Shivers (film)
| Shivers | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
that features an alternate title |
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| Directed by | David Cronenberg |
| Produced by | Ivan Reitman |
| Written by | David Cronenberg |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Saad |
| Edited by | Patrick Dodd |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Cinépix Film Properties Inc. |
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Release date
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Running time
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87 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CAD$179,000 (est.) |
Shivers (aka The Parasite Murders, They Came from Within, and Frissons for the French-Canadian distribution) is a 1975 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. The original shooting title was Orgy of the Blood Parasites.
Dr. Emil Hobbes is conducting unorthodox experiments with parasites for use in transplants. He believes that humanity has become over-rational and lost contact with its flesh and its instincts, so the effects of the alien organism he actually develops is a combination of aphrodisiac and venereal disease. Once implanted, it causes uncontrollable sexual desire in the host.
Hobbes implants the parasites in his teen-aged mistress, who promiscuously spreads them throughout the ultra-modern apartment building outside Montreal where they live. Hobbes, unable to undo the damage he caused, kills his mistress and then commits suicide. The police are called and the crime looks to be open and shut.
As the story develops, one of Hobbes' sexual partners begins to feel ill and returns from work. Here we see the parasite emerge from its host and escape into the building where it emerges and attacks a number of people. The pace of the story quickens when the community's resident physician, Roger St. Luc, uncovers some of the research that Hobbes had been working on. St. Luc encounters an elderly resident who has been attacked and burned by the parasite. St. Luc, along with his assistant and girlfriend, Nurse Forsythe, move the elderly residents to their room. They attempt to stop the parasite infestation before it overwhelms the city's population.
Instructing the elderly couple to wait and lock themselves in, St. Luc continues to the basement where the residents told him they had disposed of the parasite. St. Luc is attacked by a caretaker but manages to defeat him by bashing in his skull. Forsythe leaves the safety of the elderly residents' room and continues after St. Luc, where she is attacked, but is rescued by St. Luc. Meanwhile, upstairs it is clear that the parasite has spread the infection as more and more of the residents start to act out. The scene closes with the elderly couple's apartment broken into by the infected. Downstairs the security guard is infected and the auctioneer showing the apartment is slowly entrapping other unsuspecting guests.
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Wikipedia