DAVID CRONENBERG / THE RESEARCH COLLECTION

CASE STUDIES

Fourteen films. A lifetime of worlds to explore.
01—14 / 1969—2024 / INSIDE THE FILMS

INSIDE THE ARCHIVE

The details that build a world.

Go beyond the frame into the objects, spaces and creative decisions that shape Cronenberg’s worlds. Scripts, production photographs and firsthand accounts reveal how these films were imagined, built and brought to life.

David Cronenberg / Film archive

Fourteen films. Further in.

Choose a film and go deeper: production histories, artists, performances, objects and the ideas that give each world its force.
Case file 011969
Stereo (1969) — two figures walking through a concrete corridor.

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Stereo

Telepathy, concrete spaces and the Canadian Academy of Erotic Inquiry.

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Case file 021970
Crimes of the Future (1970) — a black-clad figure in a brick courtyard.

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Crimes of the Future

Adrian Tripod, the House of Skin and the institutions of a changing body.

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Case file 031975
Shivers (1975) — the parasite emerging from a bathtub drain.

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Shivers

Starliner Towers: the architecture and circulation of infection.

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Case file 041977
Rabid (1977) — Rose in her fur coat beneath the city’s neon lights.

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Rabid

Surgical intervention, the Keloid Clinic and an expanding epidemic.

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Case file 051979
The Brood (1979) — Candice walking between two hooded brood children on a snowy road.

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The Brood

Psychoplasmics, family rupture and the physical work behind the creatures.

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Case file 061981
Scanners (1981) — Darryl Revok at the ConSec scanning demonstration.

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Scanners

ConSec, Biocarbon, Ephemerol and the machinery of psychic control.

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Case file 071983
Videodrome (1983) — Max Renn wearing the glowing video helmet.

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Videodrome

Civic TV, Spectacular Optical and the objects that turn signal into flesh.

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Case file 081986
The Fly (1986) — Seth Brundle beside a telepod in his laboratory.

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The Fly

The telepods, Brundlefly and the design of a bodily transformation.

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Case file 091988
Dead Ringers (1988) — Beverly Mantle with arms outstretched in a red surgical gown.

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Dead Ringers

The Mantle twins, instruments, twinning and the choreography of doubling.

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Case file 101991
Naked Lunch (1991) — Bill Lee facing the insect-like Clark-Nova typewriter.

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Naked Lunch

Interzone, insect typewriters and the material worlds of William S. Burroughs.

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Case file 111996
Crash (1996) — Helen Remington and James Ballard seated together in a car at night.

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Crash

Cars, prostheses, collisions and the tension between skin and metal.

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Case file 121999
eXistenZ (1999) — Ted Pikul aiming the organic bone gun.

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eXistenZ

Game-pods, bioports and the uncertain boundaries of designed realities.

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Case file 132022
Crimes of the Future (2022) — Caprice attending Saul Tenser in an organic surgery bed.

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Crimes of the Future

Performance surgery, the National Organ Registry and new bodily systems.

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Case file 142024
The Shrouds (2024) — Karsh among the graves and digital memorial screens.

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The Shrouds

GraveTech, mediated grief and the images that remain after death.

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