Film Details:
Directed and written by David Cronenberg (eXistenz, The Dead Zone, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch)
Starring
Marylyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door)
Joe Silver (Shivers)
Frank Moore (Murder at 1600, "Earth Final Conflict")
Review: by Melissa (e-mail your faithful reviewer)
Rabid is, more or less, a slightly more confident, higher-budget version of Shivers. Basically, the plot is the same: person gets infected with weird parasite-disease thing (in this case, a sort of super-rabies). They start spreading the parasite-disease thing to other people. Repeat until most characters and/or world population is dead.
Rabid, fortunately, is a stronger film that its predecessor. It's still a somewhat awkward effort, but this time around, the theme is genuinely creepy. Cronenberg wisely upped the ante with this film, putting more than an apartment building full of people at stake -- he creates a worldwide pandemic. Not only does he deliver an engaging story on the small, character-driven scale, but he also whips up a world scenario that feels rather believable.
Rabid begins with a motorcycle crash, where the two survivors, a man and a woman, are taken to a nearby plastic surgery facility to be treated. The man recovers quickly, but the woman needs many skin grafts and transplants, and -- oh no! -- winds up with some sort of curious, phallic feeding organ in her armpit. It is still beyond me how a botched plastic surgery opertation can accidentally give you an armpit-penis-mouth, but I digress.
The woman takes to stalking patients in the hospital, feeding off their blood with her armpit-penis-mouth. Unfortunately, she's also carrying a super-strain of rabies, which spreads to each of her victims. In turn, they go all frothy and start trying to eat other people. It doesn't take long for the disease to spread outside the hospital and into the general populace.
The basic premise is hokey, but it somehow works most of the time. Cronenberg plays his cards with utmost seriousness, and garnishes the plot with wonderful touches that make the viewer uneasy. Faceless men in environment suits patrol the streets, throwing bodies into garbage trucks. A congressman on TV dryly notes that the best way to handle the problem is to shoot the victims. Scenes that could easily follow a formula suddenly turn into misdirection. Plus, the overt sexuality of Shivers is channeled here into a much more elegant subtext, where there is this uncomfortable mingling of blood, food, sex, and armpits. Rabid really has some wonderfully subversive stuff.
Most of the production values -- the acting, the script, etc. -- are lacking in polish, though porn star Marilyn Chambers really outshines the rest of the cast as the armpit-monster. Thus, the film probably isn't for folks with low tolerance for schlocky horror. However, if you're the sort of person who craves a little bit of intelligence with their 70's low-budget blood-n'-guts flicks will likely find a lot to like about Rabid.
DVD Details:
