The essential films of …. David Cronenberg!

If there is one movie director who could epitomise a Horror genre rich in grotesque practical Body-Horror effects, then David Cronenberg is unquestionably that man. He started writing and making low budget movies in the 1970s, shlock Horror films such as Shivers (1975) Rabid (1977) and The Brood (1979) – which instantly left their mark on independent cinema with a forward thinking originality.

These early Cronenberg movies were largely financed by the Canadian government, and paved the way for a career that would see his style standout amongst his contemporaries in the 1980s, as he produced a string of iconic Horror stories blended with Science Fiction.

Cronenberg’s work helped define and coin the Body-Horror phrase, with an exerburant use of practical effects to aid visual body transformations, while showing visceral scenes of violence and gore that would become his trademark.

As with any film-maker who has been honing his craft over four decades, Cronenberg’s output has progressed and developed over the years. He produced a number of films in the 1990s which strayed from the Sci-Fi / Horror genre, but largely retained the controversy of his early work.

While in the 2000s he branched out further, creating dramas in the gangster genre, a period piece based on the relationship between Carl Yung and Sigmund Freud (A Dangerous Method – 2011), and a minimalist contemporary character driven adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel Cosmopolis (2012).

In 2022 Cronenberg released his first feature film in a decade, a reimagining of one of his earliest creations – Crimes Of The Future. This was a return to the Science Fiction genre, and also a return to the tone and visceral feel of the classic movies from his heyday. Take a journey with us, as we explore the essential works of the master auteur’s illustrious career so far :

1. // The Fly (1986)

Cronenberg’s critically acclaimed remake of the 1958 classic creature feature, follows journalist Veronica (Geena Davis –Thelma and Louise) as she meets reclusive and eccentric scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum – Jurassic Park) at a scientific convention, where she is searching for a new story. Veronica accompanies Seth to his home and research lab to see the invention that he claims is going to change the world.

Here he shows her two teleportation pods and is seamlessly able to move one of her stockings through space, from one to another. Seth convinces Veronica to sit on the discovery and keep it quiet while he works on his ultimate goal, which is to transport a living organism. She is keen to publish the story now, but he convinces her to shadow him while he finalises his invention, and work on creating an exclusive book that will make them both rich.

She agrees, and as they spend time together romance ensues. Veronica takes on the role of Seth’s muse and inspires him to work out what he needs to change, in order to successfully teleport living tissue. On completion of a successful trial with a baboon, Seth cannot wait any longer. And following an argument between them, an intoxicated Seth decides to experiment on himself while left alone by Veronica. But what he does not realise is that prior to his successful disintegration and reanimation between the pods, a fly had entered the chamber with him.

From here over a period of time, a grotesque transformation takes place as Seth’s DNA merges with that of the insect, and Veronica finds herself in the middle of her own unimaginable horror story. Cronenberg’s direction is superb as we witness Seth’s body fall apart and metamorphosis. The movie is loaded with iconic scenes, many of which shocked audiences at the time. While Jeff Goldblum delivers the performance of his career, in this character driven 80s Sci-Fi / Horror masterpiece. KZ

2. // A History Of Violence (2005)

Based on the graphic novel written by John Wagner and in our opinion Cronenberg’s finest film of the 2000s so far, A History Of Violence opens very much like a Tarantino-esq movie. We first meet Leland and Billy, two dangerous criminals who think nothing of murdering the proprietors of a motel they have spent the night in. They travel into a small town and take respite in a cafe owned by quiet and un-assuming family man Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen – The Lord Of The Rings).

The criminals quickly show their true colours and their intention to rob the joint, while inflicting violence on the staff. But in an incredible blink and you’ll miss it scene of action, Tom is quickly able to disarm and kill both men, allowing for Cronenberg to slip in a trademark shot of grotesque body horror – as we literally see the face hanging off of one of them. Tom becomes a hero in the town, and soon his heroic action is plastered all over the regional news.

As Tom recovers from the ordeal his business is booming, but his cafe is soon visited by the shady and mysterious Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris – The Truman Show), who refers to Tom as Joey, suggesting he is not who he says he is. Tom denies knowing what he is talking about and an awkward encounter ensues, before Fogarty and his goons start harassing Tom and his family.

