AN EXPERIMENT ENDS IN AN ORGY OF VIOLENCE
★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)
Director: David Cronenberg
1975
Shivers—a film about a pandemic in a swanky apartment complex—is rife with shocking scenes, the result of a sexually-charged virus quickly making it’s way through the apartment building’s inhabitants. Sex sells, but Cronenberg doesn’t treat this criminal behavior like he meant the movie to be shown in New York City’s old girlie theaters;. It’s hard to believe this is his first feature film as he has something most young filmmakers don’t have: patience. Shots are matter-of-fact, meant to lure you in before something outside the frame makes its presence known. It’s not just his technical skills that keep Shivers from veering into sleaze. There’s a murder mystery and enough substance to give it mainstream film gravitas. That being said, I do not recommend Shivers to people who are triggered by scenes of sexual assault.
One thing Cronenberg does not have a knack for is writing the female sex; Shivers is like many of his other films where women are either annoying, whiny, or naked—or in the case of The Brood, a “psychotic” ex-wife—but that shouldn’t stop anyone from liking his work. You go into his movies knowing Sensible Man will be there to solve the problem. In this case, after weeding through a few candidates for protagonist, we end up with an even-keeled Roger St. Luc, a handsome doctor who is slick and smart, but not smart enough to put together the myriad of clues until it’s too late. That James Bond lack of urgency keeps him from quickly deducing that these strange lumps causing the afflicted to feel violently amorous is a serious situation.

The opening credits show against the background of a slideshow presentation for the fancy Starliner apartment complex, placed on a lonely island. Cronenberg makes the most of this set piece, neatly placing kills in mundane situations that are relatable to us. Between Psycho and its showers and this movie with its horrifying bath scene, you may never wash again. Even the elevators are utilized well, and this is where our movie begins, with the Starliner manager showing the apartments to a young couple interested in moving in. This scene is spliced with a struggle between an old man and a girl in a room somewhere nearby. As he murders, her, it’s the quiet of the scene that is frightening; they don’t speak a single word to one another as she struggles to live.
Enter patient zero, an Adam Driver doppelgänger named Nick who returns home from work after noticing a strange movement in his abdomen. I wish we could have seen him and his wife during a moment of happiness because as he snaps at her and she whimpers like a dog, we’re not sure why they’re together, there’s no real emotional heft to the falling apart of their relationship and what follows. She does decide to go to the doctor in the Starliner without him, to get an opinion on her husband's sickness, and that’s when we’re introduced to Dr. St. Luc who is helping a scientist investigate the murder of the young girl.
While there are thin patches in the script due to lack of character development, Cronenberg more than makes up for it with excellent dialogue and painstaking medical research. Many of the scenes with the scientists feel real, their discussions about creating parasites to replace organs doesn’t sound phony or outlandish.
Much of Shivers is graphic and meant to churn your stomach, none so much as the scene in the elevator with a girl and her mother. After the initial shock of the movie wore off, I began to see what Cronenberg is saying underneath the gore and controversy. The movie isn’t just trying to scare you (it does) or make you uncomfortable due to disturbing imagery (it does); the message taken away is the same one made by the scientist who’s to blame for the pandemic: Perhaps the illness isn’t turning people into horny lunatics, perhaps it’s uncovering our true selves without the transparent wall of society getting in the way.
GENRES: Apocalyptic, Body Horror, Monster/Creature
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