Beyond the Brood
This special Halloween episode of Swerve South features associate director Theresa Starkey and fellow Gender Studies professors, Drs. Elizabeth Venell and Leslie Delassus, as they discuss David Cronenberg’s 1979 film, The Brood.
The ghoulish trio explains how the film fits into a larger canon of horror films from the 1970s that expose cultural anxieties around displaced manhood, the dread of second wave feminism, and monstrous wives/children run amok. Drawing upon Linda Williams’s theoretical framework about body genres in film—such as horror, pornography, and melodrama—our guests discuss The Brood’s fun combination of reproductive horror and domestic melodrama that explores masculine anxiety, feminine monstrosity, and the return of the abject. This conversation delves into other horrifying historical depictions of women’s mental health, as observations on mise-en-scéne find connections with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
Our host and guests dream up merchandise items inspired by the film, like a Brood fashion line and microbrew. They also share their favorite horror films to watch in preparation for Halloween. Don’t miss this spooktacular episode!
Read more about The Brood here:
“The Brood: Separation Trials” by Carrie Rickey
“The Brood: David Cronenberg's Divorce Angst Self-therapy” by Douglas Buck
“Children of Rage: David Cronenberg’s The Brood Turns 40!” by Meagan Navarro
Show Notes & Extras
Nora of The Brood
Click to read the referenced Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”