David Cronenberg did two things for horror. The first was help put Canada on the map and the second was to create his own distinct subcategory which is commonly referred to by academians in the field as “body horror” or biological horror. Shivers, a.k.a They Came from Within (United States title), a.k.a. The Parasite Murders (working title) is the first feature-length film from the now renowned director. Until this time, Cronenberg had only short films and a growing television resume to his name. However, it wasn’t until two films later, with Scanners, that Cronenberg would gain critical and audience recognition. Shivers does serve to foreshadow many of the themes that would pervade the filmmaker’s oeuvre but the primary focus of the film is that is served as an indicator that Cronenberg was a thinking director.
Shivers takes place on an isolated island in a high-rise, state-of-the-art apartment complex named Starliner Apartments, which is a microcosm for the world at large in that people from most every walk of life inhabit the building. The plot revolves around a mad scientist, Emil Hobbes (Fred Doederlein), who creates a genetically engineered parasite which will integrate itself into the human organism and push the body back to a Nietzschian state of Dionysian equilibrium with its Apollian mind. In layman’s terms, the virus will make the human being who is hosting it more mammalian in the sense of reverting the person back to the animalistic urges of pleasures of the flesh. This is indeed what occurs but Hobbes didn’t quite fashion an entirely benevolent parasite in that, once infected, the individual becomes a wanton sex addict who will satisfy his or her cravings at whatever the cost. The honesty of such a criticism is displayed in an 18 year-old slut named Annabelle (Kathy Graham) and several “dirty old men” who help to accelerate the spread of the virus at the offset of the film. The types of people who fall victim to the epidemic span the panorama of humanity: men, women, doctors, wage earners, old biddies, children, you name it, you’re now susceptible to your subconscious desire to have anyone you want whenever you want them (whether the feeling is mutual or not).
The work serves as a morality play as much as a prophecy in that it forewarns of the dangers of promiscuity (à la Puritanical Halloween), a major social demon during the period of free love regaining when the film was shot, as well as posits the possibility of AIDS, which would appear as a global concern in a few short years after the film’s release.
As a horror film, the work is fairly moist, as they say in the business, but Cronenberg strikes a cord with the image of a enlarged maggot-like worm undulating under the skin in the way that Alien would crawl under the audience’s skin four years later. Many have remarked upon the similarities of the two works, but keep in mind the dates: Cronenberg created this half a decade before Ridley Scott would issue his masterpiece of sexual and biological terror. Also, Cronenberg drags the razor blade over a handful of nerves in presenting the virus forcing people against their sexual orientation during the course of its ravages (thus putting gay and lesbian sex on the big screen) as well as presenting a scene of two nude adolescent girls on leashes, reminiscent in tone to the phallatio scene in Kubrick’s The Shining.
Another strength which lies within this film is something which I have always admired Cronenberg for: He will only present realistic horror in the sense of never presenting a metaphysically impossible monster as the antagonist. Yes, the latter can be utilized as a metaphor but Cronenberg’s method, though it is to be taken literally, is always symbolic. Thus, Cronenberg does double time with most of his films in this regard. Shivers is one of these films.
The work does have some pratfalls, all of which can be readily dismissed in that most every other low-budget, rookie works typically suffer from a monumental amount of problems by comparison. Shivers main distraction in this sense is that the continuity throughout is hit-and-miss but, as Cronenberg would recollect 25 years later, he only had 15 days to shoot the entire film with a fairly large cast and a large number of special effects to implement along the way. The only other major concern is the short monologue by Nurse Forsythe (Lynn Lowry) shortly before she attempts to infect the lead, Roger St Luc (Paul Hampton). She summaries Cronenberg’s philosophy of “The New Flesh” but, thank goodness, such novice mouthpieces would rarely appear in the director’s later works. Ironically (or perhaps intentionally), budgetary constraint also helped create the atmosphere in that the work is seemingly devoid of a soundtrack in which to divert from the action onscreen, keeping the viewer penned to the ensuing chaos.
I will state that the tension created serves as a perfect setting for black humor and, though a beginning director at the time, Cronenberg does not allow such opportunities to slide through his fingers. I will not disclose particulars but will end by stating that the work as a whole, in whatever mindset you choose to see it, will not go unrewarded.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
