Ranking every David Cronenberg movie from worst to best
The Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is known for his pioneering contributions to science fiction and horror cinema, with the director’s legacy being deeply connected to the evolution of the aforementioned genres. Through groundbreaking films such as Videodrome and Crash, Cronenberg’s works have put forward new conceptualisations of horror as well as the human condition.
Kicking off his career in the 1970s with a series of peculiar short films, Cronenberg’s industry success wouldn’t start to blossom until 1975 with the release of his feature debut, Shivers. Containing many of the hallmarks of the director’s later career, Shivers was an icky body horror sci-fi flick that told the story of the residents of a high-rise building who become overrun by strange worm-like parasites that turn them into rapid sex fiends.
By the end of the decade, Cronenberg had become an established industry name, going on to make some of the most iconic movies of the 1980s, including Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly. In contemporary cinema, the director’s interests switched from icky horror to obscure psychological thrillers and subtle satires, working with the likes of Robert Pattinson, Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts to carry out his vision.
Take a look at our list of David Cronenberg’s filmography, ranked from worst to best below.
Ranking every David Cronenberg movie from worst to best:
20. Fast Company (1979)
Cronenberg enjoyed a cinematic blossoming at the end of the 1970s, with Rabid being a hit with both domestic and international audiences, but in 1979 he decided to take a break from horror and embrace his love for car racing with Fast Company. Despite genuine interest from the director himself, Fast Company played with what felt like an entire lack of passion, telling the story of a race-car driver who decides to steal a car after his sponsor betrays him.
Starring Claudia Jennings, William Smith and John Saxon, whilst the film was no good, it did give the director a little bit more commercial credibility, allowing him to make Scanners and The Brood in the coming years.
19. M. Butterfly (1993)
The 1990s were a peculiar year for Cronenberg, with the Canadian filmmaker pursuing a number of more psychologically twisted tales, including an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch and his 1996 Cannes winner Crash. Among these releases, however, was the entirely forgettable 1993 flick M. Butterfly, a romance set in 1960s China where a French diplomat swoons for an opera singer.
He might be a private romantic, but on-screen, Cronenberg certainly isn’t, with his 1993 film moving with a dull, stiff style, despite the efforts of Jeremy Irons, who elevates proceedings in the lead role.
18. Rabid (1977)
Only his second feature film, Rabid made Cronenberg known as a serious horror filmmaker following the success of his debut, Shivers, in 1975. Financed by the Canadian government, Rabid was altogether more disturbing than Shivers, showing off a more professional style that made the story of a woman who develops a taste for blood after a botched plastic surgery job all the more disturbing.
Starring the porn actress Marilyn Chambers, Rabid demonstrated Cronenberg’s tendency to delve into provocative subject matters and styles, showing off a competently made sinister feature film that swelled with potential.
17. Crimes of the Future (2022)
Much was made of Cronenberg’s return to the body horror genre that made him famous decades ago, but whilst many enjoyed 2022s Crimes of the Future, it left others feeling cold. Starring a number of Hollywood stars, including Léa Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen, and Kristen Stewart, the film never manages to better the sum of its parts, resulting in one big disappointing anti-climax.
All the ingredients are present for Crimes of the Future to work, but it just doesn’t gel together at all, making for something that bangs and clatters with the same thud as the film’s H.R. Giger-esque technology.
16. Shivers (1975)
Cronenberg’s feature film debut holds up surprisingly well, even after almost half a century, being a DIY sci-fi project that bristles with creative energy and satirical humour. The sticky body horror about cosmic worms that come into contact with humans and create sex-crazed zombies is a neat spin on Geroge Romero’s Night on the Living Dead, bringing something new to the genre whilst adding his own signature flourish.
Ahead of its time in many ways, although Cronenberg’s film is far from polished, visually and narratively, its pertinence reins on with James Gunn being heavily inspired by the film for his own 2006 movie Slither.
15. A Dangerous Method (2011)
Following the director’s interest in psychological thrillers in the 1990s, Cronenberg would go on to create A Dangerous Method in 2011, the most obvious reference to his own interests in the functioning of the mind to date. The film, starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley, told the story of the relationship between the iconic 20th-century thinkers’ Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, who gave way to modern psychoanalysis.
