July 19, 2018
Directed by: David Cronenberg
Written by: David Cronenberg
Budget: $530,000 (CAD)
Quote: "I sure as hell don't want to become the Colonel Sanders of plastic surgery."
Trivia: The song that plays on the radio in Hart's workshop is Marilyn Chambers' own disco single "Benihana" (about 25 minutes into the film).
Rabid is one of David Cronenberg's first feature films and he will go on to incredible success with Scanners and The Fly. However, it was in this film that Cronenberg lays out many of the themes that he will look at in his future movies. Cronenberg's movies are all "body" movies which look at changes in the body or made to the body, our own connection to technology, and how both these aspects tie into our own sexuality. His movies set forth the road map that the Netflix show Black Mirror will go down almost forty years later. People, rightfully so, praise Black Mirror for its brazen look at the areas of ourselves and our society that no one wants to look at, but it should be known Cronenberg was doing this long ago. Marilyn Chambers (the actress from the early pornographic movie Behind the Green Door) does some incredible acting as the film's star. Also, the film really made me think about the Zombie and Vampire genres and where this film should be categorized.
The film is about a woman named Rose (Marilyn Chambers) who has a terrible motorcycle accident and is in a coma for months. When she finally wakes up, she realizes that the skin grafts the doctor did created an appendage in her armpit(s?) and that she needs to feed on human blood to stay alive. Embracing men (and a cow), Rose sucks the blood out of her victims causing them to eventually turn in zombies (or vampires?) where they stumble around the city feeding on and infecting others. The government attempts to control the plagued zombies by shooting them down while Rose's boyfriend Murray tries to find and save her.
Marilyn Chambers is absolutely gorgeous in this film with the girl next door charm that made her role in Behind the Green Door so memorable. That girl next door beauty is paired with some really revolting horror that also makes her role in this movie so memorable.
The film's plot is really interesting and seems to be saying something about the dangers of sexual desires. The characters are consumed figuratively and literally by their desires for Rose. Rose herself can never be satiated and is forced to "feed" every few hours. The casting of Marilyn Chambers, who is best known as the porn actress from Behind the Green Door, further drives home the message about sexuality. Finally, during one scene we see the appendage emerge from Rose's body. The orifice resembles an anus and the appendage resembles a penis. The scene is highly sexual but also highly unsexy. Sexuality and sex is looked at biologically at best, or as a revulsion at worst.
Overall, the movie's premise really drives the film. The killings are great and it is interesting watching Rose unable to stop herself from killing. Also, I liked watching the city setting change as the government is forced to ratchet up their defenses as the "outbreak" gets worse and worse. I thought this movie was a zombie film and I labelled it thusly, but other sites referred to it as a vampire film. I thought this was interesting. It really could be either or both depending on how you look at the film. Rose is more of a vampiric character; forced to feed on humans, overtaken by desires, drinking blood, etc. While her victims become zombies, not really vampires. They clumsily stumble along resembling zombies and feed on human flesh. This really made me notice how similar the two types of monsters are.
If this is a zombie movie, it is one of the first zombie movies to use a virus as a means of spreading the zombification. And this is twenty five or so years before 28 Days Later. Cronenberg who studied biology and was close to becoming a doctor would never go the George A. Romero route and not explain why people are turning into zombies, he of course would create an elaborate medical cause. It works too! I love this idea.
Watching Rose kill is extremely entertaining, unfortunately I found my attention wandering during the scenes in between these scenes. I find myself doing this for a lot of Cronenberg films. The plots/premises are so interesting that they hook me, but the actual films tend to drag at parts. I don't know if it is because of a lack of character development or what, but I don't really care about the actual story, I just wanted to see the body horror and zombie stuff.
Either way, the film is expertly shot and the story is compelling enough that I would definitely recommend it to a friend. It is a shame that Marilyn Chambers did not get more "straight" acting roles, because she is a really great actress. Also, we get a taste of her singing career where her disco song "Benihana" is playing while her boyfriend works on his car in a garage. I can remember being a boy and seeing her name all over the adult cable channel while watching the TV Guide station. She pretty much seemed to own that channel in the mid 1990s. Unfortunately, Chambers died in 2009. Marilyn, you will be missed.
