Scanners 4K UHD / Blu-ray (1981)

 

The fourth of David Cronenberg's films in which a scientist's biological innovation turns out to be not quite what they expected gets a new 4K restoration supervised by Cronenberg. Second Sight are releasing it in both UHD and Blu-ray editions, with the limited edition containing both, plus the usual assemblage of bits and bobs to make the package even more special.

This time out the scientist is bio-pharmacist Patrick McGoohan, his invention is the thalidomide-like drug ephemerol, and the unexpected side effect from having a 'plain sailing pregnancy' is that the children who are born can make people's heads explode. Well, the first couple of them who happen to be the scientist's own children, anyway.

A huge success when it was released (it was the number one film in the film in the US the weekend it came out) the film came in for criticism at the time from Cronenberg purists (oh yes there were plenty of them around by then) who complained that some of the elements that likely contributed to its mainstream success were at the cost of the careful character development seen in his previous films.

Stephen Lack's Cameron Vale has lived as a derelict for most of his life but a quick jab of ephemerol from McGoohan and suddenly he's able to go all Canadian James Bond, able to carry himself off at a posh art gallery and infiltrate the evil corporation making ephemerol where he has no trouble at all using their computers.

That said, SCANNERS is a deserved success. While it's not the potential Oscar winner that THE BROOD now feels like, it is well-paced and extremely entertaining and the fact that these two film came out within a short space of time just demonstrate Cronenberg's increasing versatility as a director. 

Second Sight's new extras are a commentary track from Caelum Vatnsdal (who performed similar honours on Second Sight's CRIMES OF THE FUTURE disc recently), and a visual essay on the film from Tim Colman. Other extras have been ported over, either from Second Sight's previous Blu-ray release of 2013 or elsewhere. These include interviews with Stephen Lack (24 minutes), Lawrence Dane (5 minutes), DP Mark Irwin (15 minutes), FX artist Stephan Dupuis (10 minutes) and executive producer Pierre David (14 minutes) all from the Second Sight release and Howard Shore (19 minutes), FX artist Chris Walas (21 minutes) and Michael Ironside (30 minutes) all from 2017. Finally, the limited edition comes with a 120 page book with new writing, six art cards and a slipcase.

David Cronenberg's SCANNERS is out from Second Sight on Monday 31st March 2025 in a limited edition dual format UHD and Blu-ray edition and standard separate Blu-ray and UHD discs.

The Brood 4K UHD / Blu-ray (1979)

"Second Sight Gives Cronenberg an Upgrade"

Second Sight Films are bringing out David Cronenberg's version of KRAMER VS KRAMER (his words) in a smartly presented new extras-packed 4K restoration in UHD and Blu-ray editions. 

Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) is becoming increasingly concerned about the treatment of his ex-wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) at the Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics. As if being a patient at a David Cronenberg Hospital for Body Horror isn’t bad enough, the place also happens to be run by Oliver Reed who plays institute head Dr Hal Raglan. Raglan’s experiments have centred on psychiatric patients making their symptoms, and especially their rage, physical. As Nola’s increasingly psychotic anger is vented during her sessions, brutal murders begin to befall those at whom it’s directed. When Frank’s daughter is abducted he is led to Raglan’s institute and a final deliciously gruesome confrontation that, if you are not familiar with it, is not going to be spoiled for you by this review.

THE BROOD represented an important milestone in David Cronenberg’s career. It was his first film to be made with Canada’s Filmplan International, with whom he went on to make SCANNERS (1981) and VIDEODROME (1983); it was his first film to have a reasonable budget, allowing him to employ two major movie stars; and it was the first of his films to feature the creative team he would work with on his next few projects (including art director Carol Spier whose book cover design for Raglan’s The Shape of Rage was used to illustrate pretty much everything written about the director at the time, and director of photography Mark Irwin) and in the case of Howard Shore it would result in a composer-director relationship that exists to this day.

New to this release is a commentary track by Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio that's here in addition to an archival commentary track from William Beard. Also new to this release is a 22 minute visual essay by Leigh Singer that looks at the depiction of rage in THE BROOD and other movies including CARRIE, 28 DAYS LATER and the appearances of the Incredible Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Archival material has also been ported over from Second Sight's previous Blu-ray release. This includes ‘Producing the Brood’ - an interview with Pierre David, who explains how he ended up involved in the production of the movie and how easy it was to deal with everyone involved - except Oliver Reed. Depending on how you view the antics of dear old Olly will determine whether you’ll be chuckling with affection or shaking your head in despair at David’s tale of Mr Reed’s nude bet that caused him to end up in police custody. 

