Film History: David Cronenberg and the Mad Scientist Trope

As promised in the latest episode of Lunatics Radio Hour, I wanted to post our list of sources for the exploration that we did on filmmaker David Cronenberg and the Mad Scientist trope. And of course, major thanks to Sarah Quincy for being on the episode and researching alongside me.

To set the scene, David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Canada in 1943. He is a writer, director and sometime actor. And is most widely known as the King of Body Horror. David Cronenberg has been active in Hollywood since the late 60s. Including his latest film Crimes of The Future from this year, he’s made 22 feature films. Most notably: Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007).

In episode 106, we discuss Shivers (1975), The Fly (1986) and Dead Ringers (1988). We also touch on his latest film, Crimes of the Future (2022).

Below are our main sources for this research:

• Article from rogerebert.com article by Peter Sobczynski - A Look Back at David Cronenberg's Debut Shivers, 45 Years Later

• https://dangerousminds.net/comments/david_cronenbergs_mad_doctors

• A book my James Burrell, The Canadian Horror Film

• Long Live the Void article by Matt Rogerson - Let’s Get Clinical: Cronenberg Under The knife

• Wikipedia, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, The Oxford Dictionary, TVtropes

• A book edited by Chris Rodley, Cronenberg on Cronenberg

• Three 3 brothers articles, by Aren Bergstorm, David Cronenberg: Shivers 1975, David Cronenberg: The Fly 1986, & David Cronenberg: Dead Ringers 1988

• The Atlantic article,by Cari Romm, The Enduring Scariness of the Mad Scientist

• An article by Havi Carel, A phenomenology of tragedy: illness and body betrayal in The Fly

• A book by Kelly Hurley The Gothic Body: Sexuality, materialism, and degeneration at the fin de siècle.

• Sense of Cinema article, by Ashley Allinson Keeping his Body of Work in Mind: A Chronology of David Cronenberg’s Success as Canadian Auteur and Industry Pillar