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The first big screen flick for Canadian horror master David Cronenberg was this skin-crawling B horror movie.

Residents of a high rise apartment building are being attacked by parasites that are turning them into crazed zombies with nothing but sexual assault on their minds!

Shivers is an effectively disturbing movie, not unlike most of Cronenberg's later horror classics. It's had a good hand in influencing later creature flicks. The story has a good premise and builds some terrific tension as it escalates to a great claustrophobic climax. What's clever about this movie is that most of the horror is suggested, we don't see the parasites much and their elusiveness just helps to create more tension. The makeup effects are decent for a low budgeter and the cast turn in some adequate performances, horror veteran Barbara Steele is a nice addition to the cast.

Shivers is a entertaining slice of B horror that manages to live up to its title well. A must-see for Cronenberg fans.

*** out of ****

In the fancy Starliner compound in an island near Montreal, a mad scientist tests a parasite in the body of his mistress. He believes that man is an animal that thinks too much, and he develops a parasite to increase the violence and sexual desire of mankind. There is an outbreak in the condominium, with the fierce dwellers becoming zombies of sex.

"Shivers" is the third feature of this great Canadian cult director David Cronenberg, indeed a very low budget trash movie, with a final cost of US$ 179.000,00. The story mixes humor and horror and the effects are very nasty and disgusting, a trademark of Cronenberg. The story is a kind of sexual version of "The Night of the Living Dead", with people turning out zombies of sex. The screenplay of 1979 "Alien" used many concepts of this movie. The interview of David Cronenberg in the DVD is excellent, and it is very funny to know that the actress Sue Patrick asked him to slap her face in the scenes that she needed to cry, and Barbara Steele reaction to this physical assault. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Calafrios" ("Shivers")

Cronenberg's variation on the Zombie theme was his first full length feature film and for this it is surprisingly good.

From the technical point of view, it is very amateurish. The lighting and camera work are highly reminiscent of home made Super 8, and the sound is bad beyond belief.

Although the mindless creatures attacking anything that moves immediately recall the Zombies, Cronenberg's movie has some original ideas. In fact, watching German television these days, the subject of bored middle class diving into sex orgies (at least in their fantasy) seems more up to date than ever. Unlike Romero's Zombies, Cronenberg's creatures simply embark into endless sexual excesses, including minors. Indeed, one of the most scandalous scene shows two young girls on dog leashes, climbing up a stair and barking - unexcusable image!

The special effects in "Shivers" work very well and are more slimy, organic, and visceral than say Romero's, and give better testimony of the vulnerability of the human body. They set the tone for Cronenberg's use of gore in his subsequent films.

"Shivers" earned Cronenberg immediately the title of the "reigning king of shlock horror" - very appropriate.

Shivers(1975) is a fascinating first film especially for a person who was learning to direct professionly on the job. An interesting part about this movie is that Cronenberg did Shivers(1975) without having a clue of what people in the film crew does or containing knowledge of film terms. The fact that he made a cult classic is a testament to his potential at the time to be an excellent movie maker. Shivers is basically the first horror film made in Canada as far as I know and David Cronenberg was the first director to open the flood gates for the horror film in Canada.

This motion picture mixes together the erotic with the zombie genre made famous by George Romero in 1968. In fact, there are many references to the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. The movie is about parasites who enters people's bodies and turn them into sex maniacs. It dares to break many sexual taboos that many film makers would be afraid to explore.

Shivers would provide a starting point for some themes that David Cronenberg would explore in later films like Rabid(1977), The Brood(1979), Scanners(1981), Videodrome(1983), The Fly(1986), Dead Ringers(1988), and Crash(1997). The two themes are disease as the transformation of the body into the next state of evolution for the human being and the other theme of the outsider who does not understand why they are so different from other people. Barbara Stelle provided the movie with many memorable moments especially the infamous "bath tub" scene. It is a groundbreaking movie because it would become a source of many movie directors for the next two decades.

One great scene is the "bath tub" scene which is a classic example of building up suspense until the final moment when the scene ends. Another excellent scene is when the protagonist tries to escape outside and he goes back in as swarms of Sex zombies go chasing after him. I consider this movie the beginning of a trilogy I call the 'sexual evolution' trilogy. The trilogy starts out with Shivers(1975), continues with Videodrome(1983), and finishes with Crash(1997).

Shivers(1975) would be a major influence for the scifi-action thriller The Hidden(1987), especially with the idea of a parasite entering a person's body and changing their entire personal behavior. Also influenced by Shivers were the Alien series(especially Alien(1979) which was made four years after Cronenberg's directioral debut) and there are a couple of examples of this influence. First, the two movies involve parasites who go in and put out of a person's body as well as having acid for blood. Second, They both take place in an isolated and high placed area with Alien(1979) taking place on a spaceship in the middle of nowhere and Shivers(1975) takes place on a apartment complex called the Skyliner Towers on the middle of an island that is isolated from the rest of Canada.