A thought-provoking study based on the novel A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr and adapted by the two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton, A Dangerous Method is a fascinating watch.
14. Maps to the Stars (2014)
Touching on his inner David Lynch, Cronenberg released Maps to the Stars in 2014, a film that touches on the emotional depravity of Hollywood with the same familiar dread as 2001s Mulholland Drive. Sure, the film may not be quite as dark and ambiguous as Lynch’s classic, brimming with sharp satire, but Maps to the Stars remains an understated great from Cronenberg.
With an impressive cast that includes Julianne Moore, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, and John Cusack, Cronenberg’s American-dream-shatterer follows a Hollywood family relentlessly pursuing fame.
13. Spider (2002)
Too often forgotten in the filmography of Cronenberg, 2002s Spider stars Ralph Fiennes as a mentally disturbed man whose mind begins to slide back to a traumatic childhood memory that sparked his illness. Made on a small budget of just $10 million, Cronenberg managed to reach beyond his financial limitations, telling a story with a strong emotional heart and a gripping cinematic style.
Helmed by English writer Patrick McGrath, the film was nominated for a Palme d’Or and remains one of the filmmaker’s most unsung successes, showing off his narrative diversity and ambition.
12. eXistenZ (1999)
After several forays into psychological/psychosexual cinema, Cronenberg took things back to square one shortly before the turn of the new millennium, releasing eXistenZ, a body horror sci-fi that featured a bizarre VR plotline at its centre. Predicting the rise of such technologies in the coming decades, Cronenberg toys with some clever ideas here, touching on issues of dissociation and sociological big-tech controversy.
Fusing his familiar body horror style with a modern tale about futuristic technology, eXistenZ is a thoroughly enjoyable ride that shows off Cronenberg in his most commercial light, creating a provocative sci-fi thriller that is an electric ride to experience.
11. Cosmopolis (2012)
Receiving a mixed reception upon its release, time has been kind to Cronenberg’s 2012 movie Cosmopolis, which tells the story of a billionaire riding around in a stretch limo whose life and reality begin to slowly crack. Based on the book of the same name by Don DeLillo, the film’s greatest asset is the sensational lead performance of Robert Pattinson, who holds proceedings together with a magnetising central role.
Though he is helped by a number of great supporting performances from the likes of Juliette Binoche and Mathieu Amalric, the chemistry between Pattinson and Cronenberg is so palpable that it’s a wonder why they have never worked so closely together again.
10. Eastern Promises (2007)
Viggo Mortensen has long been a frequent collaborator of Cronenberg, appearing in Crimes of the Future, A Dangerous Method and A History of Violence. One of his most notable roles came in the 2007 gangster crime drama Eastern Promises, however, a film that demonstrates the director’s incredible range, telling a surprising genre story co-starring the likes of Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel.
The film revolves around a midwife who delivers the baby of a teenage Russian sex worker. An uncompromising vision of human depravity and the machinations of crime, Eastern Promises is a dark tale featuring some unforgettable sequences.
9. The Brood (1979)
A psychological body horror by an undisputed master of the genre, The Brood follows the lives of a man and his mentally disturbed ex-wife who are subjected to controversial therapeutic techniques by a doctor with experimental tendencies. Though one of his very first movies, the film brims with cinematic confidence and creativity, starring the likes of Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle at the helm.
Many commentators have noted that the film is one of Cronenberg’s most personal works, which is why it is so effective. While describing the narrative and his own artistic intentions, Cronenberg said: “The Brood is my version of Kramer vs. Kramer, but more realistic.”
8. A History of Violence (2005)
A History of Violence is a gripping action thriller that is based on the eponymous graphic novel by John Wagner, with illustrations by Vince Locke. Viggo Mortensen stars as the owner of a diner in a small town who finds himself having to confront his violent past that brings serious repercussions to his family. Also starring William Hurt, Maria Bello, and Ed Harris, A History of Violence shares a number of similarities with Eastern Promises, though it is altogether more accomplished.
