11. The Brood (1979)
Psychoplasmics. That's Dr Raglan's method of treating his patients. It basically involves displacing psychic pain onto the physical body which enacts changes of its own as a result. Nola Carveth is a deeply disturbed woman in the midst of a custody battle over her daughter Candice with her husband Frank. The effects of psychoplasmics upon Nola is grotesque and terrifying. Nola spawns a brood of demon creepy childlike dwarves who start as they mean to continue by killing Nola's grandmother Juliana. Juliana's estranged hubby is also killed by a freaky dwarf child. Frank manages to kill it and an autopsy reveals some bizarre facts about the creature. It is sexless, has no teeth nor a navel - so it presumably didn't come into the world in the natural way. After two creatures kill Candice's teacher, a former patient of Raglan's reveals the truth about the issue. The brood are the byproduct of Nola's psychoplasmic sessions. Nola suffered abuse in her childhood and the brood represent her rage at this misfortune. They murderously act upon the targets of her anger but Nola is not aware of this. In the end there is the requisite showdown and Nola joins the choir invisible with her spawn but it is hinted that Candice has a similar psychoplasmic problem going on as her mother. Yet more 1970s brilliance of David Cronenberg. The premise of demon rage fuelled children may sound silly and in another director's hands they might have ended up as Gremlins or Ghoulies, but Cronenberg makes them terrifying and realistic. You don't have to suspend your disbelief too much with this film. It features excellent, believable performances from Oliver Reed, Art Hindle and Samantha Eggar and it is probably Cronenberg's scariest work. A lot of the fear factor is down to the horrid deformed dwarf children. You won't be trying experimental forms of psychotherapy after you watch this movie!