The Brood

Year: 1979
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: David Cronenberg
Genre: Horror: Evil children

The Brood has been on my watch list for a few years now. Finally I decided to give it a look and I'm mostly glad I did. For me, I have a really strong interest in horror films revolving around children, or more so, pregnancy. Not sure what that says about me...

Anyway, The Brood takes us into the world of a single father. His ex-wife is confined to a mental institution so he mostly lives as if it is just him and his daughter. After coming home from a visit to her mother, the daughter has marks on her body which the father reads as abuse. From here on, he tries to get sole custody of his daughter. It's too bad that there is a lot more at play in the story than this.

People begin to die around the small family and so the father must figure out what is the root of the matter as well as protect his child. I like seeing father/daughter films because it isn't as popular. I like to see fathers be protective but also loving and sweet to their children. So back to the film then. It is a nice mysterious drama that gets weirder the longer you watch it. Seriously, even after you find out who is doing the killings things continue to get stranger.

I liked the movie. It kept me interested throughout and especially grossed out during the finale. There will probably be a remake of this one day (if there isn't already) and I doubt it will be able to capture the pure disgust I felt during this one. Good stuff.

Girly

Year: 1970
Director: Freddie Francis
Writer: Brian Comport
Genre: Horror: Thriller

Girly is an odd little British film. In it, we have a family living all together in a great big house. Their names are Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly. In fact, their names were the original title of the movie but when it was brought to other locations they simply called it "Girly".

Sonny and Girly are two adorable and attractive teenagers who just love to play games. They play not only because it is a rule Mumsy imposes but because they enjoy it. One of their games is to find men and bring them back home with them. There they can play with everyone until Mumsy decides they are no longer needed. Once they are dull or break the rules they are murdered. Sounds like perfect family fun to me!

It's definitely unusual to see these characters all interacting. The home life of all the inhabitants is strangely infantile and free of adult logic. Even though there are multiple adults present it never seems any of them ever focus on "tough" matters. It's interesting to see how everyone interacts and how their world is normal to them.

Unfortunately, the movie is rather dull. There's some fun to be had but mostly I never was able to get into the groove of watching it. It also ends on a very abrupt note. You feel like the movie could continue on further but we never get to see the final resolution (you're simply left to assume).

Equinox

Year: 1970
Director: Jack Woods
Writer: Mark Thomas McGee
Genre: Horror: Sci-fi

Equinox is a film in the Criterion Collection. For the uninitiated, Criterion puts out DVDs of movies that are for some reason important in cinema history. Oftentimes these are films overlooked by others and usually watching something from the Criterion Collection is a good bet. They're also known for making very ornate DVDs but at extremely high prices.

That's why it was so striking to me when Equinox mostly felt like an average teen sci-fi slasher flick. I don't know the full history of the film however. What it seems to be is a more "modern" take on Ray Harryhausen-type monsters attacking people. Overall though the story is very average and the effects look hilarious. Obviously this was a different time but there are better examples of effects from the time period than this. Perhaps it truly was a love letter to older monster flicks.

There was something cool and unexpected about the film. The teenagers talked in a mostly regular fashion. They had great dialog back and forth which felt natural. This is especially good for the time period where a lot of teen flicks were relegated to weird, slang-ridden messes (Did anyone say Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?).

It was an okay film but mostly laughable. I wouldn't recommend it because nothing truly stands out. This wouldn't be the first time I've struck out with Criterion. Hausu is another film which is on their list purely for "odd" value. Apparently they're both cult classics, but they don't hit the mark for me.