasing a talent thats cerebral but never pretentious, and always original. Cronenberg went mainstream with The Dead Zone (1983), one of the all-time best Stephen King adaptations, which led to more studio pictures including The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1990). His more recent films (Cosmopolis, Maps To The Stars) are artier and less accessible, so we eagerly await a return to the head-exploding days of his prime.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
