Now let's go back to David Cronenberg for his first flick, 1975's SHIVERS. Turns out Cronenberg's been into "body horror" since day one.
SHIVERS takes place in a state of the art condominium that is totally self sufficient, with on site stores, medical centers, and everything else you could think of. The film starts as an infomercial for the community, then doesn't waste much time before getting to the horror.
It seems a mad doctor (Fred Doederlin) is experimenting on a parasite that loosens people's inhibitions once it is introduced into their bodies, then spreads like an STD when people come into contact with each other. Unfortunately, it loosens people's inhibitions maybe a little more than the doctor intended, turning people into murderous, sex-crazed maniacs, so as the film opens, the doctor is putting his first patient (his lover, Barbara Steele) out of her misery.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, this patient has slept with half the building and now we have a bunch of other infected people just waiting to infect each other, notably the male half of a young married couple (Alan Migicovsky) who has weird creatures visibly crawling around under his skin. He hacks up a couple of these parasites which then crawl around the building's pipes and ducts and jump out at people when they least expect it.
Also unfortunately for everyone involved, the only kind of hero we have on hand is the building's on-site doctor (Paul Hampton), a guy who seems to ooze laziness, who sees what's going on but is a little too slow to stop it. He's sleeping with his hot nurse (Lynn Lowry) who tries to help as well, but it's not long before there's a full on outbreak of zombie-like proportions and implications.
SHIVERS works best in the first half when all of the icky goings on are being set up. When they pay off, an otherwise interesting premise devolves into a retread of your usual zombie stuff. Still, it's cool to see Cronenberg basically arrived ready to go right from the beginning and never looked back.
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