Shivers (1975)

I suppose if you've never seen any of Romero's zombie films, or his "Crazies", or even Cronenberg's "Rabid" and "The Fly", you might be impressed by this film. But for even a mildly seasoned horror fan, there is nothing especially interesting here. Of course it's Cronenberg's first feature-length film, so it's worth seeing for historical reasons, but the script is boring, monotonous, unfocused and it lacks an engaging protagonist. There are some disturbing moments (the opening fight/murder, where we don't even know who the villain is; the barking kids; the bathtub scene), but the film lacks a clear idea of how it wants to portray the "infected" people; most of the time they behave like energetic sex maniacs, but at other times they become the plodding zombies of the "NOTLD" variety. (*1/2)

Fmovies: SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN) is another pretty twisted outing from freak-o Canadian director David Cronenburg. SHIVERS is not nearly as memorable as some of Cronenburg's other works (VIDEODROME, THE FLY or my personal favorite - THE BROOD...) but it is still worth a look for anyone that is into Cronenburg's strange cinema.

SHIVERS is about parasites that enter their human hosts and cause them to do all kinds of strange sexual and violent things. Pretty cool concept that is handled well, and the film is both weird and entertaining as only Cronenburg can do it. Again, not the best of his films by any means, but still solid. Give it a shot - 7.5/10

I'm a big fan of the director's but had never seen this one until the other day (the VHS re-release "director's cut" or whatever). The other user comments had let me to expect an amateurish curiosity, but I found it polished and feel no need to make any excuses for it (perhaps the new release is a cleaner print).

It's pretty sly, the acting's not bad and I found the film most remarkable for its restraint and subtlety. I'm not sure I buy the idea that the parasites are a metaphor for Americanization - Cronenburg's concerns are, I think, more personal and abstract than such a reading gives him credit for.

The movie is deliberately paced and the shock/gore factor is relatively low. I found it to be a modest footnote in a career that later bore stranger, richer fruit.

Shivers fmovies. Cronenberg's directorial feature film debut is built around a now-familiar amalgamation of sex, technology, and medicine gone mad. The Canadian "Shivers" (original American release title "They Came From Within", aka "The Parasite Murders") opens with a slide show advertising a creepily perfect-sounding high-rise apartment building isolated on an island but just minutes away from downtown Montreal. We are told that the complex contains practically everything necessary to maintain a comfortable life- medical and dental practices, clothing stores, a gift shop, a deli, recreation, etc. Ideally, it would seem, the only reasons a resident would leave would be to work, socialize with non-residents, or take a vacation, if that wasn't too redundant. But of course, something terrible is just under the polished surface.

Cronenberg's direction is obviously not as polished as in later features, but we begin to see his signature style translated well into a full-length format.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Having felt that man has not lived up to his potentials since he's restricted by the laws imposed on him by society Dr. Emil Hobbs, Fred Doedrlein, has developed this parasitic type earthworm. The parasite when entering the human body, orally as well as sexually, will cause the person to drop all his or her inhibitions, as well as their pants and skirts, and let it all hang out attacking and raping anyone they come in contact with.

Having implanted his new "invention" on one of his patients Annabelle, Kathy Graham, Dr. Hobbs soon realized that he had created a Frankenstein monster! In a wild frenzy Dr. Hobbs strangled Annabelle in his suite at the Starliner Apartment Complex before , feeling a deep sense of guilt, slitting his own throat.

It turned out to be too late for the guilt-ridden Dr. Hobbs to stop the sexually transmitted plague that he created. It soon becomes evident that the parasite left the dead Annabelle's body and started infecting everyone in the apartment complex. Traveling though the air-condition ducts garbage disposal and plumbing systems of the apartment complex the parasite has easy excess to everyone living there. By the time the movie is over everyone living and working in the apartment complex had become a victim of the attacking parasite.

Both young and old, from pre-teenagers to senior citizens, people that were infected by the parasite became so horny and sexually aroused that they went on a full scale wild orgy by the time the movie ended. These uncontrollable sexual acrobatics not only spilled into the surrounding neighborhoods but city's and towns as well.

Even though the movie "They Came from Within" or "Shivers" was made some five years before the emergence of the deadly AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's its striking similarities to that both sexually and blood transmitted disease is absolutely amazing. The deadly parasite, like the AIDS virus, enters it's victim and causes him or her bodily defenses to totally collapses: It's there where the similarities between the AIDS virus and parasite ends.

The parasite soon causes its infected host to go out looking, like a vampire looking for blood to survive, for new victims and strikes out at anyone uninfected in a wild sexual frenzy. This ends up with the infected person implanting the parasite in his or her victims body to start the whole cycle, person to person transmission, all over again.

The film is a lot like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in that nobody knows who's been infected, like the people who's bodies were taken over by the body snatchers, by the parasite until it's too late.

The resident doctor at the apartment complex Dr.Roger St Luc, Paul Hampton, gets the lowdown to what exactly is going on there from his colleague Dr. Rollo Linsky, Joe Silver. Rollo had been working with the late Dr. Hobbs before he completely cracked up and killed, along with Annabelle, himself. It's later that Rollo himself falls victim to the deadly parasite when he's attacked by Nicholas Tudor, Allan Kolman, a resident at the apartment complex. Tudor had been infected by the parasite when, cheating behind his wife' Janine's (Susan Petie) back, he had a sexual tryst with Annabelle.

Trapped in the complex with its sex-crazed residents trying to both rape as well has induct Roger into their ranks has him make an desperate attempt to escape the fate that awaits him there. Roger tries to

In the fancy Starliner compound in an island near Montreal, a mad scientist tests a parasite in the body of his mistress. He believes that man is an animal that thinks too much, and he develops a parasite to increase the violence and sexual desire of mankind. There is an outbreak in the condominium, with the fierce dwellers becoming zombies of sex.

"Shivers" is the third feature of this great Canadian cult director David Cronenberg, indeed a very low budget trash movie, with a final cost of US$ 179.000,00. The story mixes humor and horror and the effects are very nasty and disgusting, a trademark of Cronenberg. The story is a kind of sexual version of "The Night of the Living Dead", with people turning out zombies of sex. The screenplay of 1979 "Alien" used many concepts of this movie. The interview of David Cronenberg in the DVD is excellent, and it is very funny to know that the actress Sue Patrick asked him to slap her face in the scenes that she needed to cry, and Barbara Steele reaction to this physical assault. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Calafrios" ("Shivers")