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
