Welcome to the movie club! Our fifth movie is David Cronenberg’s directorial debut, the sci-fi body horror flick Shivers!
Shivers is built on a very sturdy horror movie set-up, using the confined location of an apartment building on an island to build and maintain tension. After a doctor and young woman are found dead in a murder-suicide on the top floor of the building, the rest of the apartment’s tenants quickly succumb to a parasite that spreads like an STD, forcing its hosts to go mad and become sexually aggressive. It’s one of the earliest examples of the icky body horror Cronenberg would eventually become famous for, mixed with the familiar structure of a zombie flick.
Cronenberg ran into some initial trouble getting the movie produced and funded due to its content, including a 3 year back and forth with the Canadian Film Development Corporation that ended with them contributing $76,500 CAD towards the final budget of $179,000 CAD. The film was picked up for distribution by Cinépix, a small Canadian distributor at the time that would eventually grow and rebrand into the now well known Lionsgate Films. Shivers then first aired at Cannes and the Edinburgh International Film Festival before being released in the US on September 26, 1975, and two weeks later in Canada on October 10. It was a financial success that earned $5 million CAD in the box office, making for a promising start to Cronenberg’s career and a hint at the grotesqueries of his that would soon follow this one.1
- Working titles for the film include: The Parasite Complex, Starliner, and (my favourite) Orgy Of The Blood Parasites. It also had the alternate titles The Parasite Murders or Frissons in Quebec and They Came From Within in the US.
- Shivers seems to have caused quite a stir in Canada due to its content, to the point where Cronenberg was said to have been kicked out of his apartment when his landlord learned about the controversy.
- The movie was filmed during the summer of 1974, over the course of 15 days on location in Montreal’s Nuns’ Island. A local condominium and the surrounding area served as the main filming location, with the cast and crew living in the building during production.
What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Up Next: Charles Burnett’s black comedy film To Sleep with Anger (1990)! Check out the trailer below. Viewing options are unfortunately limited though. I might suggest checking your local library, or Kanopy if you’re in the US (I can only see Canadian Kanopy).
USA
- Stream: Tubi
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play (rental only), YouTube (rental only), Fandango At Home
Canada
- No legal options for this outside of purchasing or renting a physical copy. 🙁
UK
- Buy: Amazon, Apple TV