Chromosome 3

Psychologie étouffante, mystère glaçant, meurtres sanglants, déformation physique répugnante de l'organisme humain, polémique thérapeutique choquante. Et tout cela dans un emballage délicatement sombre et sinistre du génie de Cronenberg. Son horreur la plus intense. (29/08/2005)

Chromosome 3 est l’une des œuvres les plus lentes de David Cronenberg et aussi l'une de celles qui perd en intensité quand on la revoit. Dès que l’on comprend où mène l’ensemble, le suspense retombe et il ne reste qu’à profiter des rebondissements de l’intrigue (à l’inverse de Scanners que j’ai trouvé plus prenant au deuxième visionnage). Pourtant, avec son inventivité, son imagerie naturaliste et son ambiance canadienne froide, c'est tout de même un film admirable dont le final reste imprimé dans les mémoires. (18/02/2021)

This time Cronenberg fully subordinated his classical trademarks (gynecology, psychiatry, body deformation) to the effect of self-efficacy. As a means of doing so, he chose little men in winter overalls with hammers in their hands and lots of long-winded chatter. The suspense is solid only up to the first two visits of the hissing kids, then after the finale (typical gradation) there is once again plenty of verbal filler, which is not even helped out by an incorrect scene of a school class standing around a teacher lying in a pool of blood. But I’ll give it 3 ½ stars for the drops of icy sweat on my back. (14/07/2007)

Quality psychological horror by Cronenberg that stands out by its incredibly disturbing atmosphere. The first half is pretty chatty, but right when I was telling myself that this wouldn’t warrant an above-average rating, the film fully caught my attention and the ending is extremely tense. I will remember all those scenes with the child mutants for a long time (they look pretty good), but the most important thing is that they have such an unpleasant evil aura around them that they irradiate uncompromising rawness and tangible malice. Another thing worth praise is the fantastically escalating tension by the end. (18/03/2008)

Cronenberg puts all the horror on the shoulders on the “killers dwarfs” wearing children overalls and wielding hammers, unfortunately, it’s mostly gratuitous and not very scary. You can't deny the chilling, bleak atmosphere, but if you can't take the core of all evil seriously, it can hardly frighten you or arouse any unpleasant emotions. (01/07/2008)