The local sheriff does some research and informs the family that the men are part of a serious organised crime syndicate from Phillidelphia. Cronenberg perfectly builds the tension as we start to question Tom’s background, and the pacing is spot on as the truth starts to unravel, along with the perfect home life that struggles to maintain. Including the complex relationships he shares with his wife and teenage son. The film masterfully builds to the eventual truth, and a memorable final showdown as Tom faces up to his past. KZ

3. // The Dead Zone (1983)

Cronenberg joined a select club of directors inc Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) and John Carpenter (Christine) – when he adapted a Stephen King novel for the screen, at a time when King was one of the hottest young writers in Horror during the 70s and early 80s. Scored by renowned composer Michael Kamen, The Dead Zone tells the story of teacher Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken – The Deer Hunter), who following a car accident spends five years in a coma and wakes to discovers that life has moved on without him.

After touching the arm of his nurse, Johnny has a premonition of her daughter screaming in a burning bedroom. The vision turns out to be true, which enables the fire service to be called and her life to be saved. He then experiences a flashback of a child being evacuated during WW2 when touching the hand of his doctor, and it becomes clear he has awoken from his coma with a powerful new gift. Cronenberg paces the story superbly and draws one of the performances of Christopher Walken’s career, as Johnny comes to terms with his new found psychic ability.

News of his gift becomes widespread and soon Johnny is visited by a Police sheriff who asks him if he will help with the case of the Castle Rock Killer. A serial murderer of women who has been active during the time of Johnny’s coma. He is taken to the crime scene when a new body is discovered, and flashbacks to her murder where he sees the face of her killer. This enables the police to track him down, leading to the gruesome discovery of an suicide scene and a torture chamber.

Eventually Johnny hides away in solitude as he feels overwhelmed by the hundreds of people who write to him seeking help with their missing children and unsolved mysteries. He eventually meets corrupt politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen – Apocolypse Now), and foresees him launching a devastating nuclear strike against Russia after becoming president in the future. Johnny questions what would you do if you were able to go back in time and kill Adolph Hitler in order to stop the Holocaust? Before realising he must become an assassin himself, in order to save humanities future. KZ

4. // Dead Ringers (1988)

Dead Ringers tells the story of identical twins Beverly and Elliott Mantle (both played by Jeremy Irons – Die Hard With A Vengeance) who grow up to be brilliant gynaecologists. They take great pleasure in taking advantage of the fact that no one can tell them apart, by switching roles and merging their two lives together. Sharing women and social engagements when it suits them.

Their arrangement becomes complicated with the introduction of actress Claire (Geneviève Bujold – Coma). As they form differing feelings for her, creating conflict in their own relationship and bringing forth the opposites in their own psychological profiles. A memorable dream sequence in which Beverly and Elliot are conjoined and in bed with Claire, ends with her ripping out their entrails with her teeth, allowing Cronenberg to showcase his trademark gruesome practical effects.

Claire struggles to work out the Jekyl and Hyde aspects of their personalities before she eventually learns the truth. From here the shyer Beverly spirals into alcoholism and prescription drug addiction, as he struggles with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. While the extroverted Elliot shrugs off the situation as a mere blip in their perfect art of deception. Beverly’s drug use takes him deeper down a rabbit hole of insanity, and his work methods take a dark turn as he develops a bizarre set of instruments.

Performing a drug hazed procedure and almost killing a woman on the operating table in the process. Gradually he drags Elliot down with him as their carefully orchestrated world falls apart around them, and they decide to they cannot go on living as two minds. Dead Ringers is a brilliantly executed and haunting portrayal of the relationship between the two brothers, beginning with the innocence of childhood and the spoils of success. Before slowly descending into a dark, bleak and miserable finalè. KZ

5. // Videodrome (1983)

One of the prominent early films to showcase the unique style of Body-Horror that Cronenberg would become renowned for, Videodrome tells the tale of Max Renn (James Woods – The Specialist) – a TV programmer who specialises in adult content. He becomes obsessed with a mysterious and bizarre violent pirate video transmission of torture and murder, that he feels will have the perfect cutting edge for his station. The film co-stars Blondie’s Deborah Harry in her debut role as Nicki Brand, who Max seduces after meeting her on a chat show where they discuss the allure of extreme visual content.

Cronenberg shows a blurring of pleasure with pain during their love making, highlighting a thin line between the relationship of sex and violence, which is a recurring theme throughout the movie. The film also provides a social commentary on the impact extreme images has on our psyche, and the role censorship can / should play in society. There is a noir feel to the narrative as Max investigates the origins of the illicit Videodrome broadcast, and he begins to understand that the content may be real, and not as make believe as he first thought.