Rabid is one of David Cronenberg's first feature films and he will go on to incredible success with Scanners and The Fly. However, it was in this film that Cronenberg lays out many of the themes that he will look at in his future movies. Cronenberg's movies are all "body" movies which look at changes in the body or made to the body, our own connection to technology, and how both these aspects tie into our own sexuality. His movies set forth the road map that the Netflix show Black Mirror will go down almost forty years later. People, rightfully so, praise Black Mirror for its brazen look at the areas of ourselves and our society that no one wants to look at, but it should be known Cronenberg was doing this long ago. Marilyn Chambers (the actress from the early pornographic movie Behind the Green Door) does some incredible acting as the film's star. Also, the film really made me think about the Zombie and Vampire genres and where this film should be categorized.
The film is about a woman named Rose (Marilyn Chambers) who has a terrible motorcycle accident and is in a coma for months. When she finally wakes up, she realizes that the skin grafts the doctor did created an appendage in her armpit(s?) and that she needs to feed on human blood to stay alive. Embracing men (and a cow), Rose sucks the blood out of her victims causing them to eventually turn in zombies (or vampires?) where they stumble around the city feeding on and infecting others. The government attempts to control the plagued zombies by shooting them down while Rose's boyfriend Murray tries to find and save her.
Marilyn Chambers is absolutely gorgeous in this film with the girl next door charm that made her role in Behind the Green Door so memorable. That girl next door beauty is paired with some really revolting horror that also makes her role in this movie so memorable.
The film's plot is really interesting and seems to be saying something about the dangers of sexual desires. The characters are consumed figuratively and literally by their desires for Rose. Rose herself can never be satiated and is forced to "feed" every few hours. The casting of Marilyn Chambers, who is best known as the porn actress from Behind the Green Door, further drives home the message about sexuality. Finally, during one scene we see the appendage emerge from Rose's body. The orifice resembles an anus and the appendage resembles a penis. The scene is highly sexual but also highly unsexy. Sexuality and sex is looked at biologically at best, or as a revulsion at worst.
Overall, the movie's premise really drives the film. The killings are great and it is interesting watching Rose unable to stop herself from killing. Also, I liked watching the city setting change as the government is forced to ratchet up their defenses as the "outbreak" gets worse and worse. I thought this movie was a zombie film and I labelled it thusly, but other sites referred to it as a vampire film. I thought this was interesting. It really could be either or both depending on how you look at the film. Rose is more of a vampiric character; forced to feed on humans, overtaken by desires, drinking blood, etc. While her victims become zombies, not really vampires. They clumsily stumble along resembling zombies and feed on human flesh. This really made me notice how similar the two types of monsters are.
If this is a zombie movie, it is one of the first zombie movies to use a virus as a means of spreading the zombification. And this is twenty five or so years before 28 Days Later. Cronenberg who studied biology and was close to becoming a doctor would never go the George A. Romero route and not explain why people are turning into zombies, he of course would create an elaborate medical cause. It works too! I love this idea.
Watching Rose kill is extremely entertaining, unfortunately I found my attention wandering during the scenes in between these scenes. I find myself doing this for a lot of Cronenberg films. The plots/premises are so interesting that they hook me, but the actual films tend to drag at parts. I don't know if it is because of a lack of character development or what, but I don't really care about the actual story, I just wanted to see the body horror and zombie stuff.
Either way, the film is expertly shot and the story is compelling enough that I would definitely recommend it to a friend. It is a shame that Marilyn Chambers did not get more "straight" acting roles, because she is a really great actress. Also, we get a taste of her singing career where her disco song "Benihana" is playing while her boyfriend works on his car in a garage. I can remember being a boy and seeing her name all over the adult cable channel while watching the TV Guide station. She pretty much seemed to own that channel in the mid 1990s. Unfortunately, Chambers died in 2009. Marilyn, you will be missed.
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