Canadian film director David Cronenberg has been making gut-churning movies since the ’70s. It’s certainly no accident that, over the years, Cronenberg has acquired the nicknames “Baron of Blood” and “King of Venereal Horror.” His films depict the most grotesque sides of the possible, the impossible, and the maybe-but-hopefully-not soon-to-be-possible. When the band Talking Heads were getting popular, 1981’s Scanners saw exploding heads. Before he was doctor Ian Malcolm, Jeff Goldblum was, well, something other than human in 1986’s The Fly. Now, in Cronenberg’s latest effort, Crimes of the Future, human organs are evolving on their own, and we no longer feel pain.
Despite being appointed to a master of the horror genre, though, Cronenberg is in no way tethered to it. As much as he knows how to make our guts stir, he also knows how to put our hairs on end— and maybe even provoke the occasional teardrop or two. In order to commemorate the versatility of this legendary director, here are some of David Cronenberg’s best non-horror films.
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7 Cosmopolis (2012)
2012’s Cosmopolis is pretty straightforward plot-wise: global financier Eric Packer (played by fresh-off-the-Twilight boat Robert Pattinson) rides a stretch limousine to his barber. Not much happens, until it does. Based on the novel by famed White Noise writer Don DeLilo, Cosmopolis is more of a philosophical exploration into the consequences of modern capitalism than anything else. While it lacks definitive narrative structure, it is rife with interesting characters, conversations worth listening to, and Cronenberg’s amazing stylistic flairs. If there’s anyone who makes being in a limousine for two hours straight bearable, it’s Cronenberg. Not to mention, Pattinson, who so distinctly feels like Batman in training here.
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6 A Dangerous Method (2011)
Lionsgate
Cronenberg might not be the first who comes to mind when considering directors ready to tackle Freud and Jung. Yet despite, or maybe, because of, this fact, A Dangerous Method weaves together an enticing story while immersing us head-first into the dense world of psychoanalysis. The three main performances of the film, Viggo Mortensen as Jung, Michael Fassbender as Freud, and Keira Knightley, as their patient/colleague/love interest Sabina Spielrein, are all masterful in their abilities to capture the contours of this group’s relationship. It is also remarkably effective as a period film, capturing the beauty and tension of the world on the eve of change.
5 Naked Lunch (1991)
Alliance Releasing
If Freud isn’t for Cronenberg, then it’s an author like Burroughs who definitely is. 1991’s Naked Lunch is essentially an amalgamation of surrealist “skits,” loosely revolving around an eccentric author slowly beginning to lose his grip on reality. These are just a few of the things the viewer has to look forward to while watching the film: talking organs; aliens sipping pints at the bar, and typewriters turning into bugs. Would it be a Cronenberg film if something didn’t turn into a bug? Nonetheless, Cronenberg tackles all of these images with an unfathomable degree of imagination. The result is an incredibly trippy two-hour-long hallucination, one that not so much frightens us as it makes us go “Huh?” In a good way, of course.
4 Spider (2002)
Sony Pictures Classic
2002’s Spider sees Ralph Fiennes as a schizophrenic man uncovering his childhood trauma after being released from a sanitarium. Through its bleak atmospherics and unnerving pace, the film creates a challenging but deeply necessary portrait of mental health quite hard to find in films elsewhere. It is definitely Cronenberg’s most minimalist and psychologically dense effort, but a greatly successful one. Fiennes’ performance is singularly outstanding, causing us to see this film as so much more than just about the schizophrenic experience. It is also about the mysteries of the human experience at large.
3 Crash (1996)
New Line Cinema
Based on JG Ballard’s scandalizing 1973 novel, Crash takes a close-up look at those who eroticize danger. Starring James Spader as a detached film producer, the film follows Spader and an assortment of other characters who become sexually aroused by car crashes. While undeniably maintaining certain body-horror elements, Crash tends to cut deeper below the surface than your average body-horror film — Cronenberg’s or otherwise. It is a haunting, yet viscerally challenging marvel about how far human desire will push boundaries, and vice versa.
2 A History of Violence (2005)
New Line Cinemas
Based on the graphic novel of the same title, 2005’s A History of Violence is a psychological thriller game-changer. The film follows Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall, a small-town diner owner who commits an act of violence when two criminals try to rob him. This sets off a chain reaction of events that threatens to permanently alter Stall and his family’s lives. To protect his future, will Tom ever be able to escape his past?
Mortensen offers a deeply compelling performance of a man who cannot outrun his own history. With that in mind, the film becomes almost labyrinthine in the amount of twists and turns it takes, but these only keep the viewers engaged and yearning for more. Cronenberg is able to create both a masterful character study and a masterpiece of suspense, whose brutality and restraint will quietly linger with viewers for days.
1 Eastern Promises (2007)
Focus Features
Once again starring Mortensen as the worst person to possibly mess with, 2007’s Eastern Promises focuses on the dark underworld of the Russian mob and a young nurse (played by a breathtaking Naomi Watts) who falls into their grip. Meanwhile, the film has its own grip on viewers, completely refusing to let go. The film is a beautifully articulated, superbly shot character study about the limits of good and evil. It is also the most plot-heavy of Cronenberg’s works, taking all the conventions of the crime-drama and adding his own degree of visceral attention and detail. It might not involve anyone turning into insects this time around, but this film shows just how much Cronenberg can have us lost in the human mind, as well as the human body.
