The Brood

David Cronenberg’s unflinching portrayals of the anxieties of the human body take a parental turn in The Brood – a portrait of a custody battle waged in the bodies of the family undergoing it. Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) undergoes a radical form of psychotherapy that produces mysterious and menacing pseudochildren who enact myriad horrors on her estranged husband Frank (Art Hindle) and daughter Candice (a wee Cindy Hinds). Often considered one of Cronenberg’s scariest films, made creepier by its release year (1979, same as Kramer vs. Kramer), and a proto-example of the now-common trope of horror as an allegory for trauma, The Brood screens at AFS the first weekend of April, ushering in the Easter season of rebirth.– Lina Fisher