Cronenberg knows how to make a creepy, disgusting and terrifying film. – Will
Residents in an apartment complex start getting infected by a parasite that turns them into sexually crazed maniacs.
Written and Directed by – David Cronenberg
Starring – Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Allan Kolman, Susan Petrie, Barbara Steele, Ronald Mlodzik, Barry Baldaro, Camil Ducharme, Hanka Posnanska, Wally Martin, Vlasta Vrana, Silvie Debois, Charles Perley, Al Rochman, Julie Wildman, Arthur Grosser, Edith Johnson, Dorothy Davis, Joy Coghill, Joan Blackman, Kirsten Bishop, Fred Doederlein, Sonny Forbes, Nora Johnson, Cathy Graham, Robert Brennen, Felicia Shulman, Roy Wittan
I have to admit that I wasn’t always much of a fan of Cronenberg. What little I had seen of his work made almost no sense to me and it probably wasn’t something I should have bothered trying to watch when I was so young. In the last year I’ve seen more of his work and have really started to appreciate it. Shivers isn’t quite as put together as his later films but it’s not hard to see that he’d already built a style all his own. Even with some crude effects, Shivers disgusted and terrified me. It didn’t scare me or frighten me, it terrified me. I was dreading every moment of the film, my stomach flopping around as I squirmed in discomfort. This one really got to me and it was incredible.
The plot is simple and there’s barely an explanation in sight. A doctor was experimenting with creating a parasite that could take the place of an organ. Someone’s kidney is shot, stick a parasite in them and it’ll do the same job. Problem is that the doctor was kind of wacky and wasn’t exactly in it to help mankind. Instead he’s created a parasite that causes those who have it to become sexual fiends infecting everyone else with any sort of sexual contact. It seems the only people left uninfected are a doctor, Roger (Paul Hampton) and his girlfriend Nurse Forsythe (Lynn Lowry). Will they be able to put an end to the parasites before everyone is infected?
It's up to Roger and stunningly beautiful Nurse Forsythe to stop the infections.
Even with its very simple plot the film finds a way to make your skin crawl. The grotesque parasites aren’t the greatest effect work around but they’re so disgusting looking that it’s hard not to wince at the sight of them. Maybe it’s the fact that they look like giant slugs that really makes them hard to look at but every time I saw one I had to cringe. The film isn’t too gory, although there are a few moments closer to the end, and it’s not graphically violent but it bothered me much more than just about any other film I’ve seen. When one of the sex crazed maniacs starts attacking another person it was hard to watch. Typically moments like this feel very unreal, you know you’re watching a movie. Here they seemed to be presented in such a realistic way that it makes you uncomfortable even with the lack of gore.
It’s something I’ve really come to enjoy about the work of Cronenberg. He somehow makes a situation that is completely unbelievable seem all too real. They don’t make any more sense than they did before but it’s like I’m trusting that Cronenberg is right and I just don’t understand instead of assuming he’s a nut talking crazy to me. He also seems to have an odd fascination with the stomach. Fulci had eyeballs and Cronenberg has stomachs I guess. The few films I have watched by him always seem to have a moment of terrible stomach trauma. Seriously, what the hell is going on there?
Does my tongue look swollen to you honey?
The film has this constant lingering terror that there seems to be no escape from and I was instantly rooting for the uninfected characters to survive. I really wanted Roger and Nurse Forsythe (I know she had a friggin name but I can’t think of it anymore!) to defeat all those sex crazed lunatics and escape into the sunrise. There isn’t really much set-up for the characters so it’s surprising to find that I was connecting with them on some level. You don’t want to see them get hurt but you know that not everybody is going to come out on top. There’s Barbara Steele as Betts, an attractive neighbour who is friends with Janine Tudor (Susan Petrie). Janine’s husband Nicholas (Allan Kolman) is basically the guy who really gets the infection going. He wasn’t the first with it technically but it’s his character who starts spreading it around the most.
Janine, Betts, Roger and Nurse Forsythe are the core group of characters who we know are uninfected and they find themselves in trouble numerous times. It never failed, every single time I was hoping that they would make it out of there. At first it’s just a few random events occurring. A slimy slug thing here, a crazed lunatic there. By the end of the movie it’s as if the entire world has gone insane and the chances to escape are getting more and more slim. The final shot of the movie is perfect and I’m leaving it at that.
Fans of Cronenberg will have probably already seen this film but there may be a few out there who haven’t. I don’t think I could recommend a movie more highly than this one. Within the last year I’ve watched quite a few movies that have instantly jumped into my all time favorites. Shivers isn’t exactly the new kid on the block, hell, it’s even a bit older than I am, but it’s now found a place among my top choices. It was great to see where it pretty much all began for the master of body horror but be warned, if Nightmare on Elm Street had you scared of the bathtub, Shivers will have you afraid to even go near the bathroom!
Under the marquee – Will
If you liked that, check out Rabid, which was made after Shivers (…and is very similar). I remember the poster for it both scared and intriqued me when I was younger.
And, I’m surprised you don’t have reviews for Videodrome and Scanners, to of his ‘must-sees’.
But, much like Tom Hanks, Cronenberg lost me once they became ‘really important’. His later film, EXistenZ is horrible. I hate how people now seem to praise him and his films unconditionally, as he is ‘important’ now.
Oh, and The Fly remake is worth watching.
I worked with the guy that did FX for that one, plus the split screen technology of Dead Ringers (which is supposed to be good… the movie, I mean).
Naked Lunch did nothing for me… one of his ‘important phase’ films that everyone strongly praised.
Check out The Brood, my favorite of Cronenberg’s films and perhaps his most underrated film. The Fly is great too. Shivers is raw but it’s all the better for it – it certainly introduced us to Cronenberg’s body-horror in the most damning and explicit way possible.
I was actually thinking of Rabid next. That and Shivers I remember vividly on the shelves of the video stores I went to and I actually watched Shivers with my dad when I was around 10 or 11 but couldn’t remember it at all.
I’ve seen Videodrome but need to check it out again since its been so long since then and of course I’ve seen The Fly. I just grabbed that on Blu Ray for $8. The Brood I watched just last year and loved it but I think I enjoyed Shivers even more. I think I’ll stop around Dead Ringers though, that oughta be enough!
Dead Ringers is about where he became ‘important’, and could do no wrong in the eyes of the Cronenberg hordes… So, ya, probably good to end around there… although, to be fair, you can watch the others… just don’t get your hopes up, or cancel anything fun in order to watch these.