Cronenberg's directorial feature film debut is built around a now-familiar amalgamation of sex, technology, and medicine gone mad. The Canadian "Shivers" (original American release title "They Came From Within", aka "The Parasite Murders") opens with a slide show advertising a creepily perfect-sounding high-rise apartment building isolated on an island but just minutes away from downtown Montreal. We are told that the complex contains practically everything necessary to maintain a comfortable life- medical and dental practices, clothing stores, a gift shop, a deli, recreation, etc. Ideally, it would seem, the only reasons a resident would leave would be to work, socialize with non-residents, or take a vacation, if that wasn't too redundant. But of course, something terrible is just under the polished surface.

Cronenberg's direction is obviously not as polished as in later features, but we begin to see his signature style translated well into a full-length format.

I watched this at a drive-in back in the 70s. It was wildly inappropriate for a kid my age (about 6 years old). It scared me but not because of the aliens, but because of how weird the movie was. I only saw people kissing and their throats bulging so the alien infection could go from one to the other. Imagine how I felt when the first Girl wanted to kiss me later in life...

Anyway, I didn't understand what was going on at the time. I was too young to comprehend everything so I re-watched this again a few years later and I have to say, I still don't know what's going on LOL!

It didn't' age well. It's about this guy who infects a teenage girl with alien parasites, who he kills (and shows her bare chest) and allows things to slither about in an apartment complex. Once someone is infected, they want to have sex which is apparently how it's transmitted. I saw one of the first woman on woman kisses of my life when I was six so there's that.

It's kind of dumb, poorly acted and written and a lot of people have given it high marks. It's a predecessor of other movies like Alien, even though they were both made in the same decade, this movie served as sort of a template making it important, even if it's dated.

You should watch it, only if you're an adult who doesn't mind nudity and a very dated 70s movie that's not that great.

An early piece from David Cronenberg, this is his first cinematic exploration of themes which he would continually come back to throughout his career in films such as eXistenZ, Videodrome, The Fly and Crash. to best explain these themes, i must qoute the man himself, "I was saying, I love sex, but I love it as a veneral disease. I am Syphilis. I am Enthusiastic about it, but in a very different way from you." and while that doesnt shed a whole lot of light on the film, it sure is a hell of a qoute :) the plot of Shivers, aka The Parasite Murders, revolves around a parasite which has been bred to heighten sexual desire and other primal instincts while dampening our mental awareness. this parasite has been let lose within a high-tech high rise block thanks to the experiments upon a young girl by an older scientist. the horror begins immediately, as do the social metaphors and ideas of sex and death. it is interesting to note this film was produced before the outbreak of AIDs, but is entirely applicable in our modern world. in some ways this is a tale of warning, of what can go wrong and how we can destroy ourselves. but above all, cronenberg delights in sinking us into the flesh, so the film can also be seen as fable of a world gone mad with life and freedom, which many would not consider so horrific. it defies simple catergorisation, it is not just a story about rampantly sexually active teenagers like so many of its kind. it is a story about every person's desire for safety, and the darker desires which hide behind it. wonderfully directed, intriguingly written, there is little that i can fault this film for, except perhaps its little to obvious reference to Romero's Night Of The Living Dead. while it is obviously partly inspired by that film, and brilliantly reinterprets it for a new age and a new social strata, the tiresome zombies that stagger about like slugs are a little out of place, but fortunately it does not let the film down. a must see.

SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN) is another pretty twisted outing from freak-o Canadian director David Cronenburg. SHIVERS is not nearly as memorable as some of Cronenburg's other works (VIDEODROME, THE FLY or my personal favorite - THE BROOD...) but it is still worth a look for anyone that is into Cronenburg's strange cinema.

SHIVERS is about parasites that enter their human hosts and cause them to do all kinds of strange sexual and violent things. Pretty cool concept that is handled well, and the film is both weird and entertaining as only Cronenburg can do it. Again, not the best of his films by any means, but still solid. Give it a shot - 7.5/10

It's a odd type of movie that I have mix thoughts over it. The story is unique with a parasite that cause people to turned into sex-crazed fiends that also infect others by the slightest sexual contact. It's definitely a weird type of infection type of movie that is somewhat executed pretty decently with how the parasite works. The movie contains a couple of suspenseful scenes with some of the characters trying to survive against the infected people and current scenes are pretty disturbing. Also the atmosphere is really unsettling vibe with its tone throughout and how easily the people gets infected.

One flaw I have with the movie is that it's pretty slow throughout and there's a couple of dry parts in it too. Also things happened pretty quickly and there's lack of build or development to the characters or some of the plot points in it. And the ending have an anticlimactic ending to it.

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.

Cronenberg's feature film debut 'Shivers' is nowhere near among his best work (though nowhere near among his worst either), but for a film debut with limited resources despite flaws 'Shivers' is pretty impressive. 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 every good/great director has to start somewhere and this impresses and interests, and even with the low production values it's fairly ambitious in its subject and for low budget. In terms of content, 'Shivers' is one of Cronenberg's more disturbing films.

