TSPDT

Key Production Countries: Canada, USA, UK, Germany, France
Key Genres: Science Fiction, Drama, Horror, Psychological Drama, Sci-Fi Horror, Psychological Thriller, Erotic Drama, Sex Horror, Thriller, Crime Thriller, Psychological Sci-Fi, Satire
Key Collaborators: Ronald Sanders (Editor), Howard Shore (Composer), Carol Spier (Production Designer), Peter Suschitzky (Cinematographer), Mark Irwin (Cinematographer), Les Carlson (Leading Character Actor), Nicholas Campbell (Character Actor), Robert A. Silverman (Character Actor), Viggo Mortensen (Leading Actor), Ronald Mlodzik (Leading Actor), Claude Héroux (Producer), Sarah Gadon (Leading Character Actress)

"No wonder Martin Scorsese was terrified when he had to meet David Cronenberg. After all, the affectionately nicknamed "Dave Deprave" invented the genre of body-horror, which locates mankind's monstrous enemy inside its own body... Since 2000, Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005) have shown a more meditative Cronenberg, fascinated still by the dark side of human bodies, but politically more relevant. A History of Violence's deconstruction of "The American Dream" - in the form of its investigation of socially acceptable violence, gun abuse, and community vigilance - elevated Cronenberg into the canon of contemporary cinema, completing his move from "The Baron of Blood" to cultural hero." - Ernest Mathijs (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"Horror director whose work has transcended the genre, achieving mainstream recognition... Horrific, gruesome, stylistically innovative, pervaded with anxiety about sexuality and modern life, his films slowly built a cult following ." - The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994

"Cronenberg's work is seldom very coherent, let alone plausible, in hypothesising about human evolution, but the best is imbued with a cool, nightmarish logic, based on the premise that as technology develops, new diseases, desires, even a new flesh, will arise... Cerebral, visceral and subversive, his work remains in the vanguard of modern horror." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)

"He’s credited with being one of the inventors of “body horror,” but the organ he’s stimulated the most consistently is his viewers’ minds — with concepts that are hypnotic, frightening, erotic, disturbing, prescient and generally provocative, often at the same time. Where many filmmakers astutely capture the prevailing feelings of the present, Cronenberg’s creativity anticipates a limitless but not always optimistic future where humankind and the technology it has created become increasingly intertwined, then filters those ideas through riveting, pulpy narratives that reinvent genre tropes as nimbly as his characters do their bodies." - Todd Gilchrist & William Earl (Variety, 2023)

"Between the aphrodisiacal slugs of Shivers (1975) and the bio-ports of existent (1999), David Cronenberg has devoted himself to the cause of transformation by fusion with immensely fertile results. Just as his films fold science fiction into horror, or intellectual rigour into emotional and physical intensity, so they have consistently mapped out a mind/body tension." - Kevin Harley (Contemporary North American Film Directors, 2002)

"His works, which consistently explore the same themes, have the mark of a true auteur in the strictest sense of the word. Cronenberg's films have the unnerving ability to delve into society's collective unconscious and dredge up all of the perverse, suppressed desires of modern life. His world features grotesque deformities, hallucinatory couplings, and carnality unhinged from its corporeal moorings." - Allmovie

"Cronenberg is the intellect made metal, and until he realises that metal cuts when sharpened, and that those cuts bleed and cause pain, he will remain the half-successful director that he is." - Mario Reading (The Movie Companion, 2006)

"There is nothing warm or feel-good about David Cronenberg's films, which delight in stomach-churning imagery and voyeurism, linking sex with violence." - Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)

"Canadian director who has been drawn to the gruesome and controversial throughout his career. Attracting anger and admiration in equal proportions, he has, like the protagonists of his 1996 film Crash, seemed to seek out some new, more macabre and painful-looking sensation with each new venture." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)

“Horror director whose work has transcended the genre, achieving mainstream recognition… Horrific, gruesome, stylistically innovative, pervaded with anxiety about sexuality and modern life, his films slowly built a cult following.” - The Film Encyclopedia, 2012

"I think of horror films as art, as films of confrontation. Films that make you confront aspects of your own life that are difficult to face. Just because you're making a horror film doesn't mean you can't make an artful film." - David Cronenberg