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Why is it that when Hollywood has been ignoring someone for years, when that person makes good they throw them straight at the top like they have always been fans of their vision?

David Cronenberg has been one of the most innovative directors in the business of making films for about 3 decades. Now, with 2 critical and commercial successes on his hands his is, finally, lauded as one of the darlings of the Hollywood scene. Reviews site his earlier work in the body horror genre as ground breaking and clearly influential on his assault of the present cinema-goer’s senses.

I can remember being a child and watching Videodrome, my first taste of Cronenberg. I loved that flick, even if, I’m sure, I didn’t quite get it all. Video tapes in James Woods’ stomach, ‘real’ handguns and Debbie Harry getting her kink on. The whole sexually transmitted disease subtext went past me, hey, I was only still rocking a one digit age, but I knew what I liked. Next came The Fly, which doesn’t even need any explanation as to why it rocks so hard, you just know it does! I then spent my teenage years chasing down all his flicks in back corners of seedy video stores. Shivers, Rabid, Scanners, The Dead Zone, Crash, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch. I finally saw The Brood and loved the shit out of it. Every one I watched seemed to open me up to new shit. This guy was a genius. Plus, he rolled with Clive Barker, as noted by his role in Nightbreed, and I think Clive Barker is about the craziest brain in the business of making things fucked up.

Just before I went to uni Cronenberg made ‘eXistenZ’. It was his return to the ‘new flesh’. It was the companion piece to Videodrome that I had been waiting for. I don’t remember anyone caring about Cronenberg then. I had to drive nearly an hour, on my own, to an arts cinema just to see it. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t in on it. I know the flick is a little exclusive, but the issues man, the issues. Reality, dependency, disease, societal interaction. No one cared. He made Spider and even less people cared, it took me about 5 years just to find a copy to rent to finally see it, and yeah…it wasn’t awesome.

Then came Viggo. A History Of Violence, based on a graphic novel, came and ‘broke out’ Cronenberg. It only took him a few decades too. One flick, just one, and everyone loved Cronenberg. He showed violence with an unflinching eye, and I do believe he directed that film unlike anyone else would have. Viggo again. Eastern Promises is another flick that only Cronenberg would dare to make that way. Cut throat razors really hacking into a neck. Fingers getting popped off. A naked fight scene that will be known because you see Viggo’s junk a lot, but when broken down is a really brutal piece of film that just lets it all hang out, for want of a better expression. I also like how both films still do their Cronenbergian thing; it’s all about flesh and what it means. Just because you look the same can you actually change who you are on the inside? Are we connected to what we look like, are we connected to our flesh?

I am happy as hell that Cronenberg is getting to do his thing, but I don’t understand how his reputation now precedes him, when before it was a reputation tucked away like a scar. Outside of scoring all my brother’s old Fango mags and reading every interview conducted with Cronenberg before 1988, I never ever heard of the guy. He was an underground master of horror, but now all sorts of people are clawing out of the woodwork to claim him, and his entire body of work, as a career that always took chances.

Where are the reviewers when these guys cut their teeth? I don’t remember anyone raving over Braindead when it came out, but people love that director now. It’s funny how things can change, with the right amount of money produced from their work.

It’s a shame more publications, and reviewers, do not take more chances in their recommendations. Where were they when eXistenZ came out?

Posted on April 12th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: movies