STUDIES AND RESEARCH

David Cronenberg — Between the Cult and the Occultism

By using elements of science fiction and horror in his movies, Canadian film maker David Cronenberg (Toronto, 1943) was actually directing classical stories. That return to the genre, in fact a creation of a metagenre structure, is one of the main characteristics of postmodernism. Chronologically, as well as contextually, Cronenberg’s filmography can be divided into three periods, or groups of movies. The first period begins in the mid sixties, with the two short feature films (Transfer, 1966 and From the Drain, 1967) and ends with medium-length film Crimes of the Future (1970).

In that period, most of his work is based on the patterns of horror movies. The second period can be divided in two parts based on commercial criteria. The first part starts with his first feature length film Shivers (1974) and ends with Fast Company (1979), while the second starts with his first commercial success (Scanners, 1980), and ends with Dead Ringers (1988). For Cronenberg, this was his most important period because he could fulfill his own interests and wishes. By now there are four movies in the third period, and what they have in common is a potent artistic expression. In his last movie, eXistenZ (1998), he deals with some of his earlier motives, e. g. the relationship between the body and technology.

With his early work, Shivers (1974) and Rabid (1976), Cronenberg presented himself as a vanguard of a new perception of cinematic time. On the other hand, the visual side of his movies was often unwatchable, so the combination of the real and the unreal, and the parapsychological and scientific produced divided reactions among both viewers and critics.

Ivan Žaknić