When the residents of a luxury apartment complex outside Montreal are infiltrated by parasites and transformed into violent, sex-crazed maniacs, it's up to Dr. Roger St. Luc to contain the outbreak from spreading to the city.
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I really enjoyed this 70's grimy shocker Horror,Cronenberg is an excellent Horror director & like most his early movies are the best as they are much more darker & daring!!! Rabid (1977) was very similar & also directed by Cronenberg. The little slimey slug like parasites are really well made & scary & such good practical FX for a very old movie & still better than c.g.i fx used today. I really liked the big building setting that was very cool & creepy too it gave an almost lost abandoned atmosphere that worked great,none of the acting was very good but i didn't expect it to be excellent as Shivers is just a well thought out sick Shocker Horror flick & it really was good fun & very rewatchable!!! Would make a great double bill with Rabid,that's how i watched it
David Cronenberg's 1975 sci-fi/horror film stars Paul Hampton, Joe Silver and Lynn Lowry. This begins in an apartment building where a scientist kills a young woman and then himself. Hampton plays doctor, Roger St. Luc who discovers that he was working on an experiment with parasites and the girl was infected. The parasites turn their hosts into mindless, sex fiends and soon, they spread in the apartment building, infecting the residents. The late, Silver (Rabid) plays Roger's friend, Rollo Linsky who is a scientist and Lowry plays nurse, Forsythe. This is pretty good, the cast is decent and there's great make-up effects. If you're into body horror flicks, give this a view.
The sci fi film called shivers is an interesting work of fiction because i believe it combines several themes to think about throughout the course of the film. One of the themes is the importance of sex in our lives and how it usually tends to influence our behaviors at a physical and social level Another of the themes are the conventional forms of the nature of Man. It is also able to introduce the fight against these impulsive and destructive desires. And showcase our struggle to resist the temptation.. From a general perspective the film can be viewed from a science fiction standpoint/ in our endeavors to continually cheat death Scientists have developed an interesting solution; the creation of an organism that is able to replace defective organs in our own bodies. This organism would begin to eat the hosts failing organs and take their place all the while feeding off the hosts blood. The change is at first unimportant because superficially the hosts appears to be in a good condition. This however is an erroneous conclusion because the parasite, while feeding off the host is slowly growing akin to a bloodsucking fly whose body begins to grow in proportion to the amount of blood it feeds. And therein lies the problem. A cheating husband living in a hotel who is married to a loving and a caring wife, mistreats her all the while he is secretly engaging in sexual intercourse with a young woman who is infected with this parasite. The husband is having serious health issues that start affecting his life; he coughs up blood has convulsions and is in serious need of medical treatment. The way the parasite is able to spread itself is through this host. The parasite can multiplies itself being able to breed asexually inside the husband. After reaching a mature age, the parasites offspring leave the host in search of new bodies in order to keep spreading. It only takes a couple of hours for this outbreak to become uncontrollable infecting all the guests in the hotel. After that we are treated to many scenes involving highly sexual content, while being careful to not reveal much to the audience Everything that the characters are doing is easily interpreted into the viewers minds. There are scenes which imply acts os sexual orgies,incest,pedophilia,rape and others. From this point on, the film deviates from the original concept of scifi elements and starts going on another route. More specifically into philosophical notions about libertine behavior in society. the belief that one has no need of any legal or moral restraints to live out their lives, encouraging excessive indulgence. It contrasts an interesting allegory between the biblical ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah wherein the inhabitants of those cities were so morally bankrupt and who engaged in acts of human depravity and whose excessively destructive behaviors incurred the wrath of God and put an end to them. Another allegory would be Las Vegas too Add to the fact that the setting of the film is on an island, isolated from the rest of the world or figuratively speaking from the prying eyes of those whose ways are not compatible to the ones who live on the hotel, That is, do as thou please. Freedom to indulge yourselves in extreme excess without worry or care....True enough it is more a far fetched idea on my part but whatever. But the most striking allegory that hit me during the films climactic moment was when everybody started to lose their minds and identities for cause of that scientific abomination that drove normal people to the edge and converted them into sexual monsters concerned with erotic practices, consensual or otherwise, which is the most damning aspect of the film is the complete depravation and debauchery of the nature of man and how quickly we can sink into that state of absolute sexual nature, How, even children can be corrupted quite easily by our own standards and how few people fight to preserve their humanity against such overwhelming odds where it could be easier to give in to the dark side of humanity, yet they fight on until their last breath gives out. And it is this courageous man who is inspirational because it is a virtue being able to not give in to your sexual urges. Knowing the consequences and the evil vices one leaves himself to be exposed to, for an extremely short amount of time for carnal pleasure begs the question....why are we so stupid that we oftentimes make the wrong choice. Infedilty,rap-ism,incest,pedophilia..wtf
I have seen David Cronenberg's The Brood, Videodrome and The Fly. I enjoyed all three and I thought I would enjoy this one. I enjoyed it a bit, but at the same time I just thought it could have been so much better. The plot was very interesting, but at times it just played out a bit too inconsistently. The acting was at times very weak as the characters seemed to react to certain things completely wrong for what was going on. However, the film did also have some very disturbing scenes, some erotic ones and some nasty gore scenes too. The movie had it all and if it had a bit more focus it would have been as good as the other Cronenberg films I have seen. As it is, I found it to be the weakest.The story starts out by having a voice over and slide show that touts the benefits of living at this apartment complex that is on an island in Canada. Kind of makes this building seem like it is going to be more important than it actually turns out to be. It really is not all that important to the plot. No, what is important is the strange scene where an elderly man attacks a young woman dressed provocatively. He strangles her and makes an incision and pours acid into her. This is just the start as many men in the complex have apparently had a fling with her and she seems to have infected them with some kind of parasite that increases ones sexual appetite and also makes them more sexually violent! It is up to a doctor to try and stop this epidemic before it gets out of hand, but it may already be too late! The movie had a lot of problems, but the main one I had is that if the film was meant to show sexual violence in a disturbing manner, then it was too erotic. If it was trying to be erotic, then it was too disturbing and violent. The parasites in the film looked pretty good and were icky, but at the same time very inconsistent. They make nearly everyone in the movie very amorous. However, the husband has little to do with his wife and does not really show an inclination to want to have sex till halfway into the movie. The parasites also really mess him up, but do not really infect others in the film the same way. Not even the girl initially infected. These things and the rather mundane acting just take this film down a notch when it could have been completely awesome.So this film was okay at times, but overall not all that good or bad. It had some good things such as the scene at the end with all the people as it was better than a lot of zombie films, but a lot of bad too as I have documented already. It has that early Cronenberg flair as it is a science horror film and I rather wish he would go back to making these type of films. I have not seen anything by him in years though, so for all I know perhaps he has and I just do not know what they are. I am glad I have finally seen this one, now I just need to be on the lookout for Rabid.