Fangoria editor Chris Alexander talks to stars Art Hindle and Cindy Hinds in 'Meet the Carveths' and takes them back to the school location used for the film. Mark Irwin talks about his involvement with the project and about Oliver Reed, and there’s an interview with Robert Silverman (THE BROOD, SCANNERS, EXISTENZ) which reveals him to be the unique personality many have probably always suspected him to be. There's also a short interview with composer Howard Shore who talks about his 'live recording' approach to the score. David Cronenberg himself is interviewed in ‘Cronenberg - The Early Years’. Finally, the limited edition comes with a 120 page book with new writing on the film, six art cards and a slipcase. 

David Cronenberg's THE BROOD is out in both a limited dual format UHD and Blu-ray edition and standard separate UHD and Blu-ray discs from Second Sight on Monday 31st Match 2025

Crimes of the Future (2022)

After its cinema release last year, and a barebones DVD (in the UK) and Blu-ray (in the US) release, David Cronenberg's latest film gets a deserved special edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray release packed with extras.

In the near future, and in a world where diseases and physical pain no longer exist, human bodies are continuing to evolve. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) is a man able to grow new organs inside his body, and he regularly has them removed by his surgeon partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux) in live performances. But Saul is not the only human with strange new abilities. A growing number of people are developing the ability to digest plastic and Wippet (Don McKellar) along with his assistant Timlin (Kristen Stewart) at the National Organ Registry believe Saul might help them to understand the next major step in human evolution. 

"Surgery is sex," says Kristen Stewart early on CRIMES OF THE FUTUR. It's a film that's like having all the elements that made each of Cronenberg's early pictures so unique and memorable all in one place. A film that, more than any other he's made, is all about his body horror obsessions - beauty contests for the insides of bodies, tumours as an art form, designer cancers, etc. Much of the dialogue involves the discussion of fascinating philosophies and science fiction concepts, and there are moments and scenes of utter genius in this, not least the most erotic scene in cinema of last year as Seydoux is caressed by the scalpels in Tenser's strange machine.

Second Sight have once again performed their usual excellent work in providing extras for CRIMES OF THE FUTURE. Author Caelum Vatnsdal provides the commentary track, starting off by echoing Cronenberg himself (from the director's commentary for EXISTENZ) by saying how the credit sequence of his later movies acts as a vestibule for the audience to prepare themselves for the strange new world they are about to see. He then goes in to talk knowledgeably about Cronenberg's work with particular reference to the film.

There is a stack of interviews, consisting of, in order, David Cronenberg (7 minutes), Viggo Mortensen (9 minutes), Léa Seydoux (7 minutes), Kristen Stewart (7 minutes), Don McKellar (27 minutes), producer Robert Lantos (10 minutes), DP Douglas Koch (17 minutes), and editor Christopher Donaldson (23 minutes).

New Flesh, Future Crimes is a new 23 minute documentary on the film and Cronenberg's work in general. There's also a Making Of (22 minutes), a look at production design, and a one minute piece in which the director confronts his own dead body. 

The limited edition set also comes with a 120 page book with a bunch of new essays, sic collectors' art cards and a rigid slipcase. A beautiful set from Second Sight that's going to be a must have for Cronenberg fans everywhere.

David Cronenberg's CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is out on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in both limited and standard editions on Monday 11th September 2023

Rabid (1977)

"Cronenberg 101"

101 Films have brought out David Cronenberg's second feature-length body horror picture on Blu-ray in a new edition that features a host of new special features. 

When Rose (Marilyn Chambers) is injured in a motorcycle accident her only chance for surviving lies with the only nearby hospital. Unfortunately it's the David Cronenberg Keloid Plastic Surgery Clinic for Wildly New and Untested Techniques That Could Prove Disastrous. Rose's intestines have been mangled by the motorbike and skin grafts are taken from her thighs, denatured and implanted within her in an attempt to encourage them to grow as new bowel tissue. None of this is very obvious, by the way, and even on the commentary it's not clear but in numerous interviews with Cronenberg he has stated this was the intention. Unfortunately the denatured tissue decides to do its own thing and causes a blood sucking proboscis (the original title was MOSQUITO) to develop in Rose's armpit. Rose becomes a science-fiction vampire. All she can eat is blood, and her activities cause the unwanted side effect of the spreading of a virulent form of rabies. She escapes the clinic, hitchhikes to Montreal, and the scene is set for a plague scenario that expands upon Cronenberg's previous SHIVERS.

