Shivers also known as: Blood Orgy of the Parasites and They Came from Within.
I’d never heard of this one before I saw it one day whilst browsing through DVDs. Yes, another punt on a film i’d never heard of. Upon getting it home, I noticed it was directed by David Cronenberg (The Fly, Scanners, Xtro etc…) so I thought to myself “Why not take a punt on this one?” And I’m glad I did!
THE PLOT
The plot takes place within a new building apartment lock called the “Starliner” which is the state of the art building for the time. Unfortunately a parasite which has been developed by a rogue scientist has taken a hold on a few of the residents. It starts to spread amongst the population of the building. The parasites cause their hosts to act out in violent and sexually extreme ways. This obviously makes for a great movie and lots of excuses for violence and nudity!
Shivers is a very early effort by Cronenberg (In fact his first feature length film). Whilst many of his trademarks are present in the plot and execution of the film it is obviously done of a much tighter budget than his 1980’s films. It is a gritty, enthralling and rather well done film. The violence is rather confronting and would have been reasonably extreme for the time it was released. After the movie I watched some DVD extras regarding the production of the film and it turns out Cronenberg found the funding to this movie from the Canadian Film Board. The gore and sexual content of the film did garner some controversy for the film as it was public money used to create it. However the quality of the film meant that it was still well accepted and did well enough at the box office to launch Cronenbergs’ career!
Over all I really liked it Shivers. I cant imagine many horror fans not liking it. There’s no major flaws or much else I could wish for with this film. Cronenberg is fast becoming one of my favourate directors. You can judge for yourself as the movie is up on youtube!
For more great horror flicks be sure to check out https://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis!