 Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Muell-StahlDirector: David Cronenberg Year Of Release: 2007 Plot: When a teenager dies during childbirth, midwife Anna Kitrova hopes she can find a home for the baby by delving into the girls world. However her digging soon uncovers Russian Mafia boss Semyon and cleaner Nikolai, which takes Annas life in an unexpected and dangerous direction. |
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While David Cronenberg is known as the master of body horror, in recent years hes explored various other areas in the likes of Eastern Promises and A History Of Violence, and found a huge amount of both commercial and critical success doing so. Even his body horror movies stretch from the esoteric to the deliberately mainstream.
Having made movies for over 30 years now, the Canadian director has built up quite a back catalogue, but which of his movies are most worth seeking out. Heres my top 10 David Cronenberg movies…
10: eXistenZ (1999)
In my opinion a rather underrated Cronenberg effort, eXistenZ attempts to mix the body horror of his early work with a more mainstream plot, while exploring the then new idea of virtual reality. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the worlds top game designer, who is attacked by an assassin while showing off her latest game, eXistenZ, to a focus group. She then goes on the run, convincing marketing assistant Ted (Jude Law), to get a bio-port an outlet inserted straight into someones spine so he can play the game with her. However as they play, reality and the virtual world get more difficult to distinguish from each, especially as they cant guarantee that their actions in the game are their own and not controlled by their character. Although a bit weird and sometimes confusing, its a fascinating film that plays with a lot of interesting ideas.
9: The Brood (1979)
The Brood is of Cronenbergs earliest efforts that found a receptive audience outside his native Canada, and one which really shows off what people mean when they talk about body horror. Nola is in the care of an unconventional therapist who has invented a technique called psychoplasmics, designed to allow patients to get over their problems by letting their negative emotions create physical changes in their body. The result of the therapy for Nola is that she gives birth to a brood of strange mutant children, who are telepathically linked to their mother and act out her negative emotions. Unsurprisingly this has disastrous consequences. Cronenberg has said the film was partially inspired by a painful custody battle with his ex-wife, and it shows. The Brood is bizarre, disturbing, at times almost deliberately farcical, but well worth watching.
8: Spider (2002)
Spider marked a bit of shift for Cronenberg. While it still includes ideas he explored, such as the power of the mind and the point where reality and fantasy merge, the film was a move away from sci-fi and horror and towards a more arthouse aesthetic. Ralph Fiennes stars as the titular Spider, who has just been released to a halfway house after being institutionalised for 20 years, suffering from Schizophrenia. Receiving little support, he stops taking his medicine and starts haunting places from his childhood. While he believes he can remember what happened after his father murdered his mother in front of him as a child, he starts to see things that contradict that, and make it difficult for him, and us, to know where reality, hallucination and memory start and end. Although not the easiest of films, its a wonderfully evocative movie, which stays with you for days afterwards.
7: The Dead Zone (1983)
One of Cronenbergs more deliberately mainstream efforts, this Stephen King adaptation nevertheless retains many of his trademarks. Christopher Walken stars as a man whos been in a coma for five years after getting involved in a massive car wreck. When he awakens, he discovers he has the strange power to see into other peoples lives when he comes into physical contact with them, instantly reading their past, present and future. He has difficulty adjusting to life in his hometown, particularly as his girlfriend moved on with her life while he was in a come and married, and his new powers make him an outcast. However, he suddenly find a mission in life when he shakes a Senators hand and foresees that one day he will cause a nuclear holocaust. As with many King stories, it is admittedly a bit silly, but Cronenberg brings a mix of sadness and menace to it, which is often lost from Kings novels in the adaptation.
6: Dead Ringers (1988)
Strange, rather disturbing and once more showcasing Cronenbergs obsession with identity and where reality and delusion meet, Jeremy Irons stars as twin brothers who live a completely co-dependent existence. Both gynaecologists, Elliot, the more aggressive of the pair, seduces women who come to the clinic and when he tires of them, passes them on to his brother, Beverly, with the woman unaware of the switch. However when Beverly completely falls for one particular woman and comes to believe shes cheating on her, he descends into strange delusions about mutant women with strange genitalia. Its a film that gets weirder and scarier as it goes along, especially when you realise its partially based on the true story of Cyril and Stewart Marcus, identical twin gynaecologists who were found dead and partially decayed in the apartment they shared, having both died of barbiturate withdrawal.