  Maybe I'm getting old, but RABID really doesn't feel that dated. Of course the clothes and hairstyles are period mid 1970s, but Cronenberg's approach to the science gives it a timelessness that means RABID is still a very worthwhile viewing experience. It's also a grim and humourless one, and it's a testament to Cronenberg's skills that a scene in which Dr Keloid looks at porn star Marilyn Chambers' breasts and says 'The grafts appear to have healed well' isn't in the slightest bit funny. Even now, after VIDEODROME, CRASH and other assaults on the senses, RABID still boasts arguably the most depressing and heart-breaking ending of any Cronenberg film. If you've seen it you know what I mean, and if you haven't why are you reading this when you could be watching this unique classic of science fiction-horror?

RABID was previously released on Blu-ray four years ago by Arrow Films. That edition is now out of print with copies going for the usual silly money online. But worry not because you have no need of that edition now there's the new 101 Films package. New to this are a feature length commentary track from the Soska sisters (whose remake of the film just premiered at Frightfest). There's also a feature-length documentary on Canadian horror cinema from Xavier Mendik, plus a new booklet. 

Carried over from the previous Arrow edition are two commentary tracks. The first is from David Cronenberg who neither introduces himself nor gives us much idea when this is from, but I'm guessing it's the commentary from the previous US region 1 release. The track is what you might expect from Cronenberg, and it's actually rather pleasing to see how seriously he still considers the film. There's also a separate commentary from William Beard, author of The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg. There's also the archive interview with Cronenberg and interviews with producer Ivan Reitman and co-producer Don Carmody. You also get the 1999 episode of The Directors TV series that concentrated on Cronenberg and featuring interview with Holly Hunter, Marilyn Chambers and others.

Extra to the Arrow version is a commentary track from author Jill Nelson and Marilyn Chambers 'personal appearance manager' Ken Leicht, as well as an interview with RABID actress Susan Roman. 

The first 3000 copies of this new 2K scan come with a slipcase and the booklet. An excellent package. 

David Cronenberg's RABID is out on Blu-ray in a 2 Disc set from 101 Films now

Rabid (1977)

David Cronenberg's second feature-length body horror picture makes it onto Blu-ray for the first time courtesy of Arrow Films, in a highly presentable package that's also available in a steelbook edition should you be a collector of such lovely shiny items.

        When Rose (Marilyn Chambers) is injured in a motorcycle accident her only chance for survival lies with the nearby hospital. Unfortunately it's the David Cronenberg Keloid Plastic Surgery Clinic for Wildly New and Untested Techniques That Could Prove Disastrous. Rose's intestines have been mangled by the motorbike and skin grafts are taken from her thighs, denatured and implanted within her in an attempt to encourage them to grow as new bowel tissue. None of this is very obvious, by the way, and even on the commentary it's not clear, but in previous interviews with Cronenberg he has stated this was the intention.      

         Unfortunately the denatured tissue decides to do its own thing and causes a blood sucking proboscis (the original title was MOSQUITO) to develop in Rose's armpit. Rose becomes a science-fiction vampire. All she can eat is blood, and her activities cause the unwanted side effect of the spreading of a virulent form of rabies. She escapes the clinic, hitchhikes to Montreal, and the scene is set for a plague scenario that expands upon Cronenberg's previous SHIVERS.

        Maybe I'm getting old, but RABID really doesn't feel that dated. Of course the clothes and hairstyles are period mid 1970s, but Cronenberg's approach to the science gives it a timelessness that means RABID is still a very worthwhile viewing experience. It's also a grim and humourless one, and it's a testament to Cronenberg's skills that a scene in which Dr Keloid looks at porn star Marilyn Chambers' breasts and says 'The grafts appear to have healed well' isn't in the slightest bit funny. Even now, after VIDEODROME, CRASH and other assaults on the senses, RABID still boasts arguably the most depressing and heart-breaking ending of any Cronenberg film. If you've seen it you know what I mean, and if you haven't why are you reading this when you could be watching this unique classic of science fiction-horror?

