Better Late Then Never

Admirable film.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Too similar to Shivers, which has superior special effects and builds tension with more skill. Of the nine Cronenberg features I've seen, Rabid is easily the worst. Rabid contains a scene that denigrates Native Canadians for no point other than a cheap and lousy gag.

An effective early effort from director David Cronenberg, RABID is a disturbing tale of a city overtaken by disease and fear. A cast of unknowns work hard to make this film seem as morally depressing and hauntingly realistic as possible, and the low, almost documentary style film making and the use of Canadian cities as a setting really work in its favour. The film deals with the subject of disease - something akin to rabies in this case - spreading through a city. It starts off with small isolated attacks but soon the city is put under martial law and the infected people are being shot on sight. Disease films are a frequent fixture in Hollywood - take OUTBREAK for example - and RABID is stylish and entertaining enough, in a low budget way, to warrant repeat viewings.Marilyn Chambers I found at first to be pretty annoying. A former porn star (as the box so proudly proclaims), she has a habit of removing her top in this film, but displays precious few acting talents. However her performance grew on me as the film progressed and she even becomes quite moving at the end of the tale; her offbeat acting style makes her in some ways quietly unforgettable. The rest of the cast have little to do, while the male lead looks strangely like Christopher Walken (who went on to star in Cronenberg's THE DEAD ZONE in 1983). However all involved turn in performances that are at the least adequate.The special effects are kept to a minimum in this film, with the 'star' of the show being a strange, pulsating tube which comes out of Chambers' armpit to suck the blood of her victims. This typical Cronenbergian image is pretty sick to watch but it's what you come to expect when you're a fan of the director. There are a few explosions and shootings to keep things moving along (the shootings are all violent scenes - the best taking place in a police station and involving a contaminated police officer and his companions all armed with shotguns - it's quick, blunt, and cuts straight to the point).The attacks on unsuspecting strangers by rabid, foaming maniacs are perpetrated throughout the film and are all handled with such style that you can't help but look forward to the next one (as sick as that may sound). All this and a downbeat ending help to make RABID a small, but nonetheless powerful, outing for Cronenberg, which is a must see for any fan of his. The film is at its best when it focuses on the spread of the disease and it does pack lots of horrifying vignettes into the running time, like the bit with the machine-gunned Santa Claus. I find that it outdoes Romero's THE CRAZIES in terms of pure effectiveness.

Rose (Marilyn Chambers) is injured in a motorcycle accident. Doctor Dan Keloid performs an experimental grafting surgery. A growth in her armpit becomes a dangerous stinger which she uses to suck the blood. Her victims turn into crazed flesh eating zombies who then spreads the disease. Soon she escapes the hospital and it spreads into the city.This is an earlier Cronenberg. It's got some of his body horror style. While the armpit monster gets the headlines, the leg skin is actually quite gruesome. Marilyn Chambers' acting is better than expected but it's by no means great. She's good enough to be in a B-horror. None of the other characters stand out and it's hard to feel the horror.

Rabid is written and directed by David Cronenberg and it stars Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore and Joe Silver. Cinematography is by Rene Verzier and music by Ivan Reitman.When Rose (Chambers) is involved in a horror motorcycle accident, she undertakes experimental surgery in order to save her life. However, she develops a taste for blood and has grown a deadly orifice under her armpit. As the victims stack up and Rose grows ever more insane, the city is put on red alert.David Cronenberg's second full-length film continues the themes found in his smart debut Shivers from the previous year. Body horror and disease come to the fore but Cronenberg expands it out from the confines of one building, into a whole city! Once again operating with a small budget with great results, the director fills out the narrative with sweaty virus panic, intelligent barbs, addiction concerns and visceral nastiness, with the phallic destroyer under Rose's arm a frighteningly bonkers creation. True to the director's career peccadilloes, sex and violence also come under the microscope, while his camera work shows an inventiveness that off- sets the poor effects work. The city is suitably painted as dowdy so as to run concurrent with the diseased narrative, and porn star Chambers gives a very effective performance while others are merely adequate.A simple story and periods of sag and drag stop it being top of the line Cronenberg, but there's a raw energy to Rabid that is most striking. Watching it now as it heads towards being four decades old, it signals with intent a career being born of a most skilled auteur. 7/10