Rabid (film)

Rabid
Theatrical poster
Directed by	David Cronenberg
Produced by	John Dunning Ivan Reitman
Written by	David Cronenberg
Starring	Marilyn Chambers Frank Moore Joe Silver Howard Ryshpan Patricia Gage Susan Roman Ronald Mlodzik
Cinematography	René Verzier
Edited by	Jean LaFleur
Distributed by	Cinépix Film Properties Inc. New World Pictures
Release date	April 8, 1977
Running time	91 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English

Rabid is a 1977 Canadian-American science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. It features Marilyn Chambers in the lead role, supported by Howard Ryshpan, Joe Silver and Robert A. Silverman.

Chambers plays a woman who, after being injured in a motorcycle accident and undergoing a surgical operation, develops an orifice under one of her armpits. The orifice hides a phallic stinger that she uses to feed on people's blood. Soon, those she feeds upon become infected, whose bite spreads the disease and soon causes massive chaos starting with Quebec and ending up in Montreal.

Rose and her boyfriend Hart get into a motorcycle accident in the Quebec countryside, caused by a van parked in the middle of the road, and then are sent to the nearby Keloid Clinic for Plastic Surgery. While Hart only suffers from minor injuries - a broken hand, a separated shoulder and a concussion, Rose is severely injured and burned by the incident. At the clinic, Dr. Dan Keloid decides to perform a new radical procedure on her, one which uses morphogenetically neutral grafts to her chest and abdomen in the hope that it will differentiate and replace the damaged skin and organs. One month later, Hart is released while Rose remains in a coma.

One night, Rose awakens from her coma and screams, prompting patient Lloyd Walsh to calm her down and hold her hand, but she causes a vague injury to him as she holds him. When asked, Lloyd cannot remember anything afterwards and the doctor doesn't know what caused the injury on his right arm; it is only known that his blood isn't clotting from the wound and he cannot feel anything on his right side. While Dr. Keloid transfers him to Montreal General Hospital for further evaluation, it is revealed that Rose's experimental procedures have caused a mutation in her body that made her only able to subsist on human blood. As a result of this, a new organ appearing to be a red phallic stinger emerging from a small orifice has developed underneath Rose's armpit, which can pierce her victims and draw their blood. One night, Rose leaves the clinic to feed upon a nearby cow's blood (which she vomits from), and soon feeds on a drunken farmer. Unbeknownst to her, the farmer soon turns into a pale zombie-like monster and attacks a waitress at a nearby diner the next day.