RABID (1977)

 

(Director/screenwriter: David Cronenberg)

Storyline

An experimental plastic surgery turns a young woman into a bloodthirsty creature. She attacks her victims, infecting them, causing a city-wide epidemic.

Review

Cronenberg’s 1977 follow-up to the controversial SHIVERS (1974) is a thematic evolution and upgrade for the screenwriter-director whose early-to-mid-career cinematic works often focused on mutation, and body- and disease-based horror. The tone and flow of RABID is sharper and improved, less raw shot-wise. Theme- and writing-wise it’s a more self-assured and mature sibling to SHIVERS.

Ex-porn actress Marilyn Chambers (BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR, 1972) played Rose, the lead character and patient zero for the plague. She did a good job of conveying Rose’s journey from recovering accident victim, confused amnesiac to full-on predator─and while there are a few nude scenes with her, they’re restrained and non-gratuitous in that they further the plot in a meaningful way. Joe Silver, a veteran character actor, whose laidback performance was a highlight in SHIVERS, gets a pivotal role here as well, playing a medical expert (Murray Cypher). As fun as his character’s name is, it’s not quite as notable/darkly funny as the name of Rose’s surgeon, Dr. Dan Keloid (played by Howard Ryshpan)─the scene where an infected Keloid begins to lose his mind during a surgery is one of the more enjoyable scenes in RABID.

The penile mutation symbol, as in SHIVERS, is present here as well: this time out, it doesn’t crawl, slug-like, out of its victims, but instead nests within Rose’s armpit. With another director, this might be heavy-handed and silly, but in Cronenberg’s vision, there’s an added element of creepiness to it.

This relatively short feature is a maturation of Cronenberg’s filmmaking abilities, one that works and entertains on all still-icky levels, with an emotionally blunt end-scene that is striking in its tone-consistent, cold-reality harshness. According to IMDb, RABID remains one of Canada’s highest-grossing films of all-time.