For anyone who has always wanted to dive into the master’s work but had no clue where to start.
have into any music director ’s filmography can be intimidate , especially a director with oeuvre as weird , grotesque , and downright terrifying as Canadian soundbox - horror king David Cronenberg .
With 22 lineament flick , guest - aim television episodes , a hoi polloi of acting use and cameos in movies and TV , and one novel , Cronenberg is seemingly everywhere , and the influence of his infamous commitment to the grossest practical effects conceivable and dark enchantment with the interconnection of humans and technology has inspired innumerous directors all over Hollywood .
Now that he ’s returned to filmmaking for the first time in nine class with his unexampled movieCrimes of the Future , we figured there are probably plenty of folks out there now who always wanted to get into his work but never knew where to start . You ’re in luck . We ’ve curated a list of Cronenberg essentials , from awarding - winning features to renowned adaptations to little - seen thick cuts that are all part of what name Cronenberg so Cronenbergish . That , and a lot of ugly prosthetics .
Universal Pictures
Stereo(1969) andCrimes of the Future(1970)
To understand Cronenberg ’s Whole Thing , it ’s worth your time to go back to the very beginning . The manager ’s first two feature films , StereoandCrimes of the Future , both a little long than one hour and often paired together , are similar in tone and musical theme without overlapping narratively . They both take place inside freakish enquiry facilities . Stereohouses people undergo telepathic experiment and encourage to engage in polyamorous sexual family relationship to tone up their powers , andCrimes of the Futurefollows a radical of men search for solutions to a catastrophic disease that has wipe out all sexually mature women from the planet . Both films were made with bantam budgets and minimal limited effects , and their political sympathies around subject like homosexuality and feminism are outdated at respectable , but you may see Cronenberg ’s preoccupation with sex , sex , contagious disease , and weird doctors forthwith come to the aerofoil .
Peep Show,“The Lie Chair” (1975)
No , David Cronenberg did n’t direct any episodes of David Mitchell and Robert Webb ’s acidulent British sitcom , but he did direct two episodes of the CanadianPeep Show , a serial broadcast from 1975 to 1976 meant to showcase up - and - coming Canadian manager . One of these , " The Lie Chair , " is perhaps not what you expect when you think of the director ’s more " Cronenbergian " work , but it is just as chock - full of tension , grotesqueries , and sublimated horror as anything else of his . The half - hour episode follows a span who pass the night at an honest-to-goodness noblewoman ’s house after their machine fall apart down on the road , but unearthly things start to happen that lead them to believe there is more to this theatre than meets the eye . It plays like an episode ofGoosebumpsorThe Outer Limits , a tightly wound horror story you might watch tardily on a stormy Nox .
Videodrome(1983)
Whenever anyone asks where to start with Cronenberg , there ’s really only one right solution : Videodrome . A paranoid techno - thriller that ’s also a political sci - fi repulsion that ’s also a bloodcurdling prophecy of how man and machines become ever closer as technology make it easier to find and give tongue to our glowering desire , Videodromehas something for everyone . A movie that presents playing a Betamax tape as akin to a gender turn obviously has some freaky notions ofhuman gender , including a scene where , after flirt brazenly on television , buccaneer - television programmer Max Renn ( James Woods ) and sadomasochistic radio boniface Nicki Brand ( Debbie Harry ) make sexual love to each other after watching an episode of a seditious , porny show operating out of a mystic unsung place . The typeface study of a lost era of tv set broadcasting swiftly descends into Cronenberg ’s distinctive sci - fi body - repugnance dominion , but not before offering a sensationalized glimpse of the way of life in which hoi polloi used to create and circularize foreclose amusement .
The Dead Zone(1983)
The Dead Zoneis the 2d of Cronenberg ’s one - two 1983 poke , but it could n’t be more different fromVideodrome . A take on Stephen King ’s 1979 novel , it ’s one of the best adjustment of the famously unadaptable author ’s piece of work , with tremendous performances by the intact cast and a tense , atmospheric handwriting . The story stick to Johnny Smith ( Christopher Walken in a bragging coat ) who has the power to know things about the great unwashed ’s lives just by touching them , and realizes that he has the ability to pull through people he knows will soon be in danger . thing get complicated when a magnetic politician Greg Stillson ( Martin Sheen ) sparks Johnny ’s interest group and he come upon that Stillson must be stopped at any cost to save the public from disaster .
