Stereo (1969)

The Future. The Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry is investigating the theories of para- psychologist Luther Stringfellow.  Seven young adults submit to a form of brain surgery which removes their power of speech and increases their potential for telepathic communication.

An unseen group of students observes the results and as the experiment progresses further,  Stringfellow's theories are borne out.

Later, aphrodisiacs and various frugs are introduced into the subjects' diet in order to expose an inherent 'polymorphous perversity'. Finally, the subject are isolated from each other with provokes  a couple of suicides.

This first film of David Cronenberg was made when he was twenty-six and shot on the campus of the University of Toronto.  Although created in a documentary style, the film shows birth of some of his cold, clinical and dark style trademarks.