Shivers Movie Review 311

 

Shivers is a 1975 horror/sci-fi movie written and directed by David Cronenberg. It was his first proper movie and it stars Paul Hampton and Lynn Lowry.

Dr. Emil Hobbes(Fred Doederlin) is performing strange experiments with parasites. He has designed one which is an aphrodisiac and when it is implanted in a person, it causes sexual desires which are totally uncontrollable. He thinks that if people are having sex, then they will be more peaceful etc but it all goes wrong. He implants it into his mistress and she cannot control her lust. Emil kills her and himself, thinking that this will stop the parasite, but she has already infected plenty of people in the apartment building where she lived. People begin to get infected by sexual contact and they turn into sex crazed zombies. Roger St Luc(Hampton) is a doctor in the apartment complex and he sees that people are exhibiting very odd behaviour. He looks into it with his nurse/lover, Miss Forsythe(Lowry).

They go through the building and they are chased by the sex crazed inhabitants. They try to escape, but the zombies are after them. Roger gets to his car, but they are after him and they trap him. Miss Forsythe gets infected and Roger has to go without her. As much as he tries to, he cannot escape and he gets trapped and infected by the zombies. The end of the movie shows the sex crazed people getting into their cars and heading for the city where they will infect everyone...

 

I liked this film. It is low budget, but good entertainment. It has everything that a good horror movie should have. It is far from perfect, but I enjoyed it and it showed that Cronenberg had great promise as a filmmaker at that time. If you enjoy cheap horror with an edge, then this is for you. I will give it a 6/10.