The Fly(1986)
The Flystands among the lofty few genre remakes that are arguably even better than their predecessors , and it ’s mainly thanks to Cronenberg ’s willingness to go where no special - effects designer has presume to go before . A great repugnance - thriller about a human human being whose botched scientific experiment slowly turn him into an enormous rainfly , Cronenberg’sThe Flyis intensely , hilariously gross , dressing Jeff Goldblum ( in an iconic performance ) in various sagging facial prosthetics paint with liquidity of ever - increase viscousness . Like many of Cronenberg ’s best photographic film , you arrive for the profligate and guts ( in this lawsuit , exoskeletons and ichor ) , but you stay for the circumstantially tender and tragical love write up that sneaks in between the quip .
Crash(1996)
Perhaps Cronenberg ’s most controversial film , especially upon its release , Crash — based on J.G. Ballard ’s equally controversial novel — is often hailed as one of his best , and certainly one of his most memorable . While retrieve from a close - fateful car collision , James Ballard ( James Spader in ' 90s hottie fashion ) stumbles upon a group of survivor whose fetishistic obsession with railcar crashes often turns sexual , leave James down a twisty , dangerous route . Crashis mostly famed today for its many graphic sexuality panorama ( most of which are take in cars ) , but it ’s also a fascinating and perhaps empathetic interrogatory of manhood ’s kinks in all their weird nimbus . Its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival was so uncivilised that the fest granted it the Special Jury Prize , which is only present on rare occasion ( and also give us one of thebest public press - group discussion clips of all time ) .
eXistenZ(1999)
The year 1999 was a banner yr for pre - Y2KMatrix - esque anxiety about the coming singularity between humans and engineering , and while the actualMatrixis perhaps the epitome of this mini - genre , Cronenberg’seXistenZhas much of the same flavor — way heavier on all the unearthly fleshy stuff . A video - plot designer ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ) becomes the prey of a group of anti - technology domestic terrorists struggle against the cost increase of virtual world , and she and her bumbling help ( Jude Law ) enter into the virtual domain to essay to save her novel secret plan . The games are access by " biotechnological " plot pods that move and suspire like living things , plugged into a hole at the base of one ’s spine that looks a circle like , uh , well , you experience , and one memorable scene involves Law put together a gun made out of mutant fish osseous tissue . A smashing time at the movies !
Jason X(2001)
When he is n’t busy directing , Cronenberg will occasionally take on a small character or cameo in another celluloid or TV show , on the face of it whenever he feels like it . One of his most celebrated appearance is at the beginning ofFriday the 13th ’s sci - fi slasher entryJason X , in which Cronenberg plays Dr. Wimmer , a scientist hop to consider Jason ’s power to heal from lethal wound . Wimmer does n’t last long , but it ’s a perfectly creepy-crawly scene nonetheless . In a recentinterview , screenwriter Todd Farmer say that Cronenberg actually demanded a part in the movie after the producer asked if they could employ his special - effects squad , and then begin rewrite all of his own lines : " When he say , ' I do n’t need him flash-frozen , I want him diffused , ' that ’s not me . That ’s Cronenberg . "
A History of Violence(2005)
Cronenberg does n’t typically reprocess certain actors in the way that directors like Quentin Tarantino or the Coen brothers tend to , but a few of his recent film all have something in rough-cut : Viggo Mortensen , with whom Cronenberg first worked on his 2005 offense dramaA chronicle of Violence . The film star Mortensen as Tom Stall , the owner of a little - townspeople diner in rural Indiana , who expertly belt down two murderers threatening the patrons of his diner , blowing it off as just something any man would do . When the storey gain the pinna of some truly terrifying mobsters from across the country , Tom ’s entire individuality is thrown into topsy-turvydom as they lay claim he ’s a runaway mobster living under a slip identity , and they ’ve number to call for . The picture show is eery and worked up , a departure from Cronenberg ’s distinctive horror / sci - fi , instead drive by Mortensen ’s emotional and empathic public presentation as a hunted valet learn his life return asunder .
Universal Pictures
20th Century Fox
New Line Cinema
