Disease is the love of two creatures for one and other. Shivers is written and directed by David Cronenberg. It stars Fred Doederlin, Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry and Barbara Steele. Music is by Ivan Reitman and cinematography by Robert Saad. Montreal's Starliner Island Complex suddenly becomes home to parasitic organisms that upon entering a human host, turns them into flesh-eating sexual predators. Cronenberg's first commercial feature film has become a little too over analysed over the years due to the Canadian auteur's subsequent career. Meanings and motives within Shivers have been searched and scrutinised so as to give it more resonance. It really isn't worthy of that sort of cranial thinking, but what Shivers is is a fun low-budget horror film, a movie that has dashes of Cronenberg magic that shows he started as he meant to go on. With its chaotic observation of mundane everyday people suddenly turned into sexually charged beings now devoid of inhibitions, it's not hard to see why it caused some controversy upon release. Yet that sort of controversy is gold publicity really, and ultimately when you look at it now, it's played out as being more tongue in cheek than any design to shock the audience out of their seats. That's not to say there isn't horror here of course, one only has to see the brilliant opening to know this, but there is an intentional airiness about the p…

Fun horror movie that reminded me a bit of Dawn of the Dead (one location, people being "infected" and going after one another (hungry for flesh so to speak) and the few survivors fighting for their lives. Not great per se but still entertaining and a solid debut for David Cronenberg (well, feature length anyway). **3.75/5**

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