Nominated for two Academy Awards, including ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for William Hurt, the film stands as one of Cronenberg’s biggest critical and commercial successes.
7. The Dead Zone (1983)
One of the greatest Stephen King adaptations ever made, The Dead Zone features Christopher Walken as a man who wakes up from a coma to find out that he has psychic powers. After wrapping his head around his newfound abilities, he decides to dedicate his life to the elimination of a politician who will become a fascist in the future.
Speaking about the movie, Cronenberg revealed: “While working on The Dead Zone, I realised that there’s a kind of fusion of your sensibility with someone else’s when you’re making a film. It could be very productive, and you would come up with a creation that would be neither completely his, or hers, or your own.”
6. The Fly (1986)
The Fly is undoubtedly among the most well-known projects by Cronenberg, and there’s good reason for that too. Starring Jeff Goldblum in one of the finest performances of his career, The Fly is the perfect combination between the conceptual elements of sci-fi and the visceral sensibilities of body horror.
Goldblum is fantastic as an eccentric scientist who figures out how to make a successful teleportation device. However, the results become disastrous when a housefly gets into the device at the moment of teleportation, and the scientist merges with the insect. An iconic work of cinematic science fiction, the film would go on to inspire countless projects on the big and small screen.
5. Naked Lunch (1991)
Throughout his career, Cronenberg has claimed that his literary influences were William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov. That’s exactly why Cronenberg decided to do the impossible by conducting a delightfully bizarre adaptation of Burroughs’ unfilmable book Naked Lunch, a novel that tells the story of an exterminator who mistakenly kills his wife and becomes embroiled in a bizarre government plot.
Since its release, the film is often cited as a cult classic for various reasons, including the perfect combination of Cronenberg and Burroughs. Perfectly in tune with his sensibilities, Cronenberg’s film shouldn’t work at all, but somehow it does.
4. Scanners (1981)
Another fan-favourite from Cronenberg, Scanners is an indispensable sci-fi film that revolves around a group of people who have all kinds of psychic abilities. Things get complicated when one of them becomes determined to ensure the liberation and domination of the psychics. Giving way to several iconic horror scenes, Cronenberg’s 1981 film is a marvel of sci-fi storytelling and goopy special effects.
It happens to feature one of the most iconic scenes in the history of horror cinema, displaying the glorious explosion of a head. There were many attempts to get it right until the special effects supervisor decided to shoot the dummy with a shotgun.
3. Crash (1996)
An extremely complex psychological thriller about people who fetishise car crashes, Cronenberg’s Crash is actually one of the most important films ever made about the subject of post-humanism because it envisions the next step in our evolutionary ladder. In the film, Cronenberg explores how car crashes are a special event – trapping the victims in a moment suspended between life and death where such violent oscillations become orgasmic.
Despite the controversy upon its release, Crash is widely regarded as one of Cronenberg’s best, being nominated for a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival upon its release. Many years later, it is considered to be one of the most controversial movies ever made.
2. Dead Ringers (1988)
Dead Ringers is among Cronenberg’s greatest achievements, starring Jeremy Irons as twin gynaecologists. The two have an unusually close relationship, often slipping in and out of each other’s lives while exchanging their identities as well as their lovers. Irons is fantastic in this dual role, managing to perfectly capture the subtle nuances of the twin brothers as they are pushed towards the edge of insanity.
Now cited as one of the best Canadian films ever made, Dead Ringers is an essential classic that somehow constantly slides under the radar when it comes to the director’s filmography.
1. Videodrome (1983)
Videodrome is Cronenberg at the apotheosis of his talents. One of the greatest body horror films ever made, it follows the bizarre journey of a television station executive who enters a dark and depraved world when he stumbles across a snuff channel. Launching an attack on the voyeuristic sensibilities of audiences and the fetishisation of violence, Videodrome anticipated the pernicious machinations of mass communication in many ways by showing how technology shapes our realities.
One of the director’s most notable and critically acclaimed movies, Videodrome is a sleazy judgement on new media as well as an entertaining conversation as to what the future might hold.
