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An experimental medical parasite is let loose in the self-contained luxury apartment block
"Starliner Towers" and rapidly begins spreading through the tower's population. It was designed
as a radical method of organ replacement however has another far more perilous property inciting
in the host a *** mania which causes aberrant and violent *** behaviour in so doing allowing
the parasite to reproduce and spread to further victims. As more and more of the tower's populace
become hosts to the parasite turning into rampant zombies it falls to the resident physician
Dr St. Luc and love-interest nurse Forsythe to discover the truth and contain the infestation.
Shivers aka "The parasite murders" aka "*** of the blood parasites" aka "They came from
within". Many of this film's assortment of titles suggest its B-movie exploitation tone
as well as effectively synopsizing its ideas and themes. Stars include horror Icon Barbara
Steele and Lynn Lowry who was also in George Romero's "The Crazies" to which this film
(along with Cronenberg's follow-up feature "Rabid") makes at least a passing nod.
With staples such as splatter, lesbians, slimy creature effects this film makes no pretence
that it's not a cheap-o, ***-fest but that said it does still aspire to more than mere
titillation despite the surface layer of casual gore and nudity. Cronenberg made his name
with this kind of movie, cheap exploitation flicks that disguise a more weighty consideration
of the physical and psychological human condition, normally by exposing it to disease or mutation
in the manner of a mad scientist.
Here we have the disease being a parasite which not only invades the flesh but actually
alters the behaviour of the host; Cronenberg's fascination with nature at its most insidious
is in evidence as there are certainly precedents, examples such as a hairworm that causes grasshoppers
to plunge into water and die allowing the parasite to reproduce in the water or a toxoplasmosis
which gives rats a suicidal attraction towards cat pheromones.
In Shivers the parasite results in the acting out of normally repressed or verboten sexuality
- a quintessentially Cronenberg-esque concept: the aphrodisiac venereal disease. And he certainly
has an eye for the grotesque. A creature whose appearance is somewhere between faecal and
***. He is a director who has no problem with shocking or disgusting his audience watching
in unflinching detail although disgust is always balanced with biological fascination.
The only restraint he seems to be showing here is budgetary. Almost like the disease
which cares nothing for society barriers or taboos, Cronenberg makes no apologies or concessions
to delicate sensibilities. Age and *** orientation become irrelevant, the geriatric
are as rampant as the young. Even *** and paedophilia, all barriers are stripped away.
But Cronenberg isn't just out to shock and he uses the scenario to muse upon an omni-sexuality
which comes across as a deliberate contradiction to the mass-media-re-enforced idea that only
the young and attractive are ***.
The disease doesn't prejudice and nor does Cronenberg.
But what's most subversive about this film is the fact that despite the horror on show,
Shivers actually retains a sense of ambiguity about where our sympathies should lie. The
opening narrative is a set-up of the location, an insincere hard-sell spiel for "Starliner
Towers" where the majority of the film takes place, even likening it to a cruise liner,
highlighting its artificial, self-contained nature. This is a sterile environment, an
attempt to manufacture a community rather than let it evolve organically. A corporate
ideal-home pre-packaged. Throughout the film we get repeated shots of dull corridors in
washed-out colour schemes. The tower is a breeding ground for an already present psychosis.
The parasite doesn't create it it just releases it.
Like something from a J. G. Ballard novel, the dull, repressive existence of the middle-class
high-rise generation. And just in case we don't get the point, the film immediately
cuts to one of the apartments, in which a shockingly vicious ***/suicide is taking
place, including impromptu surgery and acid antiseptic. Characters such as bored everyman
Nick who is cheating on his wife by sleeping with Annabel the nymphet typhoid Mary of the
story sleepwalk through their lethargic lives. Dr St. Luc, the closest thing this film has
to a hero shows no apparent interest in his nurse even when she strips in front of him.
His failure to reciprocate her passions epitomises everything that is already wrong in Starliner
Towers. It's also worth noting that the most savage acts of violence in the film are committed
by the uninfected hero as well as the ***/suicide opening. Whereas all the infected want to
do is have rampant sex and thereby spread the parasite.
There is an element of rapturous joy in the wanton abandon enjoyed by the infected. When
Dr St. Luc finally succumbs it is wholly appropriate that it's his partner that delivers the final
parasitic kiss, the swimming pool turning the scene into something resembling a baptism.
And once the infected have completely overwhelmed the tower they exit in order to spread to
the outside world, in much the same way as the parasite first overwhelms the body before
exiting to spreading to another host. It's a neat parallel that highlights the continuation
and escalation of the parasitic epidemic.
The narrative of Shivers does feel somewhat fractured. Rather then tell a single story
we are shown glimpses of several scenarios unfolding simultaneously, depicting the escalation
and spread of the parasites. This has the effect of reducing our concern or empathy
for any specific characters, although this could of course be intentional. It's as though
we're stealing glances at their lives observing the ugly truths behind the respectable veneer.
Given a highly restrictive budget Shivers is inevitably a little rough around the edges
but it's still rife with ideas and themes that Cronenberg would continue to build upon
and explore in relentless detail.
It is also interesting to note that this film caused accusations of misogyny to be thrown
at Cronenberg for his depiction of women as passive and victimised. His follow-up film
"Rabid" would go on to incite accusations of misogyny for his depiction of women as
aggressive and predatory.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.