        After the problems suffered by SHIVERS on Arrow's previous Blu-ray release of a Cronenberg film, it's a relief to report that RABID has suffered no such indignities. The print looks excellent and there are no obvious jumps or cuts. There are two commentary tracks. The first is from David Cronenberg who neither introduces himself nor gives us much idea when this is from, but I'm guessing it's the commentary from the previous US region 1 release. The track is what you might expect from Cronenberg, and it's actually rather pleasing to see how seriously he still considers the film. There's also a separate commentary from William Beard, author of The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg. We also get an archive interview with Cronenberg and new interviews with producer Ivan Reitman and co-producer Don Carmody. There are featurettes on Joe Blasco and the Legacy of Cinepix, and a 1999 episode of The Directors TV series detailing Cronenberg's career and featuring interviews with Holly Hunter, Marilyn Chambers and others. Add in a trailer, reversible sleeve and collectors' booklet and it all adds up to an excellent package.

Arrow Films are releasing David Cronenberg's RABID in a standard dual format Region B Blu-ray & Region 2 DVD edition, and as a Region B Blu-ray steelbook, on Monday 16th February 2015

The Brood (1979)

At last! David Cronenberg’s classic 1979 body horror picture (his third after having made SHIVERS and RABID) receives the treatment it deserves on UK BluRay and DVD. It’s been a long time coming but hopefully, as this review will reveal, it’s been worth the wait.

Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) is becoming increasingly concerned about the treatment of his ex-wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) at the Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics. As if being a patient at a David Cronenberg Hospital for Body Horror isn’t bad enough, the place also happens to be run by Oliver Reed who plays institute head Dr Hal Raglan. Raglan’s experiments have centred on psychiatric patients making their symptoms, and especially their rage, physical. As Nola’s increasingly psychotic anger is vented during her sessions, brutal murders begin to befall those at whom it’s directed. When Frank’s daughter is abducted he is led to Raglan’s institute and a final deliciously gruesome confrontation that, if you are not familiar with it, is not going to be spoiled for you by this review.

THE BROOD represented an important milestone in David Cronenberg’s career. It was his first film to be made with Canada’s Filmplan International, with whom he went on to make SCANNERS (1981) and VIDEODROME (1983); it was his first film to have a reasonable budget, allowing him to employ two major movie stars; and it was the first of his films to feature the creative team he would work with on his next few projects (including art director Carol Spier whose book cover design for Raglan’s The Shape of Rage was used to illustrate pretty much everything written about the director at the time, and director of photography Mark Irwin) and in the case of Howard Shore it would result in a composer-director relationship that exists to this day.

It also garnered Cronenberg some excellent critical notices. This is hardly surprising as it was a film written and made from the heart. At the time of its release  Cronenberg referred to it as his version of KRAMER VS KRAMER, the storyline arising from his own experiences with his recent divorce and attempts to gain child custody. The script for what would end up as his next film, SCANNERS, had already been written (under the title THE SENSITIVES) but THE BROOD was the film Cronenberg had to admit to himself he needed to make next, and the integrity of his intentions permeates the film.

        THE BROOD has been treated rather badly on UK home video over the years. VHS transfers have always used the slightly trimmed UK print. The two-disc Anchor Bay DVD set released in 2005 tried to redress the problem, providing the UK cut on one disc and the uncut US print on a second. Unfortunately the US print was taken from an NTSC master which meant there was a loss of picture quality.

Second Sight’s new BluRay transfer is, therefore, exactly what UK fans of this movie have been waiting for. The print is uncut and the transfer is clean and bright, making it without a doubt the best version of THE BROOD available. The DVD Second Sight are also releasing utilises the same source print. The previous Anchor Bay release had as its only significant extra a documentary on David Cronenberg from the ‘Directors Series’. This has not been ported over to the Second Sight release but instead they’ve gone the extra mile and provided us with some BROOD-specific goodies instead. First up is ‘Producing the Brood’ - an interview with Pierre David, who explains how he ended up involved in the production of the movie and how easy it was to deal with everyone involved - except Oliver Reed. Depending on how you view the antics of dear old Olly will determine whether you’ll be chuckling with affection or shaking your head in despair at David’s tale of Mr Reed’s nude bet that caused him to end up in police custody. Fangoria editor Chris Alexander talks to stars Art Hindle and Cindy Hinds and takes them back to the school location used for the film. Mark Irwin talks about his involvement with the project and about Oliver Reed, and there’s an interview with Robert Silverman (THE BROOD, SCANNERS, EXISTENZ) which reveals him to be the unique personality many have probably always suspected him to be. Finally, David Cronenberg himself is interviewed in ‘Cronenberg - The Early Years’ and it’s a delight to see that he is still as enthusiastic about his first few projects after all this time.

