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Scanners (1981)
Scanners sees Cronenberg expand on his obsessions with the body horror of his first few movies. Here he also delves into mind control, ESP and telepathy. He has a bigger budget to work with and it shows, with the cinematography, set and sound design a noticeable step up from Shivers, Rabid and The Brood. We also have the incomparable Patrick McGoohan versus Michael Ironside in a battle of good against evil, and some truly awe inspiring special make up effects. The infamous head explosion scene alone is worth the price of admission and it's still impressive today. Cronenberg hasn't quite escaped his b-movie roots with this film, but there's a lot more going on here than just empty spectacle. Scanners is intriguing in a way that most horror movies are not and its success allowed Cronenberg to continue to explore a more cerebral brand of horror that has become synonymous with him and his singular vision. |
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Videodrome (1983)
This is where David Cronenberg really came into his own. It's an original story that really could only be told by David Cronenberg. James Woods stars as a sleazy television executive who discovers some strange unnamed S&M style porn being broadcast and sets about tracking down where it's coming from. The rest of the film is his hallucinogenic journey which involves kinky sex, body metamorphoses, a big jelly telly that swallows him up - you get the idea. This film is unique in its twistedness; Woods inserts videotapes among other things into his stomach and the film gives a whole new meaning to the word 'handgun'. While on the surface this could be seen as merely schlock horror, the performance of Woods and the underlying commentary on the power of the media elevates this several levels above your average shocker, as does Cronenberg's continued exploration of body horror and augmentation. |
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The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg hits the jackpot with this big budget remake of the famous b-movie from the 50s, and Jeff Goldblum becomes a bona fide movie star, along with Geena Davis. The theme is a natural fit for Cronenberg and the lead role is perfect for Goldblum who really immerses himself in the part. He's Seth Brundle - a scientist researching teleportation whose DNA becomes spliced with that of a fly. His gradual metamorphosis from human to human-fly hybrid (or 'Brundlefly' as he calls himself) is a sight to behold, and behold we do because Cronenberg interrogates the idea of a human turning into a fly with a degree of scientific rigour unheard of in the horror genre, and he's helped by absolutely mind blowing and stomach churning make up effects that were a revalation at the time. But at it's heart this is a character study of a brilliant rational mind trapped in a body that's being distorted and degraded over time into something gruesome, and it's soul crushing to witness Brundle observing and reporting his metamorphosis and slow demise. |
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Dead Ringers (1988)
This is the story, apparently based on actual events, of a set of twins, both working in Canada as gyneacologists. One is an ambitious, confident person and the other is shy and introverted. Their lives become more complex and intertwined as they pretend to be each other, in more and more personal ways. Eventually they achieve some sort of weird symbiosis where they each end up dealing with their deficiencies and weaknesses by submitting to the other's strengths. As this behaviour progresses though it becomes more and more of a balancing act until their co-dependencies must be maintained to a minute degree through drugs and alcohol. The insidious and destructive effects of this kind of behaviour is expertly demonstrated by Cronenberg and Jeremy Irons, who plays both twins with an impressive degree of subtlety and precision is absolutely terrific at both parts. Genevieve Bujold is also very good as the confused girlfriend of the twins. This is a slow burner of a film that gets under your skin, and is more disturbing as it progresses. |
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Naked Lunch (1991)
The first of the unadaptable classic novel adaptations that Cronenberg decided to tackle, and a fine job he does too. William Burroughs wrote this drug-addled tale of his experiences as an artist (and a raging homosexual) in Tangiers in the fifties. And then he mixed up all the pages and voila! you've got Naked Lunch, except you're now in Interzone and your typewriter talks to you and there's a lot of suspicious characters around and weirdoid creatures called mugwumps start bending your ear in the casbah. Well, if you like your films to look exotic, and never be quite sure what the hell's going on then this is for you. It's not the easiest introduction to Cronenberg if you've never seen his films, but it's strangely compelling, very trippy and features some fine performances. There's such an odd and unsettling atmosphere to this, combined with outright bizarreness that if you're in the right mood this will blow you away. And if you happen to be watching it while under the influence then I wish you good luck. |
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Crash (1996)
After doing a such a good job of adapting the supposedly unadaptable Naked Lunch Cronenberg was obviously feeling confident that nothing in literature was impossible to successfully adapt, so he set himself an even tougher challenge in adapting J.G. Ballard's subversive and ultra-weird novel about a group of disparate people obsessed with testing the limits of their sexual tolerances. James Spader and Holly Hunter seem to feed off the intense extremes of emotions inherent in car crashes and they each become obsessed with this road they've chosen to travel in their own way. Cronenberg explores fully the motivations and fetishistic obsessions of each of the main characters in much more detail than most mainstream audiences cared for, and the resulting film is utterly compelling - like a bad car accident, you might say. There's no plot as such, and the motivations of the characters can sometimes be a bit hard to relate to, but you have to admit it would be difficult to imagine a film that conveys the sentiment and mood of the source better than this. |
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