Μύ It's hard to think of a horror film where there's some benefit being turned into a zombie. But "Shivers" bucks the trend as the inhabitants of the luxury 'Skyliner' apartment block are transformed into brain-dead wild sexual deviants.
But this is not a story of bored middle class people being attacked by 'contact' magazines. The invasion is parasitic and from the mind of David Cronenberg, who finally had a commercial-sized budget to practice his penchant for gruesome creature effects .
For those concerned with plot, the flick opens with a very disturbing scene where a deranged doctor (Fred Doederlein) is murdering a young teenage girl. As it turns out he's injected her with a rather nasty parasite to test the effects on her mind. Displeased with what he sees he kills her and then himself. Unfortunately the sexual favours she happily supplied to him were also available to others within this luxury block. Et voila - a building full of deranged zombified sluts whose sole mission it is to ravage the remaining occupants.
Before you enquire as to whether this is a serious lifestyle choice then please note that the parasitic mutants cause nauseating side effects. And Cronenberg is only too pleased to showcase them with Hammer Films favourite Barbara Steele invaded in the bathtub, slugs bursting though people's necks and plenty more. And just see what they do to a lovely little old lady who's turned into a voracious filthy temptress who develops a taste for young men.
Yet despite this sounding like a great sick bag of stupidity there's the usual Cronenberg humour coupled with his striking direction. Despite all the nastiness there is a compulsive nature to this film that makes it very hard to switch off even when in full gory swing.
"Shivers" will be shown on Saturday 26th August at 11.30pm (10:30 GMT) on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ2.
