October 10th marked the 40th anniversary of Shivers (also known as They Came From Within), David Cronenberg’s classic body snatcher film. Shivers was Cronenberg’s first feature film (he had previously directed two short films), but it’s remarkable solid for such a relatively new director. While it isn’t known as one of Cronenberg’s best films, it has stood the test of time and remains a remarkably creepy (and gross) little movie.
***SPOILERS of a 40-year-old film to follow***
The films takes place in a Montreal apartment block as a scientist develops a parasite that causes uncontrollable sexual desire in its host and can only be spread through sexual contact. His reasoning for this isn’t exactly convincing (he thinks humanity has lost touch with its primal instincts), but nevertheless he implants the parasite into his teenaged mistress, who just so happens to be the complex slut. She sleeps with many people and parasite begins to spread among the residents of the apartment block.
Surprisingly for Cronenberg, Shivers suggests a lot of graphic violence but doesn’t show a lot of it. For example, when the scientist cuts open his mistress’s stomach and pours acid in it to dissolve the parasites before slitting his own throat, the audience doesn’t really get to see it. We know it’s happening though, and it makes the sequence all the more frightening.
Shivers went on to inspire countless films, including James Gunn’s brilliant horror-comedy Slither with its bathtub scene (featuring scream queen Barbara Steele):
Acting as a metaphor for the downfall of society, Shivers brings to mind the new Ben Wheatley (Kill List) film High-Rise, which also juxtaposes the crumbling of a microcosm inside an apartment building (I hated the film, Kalyn liked it). Whereas Wheatley’s film (and the novel it’s based on) take a satirical approach to the subject matter, Cronenberg goes for abject terror.
Normal life is lampooned (and exaggerated) through the boring, stuffy white collar residents of the apartment block that make up most of its population. It isn’t until they become infected that they are able to let loose and partake in their carnal desires. Weirdly enough, Cronenberg said that he related to the residents more after they had become infected. Cronenberg must have though Canada was having issues with sexual repression in the 70s.
While Shivers is first and foremost a horror film, it has plenty of moments of dark humor as well. Whether this is intentional, I cannot say, but it’s difficult to view the below scene and not find it kind of funny.
Finally, you’ve got the climax in the swimming pool. Arguably one of the most disturbing scenes in horror cinema, lead character Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton) is the only uninfected person left in the building. He makes his way to the swimming pool, where is is surrounded by the other residents and is eventually infected in a mass orgy. The final shot of the film shows all of the infected residents making their way to their cars to infect other people and take over the world.
In terms of bleak endings, Shivers really takes the cake, and the orgy in the swimming pool is a truly haunting image. There aren’t many films that can say the world ended because of a mass orgy. Interestingly enough, Shivers was was partially financed by the taxpayer-funded Canadian Film Development Corporation. Journalist Robert Fulford felt the good people of Canada should know what they paid for. He wrote a scathing review of the film, stating it was “the most repulsive movie he had ever seen” (due in large part to the film’s reliance on sexual themes and imagery), but ironically this only made more people want to see the film, and it became a box office success. A mildly positive review from Roger Ebert didn’t hurt either.
Shivers is a fantastic film, and it’s hard to believe its already turning 40! If you’ve never had a chance to see Cronenberg’s first film, definitely seek this one out. It has that 70s porno vibe to it, which is part of its charm, and it will undoubtedly get under your skin. That may be a cliché phrase, but there isn’t a film more apt to use it on than Cronenberg’s Shivers.
