Rabid - Der brüllende Tod

This is Cronenberg's disappointing follow-up to the great "Shivers." Once again, the "monster" is a disease that turns the victims into crazies. The underlying subtext that sexual appetite makes you crazy is reinforced by the casting of porn star Marilyn Chambers in the lead role (she's not bad). There are some good scares and some great grotesque images (especially the frozen twisted corpse that was used in the film's poster). But the story is by turns confusing and, until the military is brought in at the end, repetitive. It feels overlong for what it is. Cronenberg had some nice directorial touches--I like the way he uses brightly lit, underpopulated buildings as a backdrop for the horror.

I'm a fan of David Cronenberg, so I've gradually been unearthing his earlier work. I watched Rabid last week, and, too my surprise, it was a pretty good B horror flick. Sure, it had plenty of bad acting (though Marilyn Chambers was good-*gasp*), was a bit too long for what it was, and was uneven overall, but I could definitely see the genius that was too come from this very young Cronenberg. Interesting flick--give it a try. **Another interesting note--look for Ivan Reitman's name in the opening credits as a producer**

Two bikers careen and crash in the Canadian countryside very close to a cosmetology clinic. The girl biker has received serious injuries and needs lots of surgery involving skin grafts. After that there is virtually no scientific or general explanation for how this young lady develops a blood-sucking mouth in her armpit, that after having bitten its victims transfers the same desire for blood; thus creating a plague in Montreal of all places. Now, the story has some obvious holes that needed to be filled and were not, but writer/director David Cronenberg can make even the most absurd stuff seem real and scary. This was his real second feature after Shivers, and he delivers the goods with some artful direction, more than ample suspense, and a pervasive mood of uneasiness in a city being besieged by a viral plague. Money constraints seem obvious as well. Whatever happened to the French detective? I found his character rather interesting.

Cronenberg made me jump from my seat more than a few times, and his style really absorbs all elements of the film even when you know what is going to happen - the shock is still there. A lot of people haven't ever been fond of Cronenberg's work, but I think that in the world of horror he is definitely one of the underestimated craftsmen. As a final note it would be remiss of me not to mention Marilyn Chambers. She does a pretty good job acting here. I found her very believable and beautiful. After all I guess there are worse ways to go then being sensuously cradled in Ms. Chambers arms as she caresses your hair and her carnivorous armpit dweller locks into your bloodstream. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I don't know - guess I'll chew on it a bit.

David Cronenberg perhaps maybe didn't get too ambitious as he forged ahead in the 70s as a low-budget director of bloody, outrageous horror films in Canada, but it was probably a good chance to learn tricks of the trade he'd know for the rest of his career. And somehow, while watching it, despite the fact that it is not masterpiece, it has all the makings of being a real influential work. Like another film that it's obviously been inspired by, Night of the Living Dead (albeit the Crazies might be in there too), Rabid seems to have given rise (no pun intended) to films like Species (hot woman out on the prowl for beings to fulfill her), 28 Days Later (obvious), and even Planet Terror (outbreak in a hospital). It's rough and with a terribly bleak ending, and it's got a certain pizazz that should keep it humming on genre fans shelves in the years to come.

Marilyn Chambers is one of the reasons the film got made- Ivan Reitman chose her over Cronenberg's (more interesting) choice of Sissy Spacek- though it is and isn't her exactly that makes Rabid a little sleazier for some reason that it might be without her. To be sure, she's the catalyst for the outbreak of the not-quite-rabies that spreads out in Montreal after a freak skin-grafting operation following a motorcycle accident (very well filmed that is, by the way). But seeing her after she gets out of the hospital and for the bulk of the picture until she reunites with Hart is a little predictable, and adds an air to the film of being too exploitive of expectations as opposed to exploiting the primitive tools of storytelling Cronenberg has. A scene like when Chambers goes into the movie theater should be freaky, but it's just sort of ho-hum.

It's not even that she lacks a certain screen presence, though at the same time, as the protagonist, she's not even really all that interesting in context with what else is going on around her. The best parts of Rabid are the side scenes, the little moments like when Joe Silver watches TV with the baby, or when the mall cop accidentally shoots the Santa Claus and mutters "Christ!", or when we see the sudden moments of the characters like the truck driver out for BBQ chicken or the random dude at night jumping on Hart's car. Those are when Cronenberg strikes it best as a pure genre director, not going too deep into theme (aside from that of the unawareness of disease and infection, a theme that would grow stronger in the 80s to be sure), plus in the shock value of the actual creature that sprouts out of Chambers mouth, which is probably even *better* concealed and revealed than with the parasites in Shivers.

At the end of it all, Rabid only really gets profound towards the very end, as a tragic scene occurs, but by then it doesn't amount to a whole lot. Rabid is a warped little blood-soaked flesh-eater flick, and it's happy with being simple and dark in its low budget.

If compiling a list of favourite directors, David Cronenberg if to be honest wouldn't be on it (having only properly started seeing his work fairly recently). If compiling though a list of the most fascinating and unique directors, he would almost certainly be on it and high up the more work seen of his. A vast majority of his films disturb in his use of imagery and make one feel uncomfortable with his tackling of challenging subjects, but as said in some of my other reviews for his films there is much more to his work than just full on horror as seen with him moving away from it in later years.

While nowhere near close to being one of his best (not one of his worst either, 'Cosmopolis' for me is a contender for that title) and do prefer 'Scanners' and 'The Brood' as far as his early/body horror films go, 'Rabid' is an interesting and more than decent effort. For so early on and with limited resources, for all its obvious faults, 'Rabid' impressed me and admired it for its ambitious premise (like with 'Shivers'). The rest of the films that are part of his filmography are far more refined visually, explore their themes/subject much deeper and are far better written and acted, but there is a good deal to like here.

Admittedly the low budget is obvious, with 'Rabid' making for one of Cronenberg's worst-looking films. It does look better and less amateurish than 'Shivers' though. The effects and make-up are well done and pretty freaky, but 'Rabid' does have a drab look and looks simplistic and unfocused, and like a low budget television film made by an experimenting student.

The script is also very clunky and too often vague with too many parts not going into anywhere near enough explanation. It did feel that a lot of time went into most other components and the script was left at the bottom of the pile.

Do think that the acting is quite a lot better in general than in 'Shivers', which only had two good performances while most of the performances were acceptable (if not always much more than that). But Frank Moore did have ropey moments from personal view.

'Rabid' has a lot of things worth praising. As said the special effects and make-up are freaky, surprising as one does expect for minimal budget for the effects to be the worst part when it comes to production values.

Cronenberg gave himself a lot to take on and does so admirably, even if his style had not fully formed yet. Yet his style can still be found all over 'Rabid', with the famous themes and ideas often re-visited in later films present but much deeper and with more subtlety later on. The story is interesting with the ambitious concept not wasted, with the pace being slicker than before.

Especially good here in 'Rabid' are two things. One being the atmosphere. The other being the horror. 'Shivers', 'Scanners' and 'The Brood' (which also all had the better scripts) to me were more disturbing and stomach churning, but that is not to say that 'Rabid' isn't either of those things, quite the contrary, with the violence still being shocking today. There are some genuine chills and shocks and the sense of dread is handled very suspensefully. The threat is scary too and the imagery does churn the stomach in typical Cronenberg fashion. Enough of the acting is acceptable, with Marilyn Chambers being a surprisingly good lead (was honestly expecting her to be a disaster).

Summarising, decent film. 7/10