Shivers. The debut feature of the king of Body Horror himself David Cronenberg.

Shivers was the feature debut from one of the greatest horror directors of all time David Cronenberg. King of Body Horror and one of my all time favorite filmmakers. Sadly this is one of his less talked about films as it was out of print for quite a while before its recent re-release both in the Cronenberg Collection DVD and on Blu-Ray. Now however you have no excuse go watch it!

Shivers takes place in a self sustaining apartment complex, complete with a health clinic, restaurants, shops etc. However, one day this community is rocked by a brutal murder suicide. A doctor kills one of his students, slices her open and fills her with acid before slitting his own throat. Turns out, this doctor believed that the human race has become too obsessed with technology and other such endeavors and are ignoring their animal side. And so he developed a parasite which upon entering the body strengthens ones sexual urges. The girl he murdered was his guinea pig who upon being impregnated with the parasite became very promiscuous and slept with many people within the complex. Next thing we know, this parasite is rapidly spreading like wildfire, turning everyone into crazed sex maniacs.

Shivers is a very cool movie which was very edgy for its time. Not only are those with the parasite overcome by sexual desire, but they are not discriminatory in the slightest. Man, woman, child, if you are flesh and have holes they will come for you. Though this film is not too graphic in the sexual department, most of it is suggested, oh there is nudity, but no full on pornographic rumpy pumpy. It does take a while for the carnage to really get rolling in this film but I wouldn`t quite say it is a slow burn. Some would call this a zombie film but it is so different at the same time. These guys don`t want to eat you, they want to fuck you. And though they are more wild and primal than their normal selves, they aren`t brainless like your average zombie, they can speak and do basic things, they are just horny as hell. Not to mention thay aren`t... Yaknow.. Dead.

Overall Shivers is a very good and interesting film and though it isn`t quite the level of wtf that later Cronenberg films would become, it is still plenty twisted and has a good amount of body horror to go around. If you love Cronenberg like I do or just horror films in general. Shivers is absolutely worth a watch.