A real sicko take on ectopic pregnancy
No, I'm not critisizing director John Cronenberg. It's just that whenever I think of, THE BROOD, my mind makes a connection to to a medical malady I read about on the Internet, ectopic pregnancies. That's when somehow, by some freak accident, an ovum develops outside the human placenta. The developing fetus will attempt to survive as a parasite, latching its blood vessels onto the abominal wall or intestine, or somewhere close by. But without the mother's placenta to protect the fetus, antibodies latch onto the fetus and kill it, but these same antibodies keep coating the dead fetus in order to protect the human mother and there originates, the 'stone baby', a calcified fetus that exists inside such a woman for decades. Now, THE BROOD is not about that, but the lady in the sci-fi horror movie gives birth to humanoid monstrosities by developing an external placenta. The resulting humanoid monsters are short-lived since they live as long as their yolk-like energy sack behind their necks remains full but once depleted, they die as they cannot consume food. Those were very nasty critters. They were stronger than their human child counterparts and because they were driven by rage, their strength seemed even stronger. When the unfortunate doctor decided to enter the bunkhouse full of the humanoid monster kids, armed with only a six-shot revolver, we all knew he was going to die, terribly. P.S., I wonder how he got ahold of a pistol since pistols are illegal in Canada. Till this day, I'm still ambivalent about THE BROOD, not sure if I like it or not. Compared to ExistenZ, Cronenberg's best movie in my opinion, I like that one, hands down.
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