Jumping The Tracks: Cronenberg from Crash to Eastern Promises. Part I

In the context of Canadian horror, writing a piece on David Cronenberg is never a hard choice. In fact, writing within the context of filmmaking writ large, a piece on Cronenberg is an obvious and immediate choice.

Note: I know doing something on Cronenberg for Canadian horror is close to doing something on Dario Argento for Italian horror. An admission that nothing is going on. But read on.

For fans and cinestes, Cronenberg is considered a master. His films have the thoughtfulness of Wes Craven, the political insight of George Romero, the viscera of Tobe Hooper, and at times, the black humor of Brian De Palma.

While assuming a clinical approach to his material, his films are visceral and provocative. They are a combination of speculativeness and spectacle.

Cronenberg's sensibilities have proven not only apt, but absolutely perfect at bringing to life the sterile, cold atmosphere of "The Dead Zone," the biological nightmare of "The Fly," the hallucinatory madness of "Naked Lunch," and the inspection of the sexual side to physical trauma in "Crash."

Like other auteurs, Cronenberg has produced a body of work that expressed his personal preoccupations. From "Shivers" on, we can see an evolution of thought and expression that follows a relatively common thread. Body Horror.

The parasite that drives it's host into a libidinal frenzy in "Shivers," provides a laundry list of sexual taboos that rival and surpasses even Clive Barker.

Whether it's snuff films in "Videodrome," the living dead/vampire hybrid orgy of "Rabid," (starring no less than former ivory girl and porn star, Marilyn Chambers), or Jeromy irons playing both parts as tightly wound gynecologists set in a disturbing look at how far wrong drugs, insanity, and gynecology can go in "Dead Ringers."

The progression is clear, and for fans, a great deal of fun to watch the master expand on themes, each of which a brick serving an architect with a fascinating, albeit not always audience friendly, vision.

What's so fascinating about his career, however, is that at some point, his choice of subject matter seemed to have jumped from "biology is destiny," to something he called "existentialist propaganda.

TBC