On receipt of a new Videodrome tape, the broadcast starts to speak to Max directly, drawing him into the screen which manifests into a mind bending hallucination, with Nicki seducing him into the television. As his hallucinations intensify Cronenberg flexes his Body-Horror chops (with special effects from the master Rick Baker – An American WereWolf In London), in a scene where Max hides a gun inside his own body through a scar on his stomach.

Videodrome is an iconic film, stylistically very much an epitome of the 80s as it features VHS tapes, clunky TV’s and dated radio equipment. As the story progresses, Max dives deeper into a world of virtual reality, where he is able to act out fantasies of S&M, but is never quite sure what is real and what is a dream. The hallucinations begin to create subliminal messages, until he eventually becomes an assassin for Videodrome’s creators. Becoming a part of their plan to take over his TV station, so they can broadcast to and brainwash the nation. KZ

6. // Eastern Promises (2007)

Cronenberg’s second film of the 2000s stars Viggo Mortensen (A History Of Violence / Crimes Of The Future) and tells a story set around Russian mobsters in London. It opens with a typically graphic execution scene as we meet an unknown male whose throat is slit while sitting in a barbers. We then meet Anna (Naomi Watts – Mullholland Drive) – a midwife who delivers a premature baby after a Jane Doe comes into the hospital.

The mother dies in childbirth and Anna takes it upon herself to investigate the origins of the baby, with only the females diary written in Russian to go on. The diary leads her to restaurant owner Semyon, his son Kirill and their driver / bodyguard Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). As Anna begins to have the diary translated by her Russian uncle, it transpires the baby’s mother was a 14 year old victim of human trafficking. A child who worked in a brothel, was force fed drugs and subjected to rapes.

As the film progresses we learn more about Semyon’s family and the ways of the Russian omertà, in what is a thoroughly thrilling and gritty drama. A fantastic performance is provided by Mortensen as he navigates his way through the ranks, earning his tattoo gang stars and playing the role with an air of mystery befitting of his character. Although a million miles from his early Sci-Fi / Horror films, there are enough Cronenberg-isms to remind you who the man behind the camera is.

There is plenty of graphic violence within, including a highly memorable scene in a sauna – when a naked Nikolai is attacked by two men armed with knives, and fights for his life. Meanwhile Anna’s maternal instinct kicks in as she desperately tries to trace the females family in order to prevent the baby going into the care system. But her brush with the Russian mob and her knowledge of a truth involving the conception of the child, puts her and the baby in grave danger. KZ

7. // Crash (1996)

Crash is one of Cronenberg’s most notorious films, and a movie that famously saw people walk out of the Cannes Film Festival screening, during one particularly infamous scene. It tells the story of James Ballard (James Spader – The Blacklist) – a film producer with an eye for the ladies, who is always looking out for his next sexual thrill. He’s involved in a car accident which proves fatal for the other driver, but becomes aroused at the sight of Helen Remington (Holly Hunter – The Pianos), the injured female passenger who’s breast becomes exposed in the aftermath of the crash.

While in hospital he meets Helen again, and while giving her a lift home they are involved in another close shave, before they make love in his car. They couple stumble across a clandestine society with an interest in car accidents, led by Vaughan (Elias Koreas – The Prophecy) – who recreates the fatal crash that killed James Dean. They meet a group of subversive alternatives, who mix the thrill of danger and the mutations of injuries, with that of a sexual nature.

James becomes immersed into a world that movie goers at the time could scarcely believe existed. Vaughan becomes obsessed with James, while James’s girlfriend Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger – The Game) also starts to become obsessed with the danger, as they seek out and photograph crash scenes together. They watch videos of accidents, and engage in violent sex, specifically vicious during one scene that occurs in a car wash between Vaughan and Catherine, leaving her battered and bruised.

And in another truly infamous scene where James literally inserts himself into the leg wound of the injured Gabrielle (Rosanna Arquette – Desperately Seeking Susan). The blend of violence and disfigurement with sex and nudity certainly left an impression, cementing Cronenberg’s reputation as one of Hollywoods most controversial purveyors of the bizarre and macabre. KZ

8. // Naked Lunch (1991)

Bringing William S. Boroughs bizarre fantasy tale to life created yet another chance for Cronenberg’s imagination to run wild, with clever use of practical effects and an off beat narrative in this 1950s set story. Peter Weller (Robocop) plays writer Bill Lee, who also earns a living as a exterminator. His roach powder begins to go missing leaving him short-handed at work, and he discovers the powder is being injected by his wife for pleasure. Soon Bill also experiments and develops an addiction to the substance himself.

