BY TODD GARBARINI
The
widespread COVID-19 pandemic which took hold at the end of 2019 has made its
way around the globe and looks like the sort of thing one would expect to see
in either a David Cronenberg or George A. Romero film. Mr. Cronenberg has made a
career out of making films which essentially depict human beings experiencing
their bodies revolting against themselves while the late Mr. Romero directed a
series of zombie films wherein droves of flesh-eating, reanimated corpses,
presumably brought back to life by radiation emitted from a space probe
returning from Venus that blew up in Earth’s atmosphere, wreak havoc among the living.
Both directors present simultaneously dark and comedic visions of humanity, and
we all now find ourselves in a precarious scenario that one would equate to the
nightmares conjured up by these filmmakers since the quarantine orders took
hold some seven months ago and show no signs of being relaxed anytime soon. Few,
if any, of the Times Square revelers ringing in 2020 could have foreseen the
rug being suddenly and viciously ripped out from underneath our feet three
months hence.
By
the time he got around to shooting his first feature film between August and
September in 1974, Mr. Cronenberg had already accumulated a good number of
short films and television work under his belt. His most well-known early works
consists of Transfer (1966), From the Drain (1967), Stereo
(1969), and Crimes of the Future (1970). Following three years of
television shorts/documentaries, Shivers (1975) slithered its way into
the Cinerama II in New York on Tuesday, July 6, 1976 under the title of They
Came From Within, a title I always preferred. It was shown on a double bill
with Mark W. Lester’s Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw. Set in the Starliner Apartment
complex, the sort of milieu that today stands as a dreaded COVID-19 petri dish,
Shivers is eerily prescient in its depiction of a virus run rampant. Dr.
Emil Hobbes (Fred Doederlein of 1981’s Scanners) forces his way into
Annabelle’s (Cathy Graham, her sole screen credit) apartment. A fight ensues
and he kills her, then performs a horrific procedure on her body prior to
committing suicide. He is obviously trying to stop the spread of something
ghastly. Nick Tudor (Alan Migicovsky of 1974’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy
Kravitz) is another tenant who suffers from stomach pains and his behavior
is unorthodox. It comes to light when Rollo Linsky (Joe Silver, who would also
appear in David Cronenberg’s Rabid in 1977) confesses to Dr. Roger St.
Luc (Paul Hampton from 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues), the Starliner physician
who finds Hobbes and Annabelle, that he and Hobbes, his medical colleague, were
experimenting to produce a parasite that can be inserted into the body for the
purpose taking over the function of a failed human organ. This may work in
theory, however in practice things go wildly out of control.
Little
by little, we see various tenants get sick as a phallic-like bloody organism
travels from host to host with what initially appears to be an unexpected side
effect: everyone affected becomes sexually aggressive. Linsky later confesses to
St. Luc that sexual arousal was the intention from the get-go. Hobbes’s effort
was to return people to their natural sexual desires and to squash their
over-intellectual tendencies. Nick is now in the same sexual state as the
others and attempts to force sex on his wife Janine (Susan Petrie, who bears a
resemblance to Michelle Pfeiffer in her early years) who seeks refuge from her
lesbian friend Betts (Barbara Stelle in a fun cameo) who passes the parasite
onto Janine, and the other residents, including a dishabille nurse (Lynn Lowry)
who is involved with the doctor. Soon, the infection spreads throughout the
building until it turned into “Night of the Horny Tenantsâ€. The final scene is very
calm and humorous as it suggests that the cure to society’s ills is a “happy
endingâ€, one that director Cronenberg offers the tenants. The same cannot be
said for poor Candy Carveth in the final moments of arguably his best film,
1979’s The Brood.
The
original shooting title was Orgy of the Blood Parasites and the French
title was Frissons The Parasite Murders. Audiences may be
surprised to see the inclusion of Ivan Reitman’s name, best known for producing
the comedies Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984) among many
others, but everyone has to start somewhere. I recall this fact being touted on
the Vestron VHS cassette: “From the makers of GHOSTBUSTERS…†It’s gory kills
notwithstanding, Shivers itself is a comedy of sorts, satirizing society
a gone wild.
The climaxes of these films make one wonder
what is next in store for humanity. It would seem that we all have the
potential of being wiped out not by parasites or flesh eating zombies, but
rather by human indifference and a perplexing failure on the part of citizens
to simply wear a face mask and remain away from one another. It would not
surprise me to see Mr. Cronenberg tackle this motif at some point down the
road.
The
new Lionsgate Blu-ray (which includes a digital version) released as part of their Vestron Video line is the best
representation of the film on home video to date and includes the following
extras:
Feature-length
audio commentary featuring David Cronenberg moderated by Chris Alexander
Feature-length
audio commentary featuring Co-Producer Don Carmody moderated by Chris Alexander
Mind
Over Matter: An Interview with David Cronenberg (HD 12:01)
Good
Night Nurse: An Interview with Lynn Lowry (HD 16:54)
Outside
and Within: An Interview with Joe Blasco
(HD 12:55)
Celebrating
Cinepix: The Legacy of John Dunning
(HD 10:05)
Archival
David Cronenberg interview from the 1998 laserdisc (SD 21:16)
Still
gallery with optional archival commentary from John Dunning
TV
Spots (HD 1:03)
Theatrical trailers (HD 3:01)
Stills gallery
Radio spots
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