Popular reviews

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  Review by Lise ★ 92

  I tend to give horror movies a pass when it comes to certain issues including the portrayal of women. I don't know why I do this. It probably has to do with the fact that I am quite unfamiliar with the genre, and I expect women to be portrayed as stupid yellers who can't walk or run without falling, dial a telephone number because they are so shaken, or get the hell out of a house because they are too busy running up the stairs where they will be trapped. So yeah, I don't expect much from the genre.

  But this... this one, oh boy. This one made me question Cronenberg as a human being. This one made me dislike…

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★★ 2

  "He tells me that everything is erotic, that everything is sexual. ... He tells me that even old flesh is erotic flesh. That disease is the love of two alien kinds of creatures for each other. That even dying is an act of eroticism."

  Cronenberg's first movie channels JG Ballard as the residents of a luxury high-rise devolve into mindless fuck zombies when sexually transmitted parasites spread rapidly from host to host. Similar to Ballard though, for all the horror, Cronenberg does capture the distinct possibility of pleasure and self-improvement that comes along with social and mental dissolution.

  Chills and Thrills: Mild. It's a Cronenberg movie so he's not really trying to scare you in the "boo! Made you flinch"…

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★ 6

  Cronenberg’s take on a zombie-esque breakdown of society features a disgusting parasite equal parts aphrodisiac & venereal disease that causes uncontrollable sexual desire in its host. Shivers lays down plenty of groundwork for things to come from Mr. Cronenberg, namely fleshy body horror and psychosexual warped science amidst dystopia. It’s all here, pulsating beneath the stretched skin of the low budget sleaze wonder that is Shivers.

  Shivers and Rabid were two Cronenberg films I saw well after the majority of his famed filmography, both within the last five years, and lemme tell you... masked killers or rampaging backwoods murderers don’t scare me per say, but a disgusting parasite feeding on sexual desire whilst lumping and pumping around the belly flesh or throat amidst the backdrop of a toxic masculinity filled apartment complex absolutely terrifies me.

  Nobody makes me despise the gross human body or toxic weirdness quite like David Cronenberg. Orgy of the blood parasites, indeed.

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  Review by amaya ★★ 1

  every single man cronenberg casts in his movies look like some variation of an asparagus

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  Review by laird ★★★★ 3

  Wet Ass Parasite

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  Review by Will Sloan ★★★ 2

  In his debut feature, Cronenberg takes a brave and principled stand against sex.

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  Review by CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️ ★★★½ 4

  Some men just want to watch the world burn. Cronenberg just wants turn it into one big beautiful, mindless orgy. Gotta respect that.

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★ 2

  55

  The concept of sexual desire as a disease that overtakes the modernity of high-rise apartment living, a homely but impersonal space that aspires to cater to every need and desire except for what the body yearns for. If I didn't know beforehand, I'd say it would be pretty easy to guess the director of this one.

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  Review by kat🕷 ★★★ 1

  Need that parasite thing, when the antidepressants are starting to kill my libido

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe

  the comedy version of this movie would have a guy running around flashing his dick at people and running away in horror if they react positively

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  Review by Richard Chandler ★★★ 28

  "Why not breed a parasite that can do something useful, huh?"

  At the proverbial eleventh hour, pedophiliac mad scientist Emil Hobbes tries to terminate his horrific experiment in radical sexual liberation via a grisly murder/suicide, but he leaves behind more than a pair of mutilated bodies—namely a brood of wormlike parasites comprising "a combination of aphrodisiac and venereal disease that will hopefully turn the world into one beautiful, mindless orgy." Of course the world is a tall order for a $180,000 film, but the remote Starliner Towers complex on the outskirts of Montreal turns out to be a viable petri dish for the rapid generation of Hobbes' unstoppable, quasi-cognizant sex zombies. Though evidently unrelated, it's interesting to note that Cronenberg's…

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  Review by Tony the Terror 666 ★★★★ 2

  Hooptober V

  22/31: selected directors 

  
  I’ve seen this a few times already, but I’m always happy to give it a rewatch. Cronenberg’s first body horror is a delightfully bananas zombie sex parasite tale that’s really just here to make you as uncomfortable as it can and I love that. It’s got Queen Barbara Steele in a nice supporting role and Lynn Lowry is adorable and sexy at the same time, which is #goals if I’m honest.

  This whole concept gets reworked later in Cronenberg’s Rabid, which is one of my favorites, but that’s certainly not to say that this isn’t really good too. Is it just me or are practical effects from the 70’s and 80’s often times more disgusting…