He is arrested by narcotics agents, and during their interrogation he is met by a giant talking bug. The bug informs him that he is now his case officer, and that Bill is to work for him as a secret agent for an organisation called Control. The bug also tells him that his wife is a secret agent for Interzone Incorporated, and instructs him to kill her. Disbelieving what he is hearing Bill kills the bug with his shoe and goes on the run. This all happens within the first 10 minutes of the movie, and if you thought things couldn’t get any more bizarre … then you’d be wrong!

He visits Dr Benway (Roy Schneider – Jaws) to try and seek help in beating his powder addiction, and is provided with an ‘agent’ to add to the bug powder in order for the addict to become desensitised to the effects. He heads home and after injecting himself and his wife, he kills her during a misguided attempt at shooting a glass from the top of her head, in a William Tell type routine. He takes off to Interzone (a Moroccan – esq city) to hide out after he is informed by an alien creature that he will be safe there, and plans to lay low until Control makes contact.

From here the bizarre events / hallucinations continue as he meets an endless cast of oddball characters, including a mysterious couple Tom (Ian Holm – The Lord Of The Rings) and his wife Joan (Judy Davis – Barton Fink), who pays an uncanny resemblance to his own murdered wife. Bill seems to be in the middle of a strange conspiracy that he neither understands or appears to have any control over. The use of quirky Jazz music throughout works perfectly with the tone of the film, and there are visual and ideological links to the likes of Videodrome. Where the main character is living within a world of hallucinations, and with obscure eroticism and some horrific moments of body-horror peppered throughout. KZ

9. // Existenz (1999)

Cronenberg’s final film of the 1990s features themes and visual aspects similar to those styles he’s shown before in both Videodrome and Naked Lunch, while taking a deep dive into the world of virtual reality and technology. Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight) is a video game designer and creator of ExistenZ, a brand new system where players port into a virtual world through organic pods, which connect into the users spine through a bio port creating a kind of psychic trance.

At the launch of her new game an assassination attempt is made against her and she flees for safety with one of her marketing employees – Ted Pikul (Jude Law – Gattaca). On learning that Ted does not have a bio-port fitted to his body, Allegra takes him to a clandestine operating theatre in a dirty garage, where mechanic Gas (William Defoe – Spider-Man) performs the operation so that he can join her on a journey into ExistenZ. Gas double crosses them as it turns out there is a $500m bounty on Allegra’s head.

They manage to escape again but only after learning that Gas has fitted Ted with a defective port, damaging Allegra’s gaming pod and potentially destroying the answers to the mystery of who is trying to kill her and why. She moves them to safe place under the protection of Kiri (Ian Holm – Lord Of The Rings) where Ted’s bio port and her pod are fixed, where they then link together and immerse themselves into the game. It’s from here that the film really comes to life as they navigate their way through the bizarre world of ExistenZ.

Jude Law plays a naive fish out of water type role, while a somewhat confusing narrative creates a similar feeling of confusion for the viewer. This is all very Cronenberg, who visually still also very much relies on the aesthetics of practical effects over CGI. The pair look to the secrets within the game to unravel the conspiracy behind Allegra’s assassination attempt, where absolutely nothing is at it seems, and the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred beyond comprehension. KZ

10. // Scanners (1981)

One of Cronenberg’s early hits which showed the stylistic blend of Horror and Sci-Fi, that would become his bread and butter throughout the decade that followed. Scanners tells the tale of telepathic Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack – Head On) – who has the power to read the minds of others. A gift that comes with a side effect of causing intense pain and seizures. Cameron is swiftly captured at the beginning of the movie by the shady Con-Sec Corporation.

He is told by a scientist that his gift makes him part of a select few humans known as Scanners, and if he learns to control his gift it could become a powerful weapon to be used in the world of espionage. In one of Cronenberg’s most iconic scenes, we see what Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside – Total Recall) – a particularly powerful scanner is able to achieve with his gift. As he explodes the head of a person during the infiltration of an organised demonstration of the telepathic craft.

Revok easily then controls the minds of his subsequent captors as he makes his escape from the scene. Meanwhile Cameron’s skills are honed by Con-Sec, who then send him on a mission to seek out more of his kind. While he is also tasked with tracking down and assassinating Revok.

During his mission Cameron uncovers a conspiracy involving the very origins of his kind, leading him to a final showdown with Revok and a battle of their minds. This showdown allowed Cronenberg to execute some groundbreaking effects for the time, in a truly horrifying scene which sees the two powerful Scanners telepathically fight off against each other. KZ

Words by Mark Bates