5: Eastern Promises (2007)
Cronenbergs first movie made completely outside Canada, Eastern Promises is a powerful and violent film that may be very different from the directors earlier work, but which retains the same visceral power. The film follows midwife Anna Kitrova (Naomi Watts) who finds a Russian-language diary and a card for a restaurant on the body of Tatiana, a 14-year-old girl who dies in childbirth. Hoping to track down someone to look after the girls newborn child, her investigations lead her into the dangerous world of the Russian Mafia, and the discovery that the girl had been severely abused and forced into prostitution. This story goes on in tandem to the rise of cleaner Nikolai in the ranks of the Russian mob, with the two sides eventually coming together. With a truly astonishing fight scene, actors digging deep into their characters (while exploring Cronenbergs beloved interest in the duality of identity) and a true in your face attitude, Eastern Promises is no ordinary crime thriller, and is a movie that deserves to be seen.
4: Scanners (1981)
The film that along with Videodrome almost defines the early part of Cronenbergs career, Scanners is probably most famous for its exploding heads, which are still effective and shocking nearly 30 years later. The film is about the titular Scanners, a small group of people whose mothers were treated with a drug during pregnancy, which inadvertently gives the kids powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Vale doesnt know this is what he is, and has become a tramp because he cant handle other peoples voices in his head. After accidentally causing a woman to go into convulsions, he attracts the interest of a group called ConSec, who want to exploit Scanner abilities, but whove suffered a setback after their previous Scanner was killed by a renegade telepath called Revok. ConSec recruits Vale and sends him off to find Revok, who is far more powerful and dangerous than they realised. It may not be a truly great movie, but its very entertaining, has some great special effects and shows off many of Cronenbergs preoccupations. If nothing else, the exploding head has become a bit of a pop culture phenomenon.
3: The Fly (1986)
Although its probably the most mainstream Cronenberg has ever gone, The Fly his remake of the 1958 b-movie is still incredibly visceral and often more than a little gross, although never less than entertaining. They dont make horror like this anymore. Jeff Goldblum is Seth Brundle, a scientist working on a teleportation machine. After being inspired by an investigative journalist (Geena Davis) hes been trying to woo, he thinks hes finally achieved his goal when he transports a baboon from one pod to another. Deciding to test it on himself, he believes things have gone well, but theres a problem a fly was in the machine with him. This starts to have strange effects of him, with hairs growing on his back, his body suddenly becoming more athletic and getting incredible sexual stamina. While he initially refuses to believe anything is wrong, Seth continues to transform, becoming increasingly insect-like, while slowly falling to bits and losing any semblance of looking human.
2: A History Of Violence (2005)
While critics liked his more intellectual efforts and audiences preferred his more visceral efforts, A History Of Violence managed to merge the two, getting rapturous reviews and healthy box office. Based on a graphic novel, Cronenberg once more delves into issues of identity, while telling a tale that initially seems quite simple but which gets ever more complex. The film follows family man Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen), who becomes a local hero when he kills two murderers in his bar while protecting a waitress. Hes mortified to discover his actions are being reported in the papers, which causes mobsters to emerge claiming Tom is a former hitman. While Tom and his family try to fight off these seemingly bizarre accusations, it unleashes a chain of violence. A wonderful movie that has an interesting take on the idea of the dark side of small town America, A History Of Violence is a tense and smart film that is both engrossing and intelligent.
1: Videodrome (1983)
Although Cronenberg latest films are quite different to his earlier work, if you were going to distil the directors career down to one movie it would still be Videodrome. James Wood plays Max Renn, who runs a sleazy cable channel. After discovering a pirate signal called Videodrome, Max becomes obsessed with getting it for his channel, even though it appears to be showing real snuff films. As his obsession grows, he begins to experience hallucinations where his body becomes a deformed, vaginal VCR. These visions may be due to a brain tumour caused by Videodrome, and the programme itself may be part of a battle to control the minds of America. While on the surface the film seems strange and its themes handled too literally, over the years the Videodrome has become ever more prescient, exploring the growing obsession with television and its power whether its more than just entertainment, and how it exerts a powerful hold and influence on the viewer.
TIM ISAAC
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