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The Brood, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:The Brood
Year: 1979
Director: David Cronenberg
Rating: R
Length: 92 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Oliver Reed
Samantha Eggar
Art Hindle
Henry Beckman
Nuala Fitzgerald

Plot:
From famed writer-director David Cronenberg ('The Dead Zone', 'The Fly') comes a chillingly twisted masterpiece of psychological horror. Oliver Reed ('Gladiator') and Samantha Eggar ('The Astronaut's Wife') star in this shocking, intense thriller about how misdirected rage can literally take on a life of its own.

Behind the walls of his secluded Somafree Institute, Dr. Hal Raglan (Reed) experiments with "Psychoplasmics," a controversial therapy designed to help release pent-up emotions in his patients. He keeps his star patient Nola (Eggar) in isolation, but as she vents her fury during their sessions, brutal murders befall the people she's angry with outside the institute. What is the connection between Raglan's methods and these monstrous killings? The answer will unleash a whole new breed of terror!

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Closed Captioned


David Cronenberg is one sick puppy... and we are the beneficiaries!

Quite the freakshow... and what a collection of characters. The little girl was spookier than the brood-kiddies, Samantha Eggar is downright horrific... exterior placenta and all! Oliver Reed has the biggest head of anyone I've ever seen. You could fit cantaloupes in those nostrils! If you watch closely the kids faces when the brood are beating the teacher to death you get the feeling that some of them didn't realize that they were only pretending. They looked horrified!! 

Only Cronenberg could throw together such disturbing chaos and make it work. As long as you don't try to make too much sense of what you are watching it's quite entertaining!

KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on June 16th, 2010)

Black, a review by dfmorgan

Black

Year: 2005
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Shernaz Patel
Overview: I know now that there is God... He is not in the Holy Spirit we pray to... He isn't written about in religious texts... He is someone who is a part of our lives... Whom we live for...
Because of whom we live...

Michelle McNally is "special" in more ways than one. She cannot see... nor hear...  nor speak... She inhabits a world of infinite black... of a seamless, endless void where nothing reaches her and she reaches nothing. Her world is frightening in its complete remoteness. On the sheer will of her ferocious rage against destiny, Michelle struggles to stay afloat in the impenetrable whirlpool her life has become.

Into this devastating isolation enters a battle weary teacher, Debraj Sahai, life's wounded but arrogantly insolent warrior. With a single minded obsession, Debraj takes up a challenge that is next to impossible - to lead this wild, uncontrollable child into the light of knowledge.

Thus begins a journey of two headstrong individuals. They will overcome  what they seek is that moment of miracle -  when the ray of knowledge will penetrate through the dense black of Michelle's life... Black is the cathartic tale of a deaf, mute and blind girl who saw what people with sight fail to see - a vision of her God. Michelle McNally saw what other lesser mortals could not. She saw her God... heard Him... and walked with Him... into the light...

Watched: 6th Jun 2010
My Thoughts: Thank You Tom and Thank You Jon for recommending this wonderful film.

This film takes us through the life of Michelle McNally (Rani Mukherjee) from a few months after birth where she has now been diagnosed as both deaf and blind, through feral childhood onto a fairly confident young womanhood and finishing with a very confident woman. The bulk of the story is told in flashback but this doesn't detract from the storyline as it was easy enough to follow. One area I thought the director handled well was the sibling rivalry and reconcilation. When he chose to show the rivalry it was understated just enough to ensure that you were aware of it until he brought it to its head at the pre-wedding dinner. In the middle of all this was the teacher Debraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan) who brought Michelle out of herself and into the light. The film is top and tailed with Michelle seeing/visiting Debraj in hospital after finding him and finding out that he is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

My Rating: It has to be 5

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on June 6th, 2010)

Charmed Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

17. Scry Hard
Zankou (Oded Feher) is determined to find the Nexus and release the Shadow, the ultimate power. For their own protection, Piper and Leo are magically miniaturized and trapped inside a dollhouse.

My Thoughts:
This was a good episode. The first really serious attempt by Zankou.

18. Little Box Of Horrors
The mythological Pandora's Box falls into the hands of a shapeshifting demon who wants to open the box and release all the wickedness it contains. The Charmed Ones must find the Guardian who can return the released evil spirits to the box.

My Thoughts:
This is a good... but standard episode. Not surprising they got around to doing an episode about Pandora's Box. The show is pretty good about hitting all the big mythology items. (or whatever you would call it).

19. Freaky Phoebe
A power-hungry sorceress switches souls and tries to gain control of the Underworld while armed with Phoebe's identity and power. Phoebe, a prisoner in the sorceress's body, is accidentally vanquished by her sister.

My Thoughts:
This episode is alright... but I think it could have been better. Definitely not one of my favorites. In this episode Paige gets her first true charge as a whitelighter. Which of course they are able to work into the episode where they need his help.

20. Imaginary Fiends
Baby Wyatt's imaginary friend is actually a demon trying to gain his trust to turn him evil. Piper's spell inadvertently brings an evil 25-year old Wyatt back from the future who now wants to crush the good in baby Wyatt.

My Thoughts:
This was a good episode. I really enjoyed seeing the older Wyatt again. Wish they were able to fit in Chris as well. We get to see both a good and evil version of Wyatt in this episode. You can tell someone that don't watch the show wrote the plot to this episode... as the Evil Wyatt did not want to "crush" baby Wyatt... just the opposite... he had to be sure he was safe and away from his family so he would stay good. if he destroyed baby Wyatt.. he would have destroyed himself as well.

(From Charmed Marathon on July 14th, 2008)