Shivers (1975) (a.k.a. They Came From Within) Here's what's always tickled us silly about David Cronenberg's first full length feature film.........the storm of controversy it stirred up because the Canadian government helped finance it.
Is it possible some Canadians didn't appreciate their hard earned tax dollars creating a gore-soaked horror movie about slimy, gooey parasites who infest their victims stomachs before turning them into rampaging rapists?
Some folks just can't take a joke.....or a wormy slug crawling in and out of their mouths. Go figure.
Cronenberg wanted to really put himself on the map here, so things get off to a roaring start at the deluxe high rise apartment building that's the film's main location. A mad scientist tenant strangles a schoolgirl who's been moonlighting as the building's resident hooker.......prior to vivisecting her and cutting his own throat with a scalpel. Woo-hoo!
And then we're off and running to parasite hell, since the loony Prof was breeding them as organ replacements for sickies who couldn't wait for a donated liver or kidney. (Trust us, you don't want to pay too close attention to the wonky scientific rationale on display here.....)
Parasite Central settles on a sullen young executive (Allan Kolman) who regularly regurgitates enough of the little buggers to infect all his neighbors. Once afflicted, the parasite-ians all become sex crazed zombies with only one mission - to seek out and rape the nearest warm body, be it man, woman or child.
Among the more notable among these horny afflicted is the beyond stunning Euro-trash scream queen Barbara Steele. Our fave gal Barb, she of the raven hair and enormous eyes, suffers a parasite zippin' directly into her hoo-hah while taking a bath. Yabba dabba doo!
The building's resident physician (Paul Hampton) and his devoted nurse/girlfriend (Lynn Lowry), who was already kind of hot-to-trot even before the parasites ran amuck, race through the high rise, dodging the slobbering, permanently aroused hordes.
Throughout these jolly festivities, director Cronenberg inaugurates his film career with a raw, crudely staged 3 ring circus of deranged depravity......featuring children on leashes, gang rapes galore and a few slime 'n blood covered death-by-parasite scenes.....(in the movie's fractured mythology, the oozing worms burn you horribly on your skin's surface, but once inside your guts, rooting around in your innards, they only make you want to hump like a nympho rabbit...)
(We did you warn you about the science here, right?)
With his reputation for "body horror" now firmly established ,Cronenberg was well on his way to a long celebrated career of showing twisted, corrupted human flesh in such beloved gems as "Scanners", "Rabid", "The Brood" and his modernized remake of "The Fly".
Though "Shivers" lacks the polish and professionalism of his later films, you can see the pure enthusiastic directorial talent on display here.....a powerful mixture of sly social satire with literally gut-wrenching violence. If you've yet to experience where the Cronenberg canon of carnage started out, don't miss checking this one out. 3 stars (***).
If you're an apartment dweller, you're bound to install new deadbolt locks......
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