The “sensational” scene David Cronenberg cut from ‘Crash’
Whenever the body horror genre is brought up, the name of David Cronenberg is never far behind. The creative visionary behind haunting masterpieces such as Videodrome and The Fly, Cronenberg’s unique cinematic vision paved the way for multiple generations of aspiring filmmakers who sought inspiration from his work for their own expansions of the genre.
After an extended hiatus from body horror, Cronenberg finally returned to the artistic frameworks he helped establish with the 2022 film Crimes of the Future. It imagines a strange world where human evolution and the advancement of biotechnology have reached the point where random mutations and the generations of new organs inside the body have become normal. In such a bizarre future, the act of surgery has transformed into performance art.
While Crimes of the Future was highly anticipated by all horror fans, it failed to reach the heights that Cronenberg had previously achieved with some of his previous projects. One brilliant example of the latter is his 1996 film Crash, revolving around a group of sexual deviants who only derive pleasure from car accidents. The audacious movie has a lot of striking scenes, but interestingly, Cronenberg decided to cut a bold segment from the final version.
Cronenberg told The Guardian: “Rosanna was breastfeeding her baby when we shot Crash, and in one of the scenes where she’s having sex in a car with James Spader, suddenly, this huge spurt of milk shot across the screen. It was pretty sensational; we were all excited that it happened, but the thing is, in the movie, that character is not pregnant and is not breastfeeding, so dramatically, it made no sense. And though Crash is kind of a fevered dream-nightmare, it still has its own logic.”
While some might assume that this was removed from the already transgressive film due to censorship demands, that wasn’t the case. The filmmaker hilariously admitted that he was a fan of the scene, but it just didn’t work. He added: “So I cut it not because of censorship or anything else – really, I thought it was a great moment. I loved it, and her breasts were very full in those scenes as a result, which was also rather nice. She certainly didn’t need implants!”
Cronenberg’s adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s novel, like all his other works, isn’t just a simple body horror flick. It’s a profound psychological investigation of the human condition and how we process trauma and pain.
Watch the trailer below.
