Sunday March 15th was acclaimed Canadian film maker David Cronenberg’s birthday. Called “the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world,” Cronenberg is known for his unique blend of horror and science fiction that feeds on our fragile mortality. He was born and currently resides in Toronto, ON and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
There is a distinct evolution of style in Cronenberg’s films, and our selection tonight will explore that arc with films that touch on many different genres but have the distinct signature he employs. There are horror films that range from large-scale zombie panic to a more psychological creeping terror, critically acclaimed dramas, and science fiction used to contrast subjective and objective realities. Tonight, we celebrate his birth with one of his films.
The choices for Monday Movie Night’s The Crew Pulls a Cronenberg are:
Rabid (1977) – 91 min
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after undergoing experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into rabid, blood-thirsty zombies who proceed to infect others, which turns into a city-wide epidemic.
The Brood (1979) – 90 min
A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist’s therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband’s investigation.
Scanners (1981) – 103 min
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.
The Fly (1986) – 96 min
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
Dead Ringers (1988) – 116 min
Twin gynecologists take full advantage of the fact that nobody can tell them apart, until their relationship begins to deteriorate over a woman.
eXistenZ (1999) – 97 min
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
Spider (2002) – 98 min
A mentally disturbed man takes residence in a halfway house. His mind gradually slips back into the realm created by his illness, where he replays a key part of his childhood.
Eastern Promises (2002) – 100 min
A Russian teenager living in London who dies during childbirth leaves clues to a midwife in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
Cosmopolis (2012) – 109 min
Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager’s day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.