THE BROOD is a classic film from a director who has seldom put a foot wrong during a long, complex, varied, and never less than interesting career. Second Sight have finally done this film the justice it deserves and their release of this film deserves to be on the shelf of every discerning Cronenberg fan.

Cosmopolis (2012)

I suspect not a lot of people are going to like this film. The Robert Pattinson fans who have foolishly put their money down hoping to see their TWILIGHT star in yet another romantic role will probably leave at the point where he has his prostate checked in what must be the most unnecessarily prolonged digital rectal examination in cinema history. If not, then the scene of our Robert having a prolonged wee will probably be the final straw for them, if they’ve managed to last that long.

But plenty of other people will hate COSMOPOLIS as well. They’ll say that it’s boring, that it’s too self-consciously arty, and that it makes no sense. These people may even make up the majority of those who get to see it which is all the more reason why this film needs flagging up at the House of Mortal Cinema. By the time the film finished I loved COSMOPOLIS, and I had almost forgiven David Cronenberg for wasting my time with A DANGEROUS METHOD in which two people who could act and Keira Knightly wandered around in period costume for no good reason and to no great purpose.

The best Cronenberg cinema has always had a purpose, even though his recent work has of late become less palatable to me than his earlier films. I’m sorry but A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and EASTERN PROMISES, while both very well made, had me clutching the arms of my cinema seat in frustration. This was a director who could do so much more, be so much more innovative, and while it’s become something of a cliche to say it, these movies, and especially A DANGEROUS METHOD had me hankering for the Cronenberg of old, the one who filled a residential complex with a combination of venereal disease and aphrodisiac or who caused rage to take on the shape of psychopathic children.

But there is another Cronenberg as well, one who existed before those wonderful body horrors. I’m talking about the Cronenberg who made weird short films like CRIMES OF THE FUTURE and STEREO, and that’s the Cronenberg I felt was behind COSMOPOLIS - the artist who expertly uses the trappings of science fiction, however tangentially, as a vehicle for his concerns and observations about human nature. That’s the Cronenberg who made this film, and it’s a delight to have him back.

You’ll notice I haven’t said anything about the plot yet. That’s because as far as I can tell COSMOPOLIS is virtually plotless. Very, very rich Robert Pattinson decides one day that he wants a haircut on the other side of town and takes his state of the art limo to get there. On the way he holds conferences, has sex, and meets with celebrities, while gradually the streets he passes through become more derelict and threatening. We learn that someone is trying to kill him and eventually, bereft of his bodyguards, lovers, limousine and even his jacket and tie he comes to a reckoning in the darkest part of town.

I’ll be honest here. For the first half an hour I didn’t like COSMOPOLIS at all.  It has to be one of the coldest, most dispassionate films I have ever seen. In fact if I had to describe it in terms of other art and other artists I would say it has a feel somewhere between Cronenberg’s own CRASH, Andrzej Zulawski’s POSSESSION (1981) and the fiction of J G Ballard and Brett Easton Ellis, especially AMERICAN PSYCHO (novel not film). It really is that cold. Characters speak almost in monotone, camera angles are deliberately uninteresting and I actually started to nod off at one point.

BUT (and it is a big one), once you realise that this is meant to be an art house science fiction movie, the sort so prevalent in the early 1970s before STAR WARS did a lot to ruin the chances of intelligently-made SF getting off the drawing board, and that the ‘feel’ of the picture is actually quite possibly the most important thing about it, you can say goodbye to logic or trying to make sense of what people are talking about (I don’t think much of it matters but some of it is properly funny) and just let this weird, bleak, uncaring world wash over you. To give you an example of how strange this film is, suddenly out of left field a terrorist tries to assassinate Pattinson with a cream cake and we then get a monologue about how he has performed various other pastry-based atrocities with political aims in the past. I would mention other examples but I'd hate to spoil the film for anyone brave enough to go and watch it.

To be honest I can’t explain why I liked COSMOPOLIS so much, but this is me trying my best to do so. I honestly think it’s my favourite film of Cronenberg’s since CRASH or possibly before. It’s innovative, thought-provoking, funny and shocking by turns, and I can’t wait to watch it again. Well done Mr Cronenberg - I’m finally absolutely delighted with another film that you’ve made.