Shivers (1980)
Directed by David Cronenberg
Starring Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Barbara Steele
Mad doctor thinks that humans have lost touch with their instinctual side, their ‘animal’ side and as you would, he engineers a parasite, part aphrodisiac, part VD, and sets it loose in an apartment block. His main hope is to transform the world into ‘one glorious mindless orgy.’
But there is something amiss. Sure, people are getting hornier by the minute, but most are just losing the plot and eating each other and there is some slug-penis thing sliding around spreading the disease. Those bum-hole typewriters in Naked Lunch are cute compared to these little buggers.
Director Cronenberg has always been a little on the twisted side, but he is also one very innovative horror freak and film director in general. He likes the mucousy nether reaches of sexuality and the human mind and these have always been recurring themes in his work.
Always challenging, his material is sometimes hard to watch, but also slyly funny. Check out the scene where a virus victim vomits up one of those nasty slug things from his tenth floor balcony and it lands on a granny’s umbrella. Another old lady is tormented by this roving willy creature as it slithers up her walking frame. Then there is the boot -faced geriatric who gets a hankering for ‘lurve’ and rapes some poor sod she finds in the hallway. What is it with grannies anyway?
At times, the sexual violence is a little too disturbing (even pedophilia is hinted at) but this of course is a moot point. Cronenberg isn’t concerned with creating comfortable moive experiences.
Shivers is pretty much trashy exploitation, as the virus spreads and an orgy of Dantean proportions follows, but it is interesting to see where the crazy Canadian began.
This fortnight’s cheesy throwaway comparison:
“Kind of like H.R. Giger meets George A. Romero in a Porkys landscape.”
Some other Cronenberg films to do your head in…
Existenz- The talented Jude Law stars in this gooey Cronenberg take on virtual reality.
The Fly- Excellent remake starring Jeff Goldblum at his bug-eyed best.
Naked Lunch- Seriously warped movie version of William Burroughs’ supposedly unfilmable book. A classic.
Dead Ringers- Jeremy Irons plays identical twins, both gynecologists, obsessed with freakish uteruses! Supposedly based on a true story.
Crash- Controversial and repugnant adaptation of a J.G. Ballard story. James Spader and Rosanna Arquette get off on car crashes.
Nightbreed- Okay, so he didn’t direct it, but he debuts as an actor, playing a very bad man in this Clive Barker big screen effort.
The Dead Zone- A surprisingly conventional film for Cronenberg. Christopher Walken stars in this Stephen King story about psychic ability and murder.