RABID (2019)

 

(Director /co-screenwriters: Jen and Sylvia Soska, a.k.a. The Soska Sisters. Co-screenwriter: John Serge.)

 

Review

The Soska Sisters’ RABID, shot in nineteen days, is a remake of David Cronenberg’s 1977 film of the same name. Both movies share the same set-up and title. Aside from that, this updated feminist version on a synthetic plague is Soska-centric.

RABID 2019 takes place in a modern-day fashion house, where Rose Miller (Laura Vandervoort, JIGSAW, 2017) is a shy dressmaker, aspiring to design her own dresses. Most, including her arrogant boss (Günter), consider her beneath their notice, and she internalizes that lie. A motorcycle accident nearly kills her, necessitating wildly experimental surgery to keep her alive. The site of her lifesaving, later cosmetic, surgeries: Burroughs Clinic, named for her surgeon, Dr. William Burroughs. (The Soskas’ use of Burroughs is a nod to Cronenberg, specifically his 1991 film NAKED LUNCH, based on William S. Burroughs’s 1959 novel of the same name.)

Rose comes out of her surgeries and follow-up therapy more beautiful and self-assured. Everyone around her is wowed not only by her improved appearance and outgoing personality, but the bold new dress designs Günter employs her to create. Privately, though, she is in turmoil. She has not fully wrapped her head around her recent sea-changes. It does not help that the red “special diet” smoothies Burroughs tells her to drink make her stomach cramp─even as she is unable to process regular food, aside from raw meat. Also, her dreams are horrific, splateriffic scenarios, situations where she is a flesh-tearing aggressor. Unbeknownst to her, she is Patient Zero in a savage epidemic.

The climactic scenes where Rose comes into her gory glory is holy-frak crazy, making the penile-worm-in-her-armpit look tame. This chaos erupts at Häus Günter’s splashy fashion show, revealing Rose’s like-nothing-seen-before dress designs. In the end, it’s up to each viewer to decide if Rose’s fate is kinder or crueler than that of her 1977 counterpart’s (Marilyn Chambers played Rose in the original film). It’s certainly different.

One way the Soskas set their RABID apart from Cronenberg’s is the cinematography (courtesy of Kim Derko, LAND OF THE DEAD, 2005). The Soskas’ film is glossy, with lots of theme-consistent, bright red on display─like the dresses the filmmaking siblings wear in their cameos, as cocaine-snorting, gossipy fashion snobs. The look of Cronenberg’s RABID is dark, wintry, and sludgy.

The Soskas, Serge and editor Erin Deck also created a tighter, more intuitive, and less character-raw film.  It flows better than Cronenberg’s version. The acting level is about the same, with campiness underscoring some of the characters’ interactions in the Soska version. Not only that, the Soskas have graced her with a last name and a job/career, something Cronenberg’s version did not mention or show onscreen.

Sharp-eyed Cronenberg fans may appreciate the scene where Burroughs and Dr. Keloid operate on Rose (Keloid is a character from the 1977 film; he is now played by an unsettling Stephen McHattie). During the surgery, Keloid and Burroughs wear wine-red surgeon’s gowns, a nod at Cronenberg’s 1988 film DEAD RINGERS, where twin brothers─also surgeons─wear the same outfits.

Both versions of RABID might prove interesting and worthwhile, if you shed expectations prior to viewing them. They’re different beasts built in a similar structure.