Built to Destroy

Abstract

David Cronenberg’s cult classic horror film The Brood explores the breakdown of the nuclear family as the impotent Father fails to protect the Child from the destructive threat of the Mother. The article argues that the film employs a misogynistic, eugenic gaze which compels viewers to perceive the “antagonist” Nola as a violent madwoman whose actions necessitate her destruction by the forces of professional male rationality. In constructing such a woman, the film’s eugenic gaze encourages co-identification with a cast of professional men who set out to destroy the very monster their misapprehension has helped to create. Building on scholarship in feminist film theory and disability studies, the article elaborates the many eugenic gazes operant in The Brood and concludes with a speculative reimagining that attends to the utter lack of care Nola receives as she struggles to extricate herself from intergenerational neglect and abuse.