There are issues with 'Shivers'. If there was an award for the worst-looking Cronenberg film, 'Shivers' in my mind would be an easy win. With the exceptions of the suitably freaky special effects and eerie apartment setting, this does fare pretty badly in the visual department and reminiscent of a very low budget television film. The camera work and editing are both rather slip-shod and like the makers were still experimenting when shooting and editing without having put much thought into what to do and when to do it. The sound is also amateurishly handled.

Another weak point is the acting. There are two exceptions, Joe Silver, who really does give it his best shot without over-compensating, and particularly Barbara Steele, whose experience in Hammer films is obvious. Other than that, 'Shivers' contains some of the worst acting in a Cronenberg film even for mostly non-big names. Paul Hampton is especially awful, who looked like he wasn't interested in the film at all (even Stephen Lack in 'Scanners' wasn't this bad). The script does have some very clunky moments.

However, despite all of this it is difficult to be too hard on 'Shivers'. As said the special effects are freaky, surprising as one does expect for minimal budget for the effects to be the worst part when it comes to production values, the apartment setting has real eeriness and Silver and Steele do well with what they have. 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 'Shivers', with the famous themes and ideas often re-visited in later films present but much deeper and with more subtlety later on. Other parts of the script are darkly humorous and intriguing, like the flesh monologue.

What is particularly good here though in 'Shivers' is the atmosphere and the horror. Even by 2019 standards, 'Shivers' is still genuinely scary and even now is one of Cronenberg's most disturbing, old and new. The starkness evokes genuine chills, something that would be seen in his later films but much more technically advanced in them. There is a real sense of dread, with a lot of tension and suspense. The parasites are not seen a lot but really chill the blood when they do appear. A lot of the imagery is stomach churning, especially the bath scene which is one of the most frightening scenes of any early Cronenberg and overall Cronenberg perhaps for that matter. The claustrophobic climax is also unforgettable.

Summarising, very flawed but did give me the shivers. 7/10

I suppose if you've never seen any of Romero's zombie films, or his "Crazies", or even Cronenberg's "Rabid" and "The Fly", you might be impressed by this film. But for even a mildly seasoned horror fan, there is nothing especially interesting here. Of course it's Cronenberg's first feature-length film, so it's worth seeing for historical reasons, but the script is boring, monotonous, unfocused and it lacks an engaging protagonist. There are some disturbing moments (the opening fight/murder, where we don't even know who the villain is; the barking kids; the bathtub scene), but the film lacks a clear idea of how it wants to portray the "infected" people; most of the time they behave like energetic sex maniacs, but at other times they become the plodding zombies of the "NOTLD" variety. (*1/2)

I'm a big fan of the director's but had never seen this one until the other day (the VHS re-release "director's cut" or whatever). The other user comments had let me to expect an amateurish curiosity, but I found it polished and feel no need to make any excuses for it (perhaps the new release is a cleaner print).

It's pretty sly, the acting's not bad and I found the film most remarkable for its restraint and subtlety. I'm not sure I buy the idea that the parasites are a metaphor for Americanization - Cronenburg's concerns are, I think, more personal and abstract than such a reading gives him credit for.

The movie is deliberately paced and the shock/gore factor is relatively low. I found it to be a modest footnote in a career that later bore stranger, richer fruit.

"Shivers" isn't all that bad, but it does have some really bad flaws to it.

**SPOILERS**

At the Starliner Hotel in Canada, Dr. Roger St. Luc, (Paul Hampton) the building's doctor, is called up by Mr. Merrick, (Ronald Mlodzik) the local agent on call, he finds several bodies badly mutilated in one of the apartments. Finding a trail of evidence that leads him to the work done by a former friend, Dr. Emil Hobbs, (Fred Doederlein) on the benefits of introducing genetically-altered parasites into an incapacitated human body to help it continue to function properly. Discovering that Nicholas Tudor, (Allan Kolman) one of the building's residents, was a participant in an experiment to receive them, he realizes instead that they're dangerous and deadly, and turns to his wife Janine Tudor, (Susan Petrie) and his friend Rollo Linsky, (Joe Silver) to help him put a stop to the parasites when they get loose in the building.

The Good News: This here wasn't that bad of a film, and has some good parts to it. One of it's best features is that the ending is insanely fun and features a lot to like about it. The general pandemonium with the changed people going after the lone unaffected person in the complex is great fun, since there's plenty of stumbling across the residents of the complex performing sexual acts of various stages with everyone around to provide some good goings on, and the long chases through the building, with the sight of them crashing through the under-construction hallways or through the glass doors into the swimming pool are two great moments that make for some really big action scenes. There's also some really nice sequences from before, such as the opening attack in the living room, a marvelously creepy showing in a bathtub and the encounter in the hallway being some of the better action scenes in the film. That there's a really nice story here to account for the release of the creatures, since the experiment has a much more original feel to it, and there's certainly a lot to appreciate about that. Combined with the fact the film simply flies by without feeling like it's going as slow as it is, and these here make up for the film's good parts.

The Bad News: There wasn't that many flaws to this one, but it did have a few. The most obvious one here is that the transformation the parasites force their victims to undergo is simply not scary or terrifying at all. Being forced into a state of complete amorous adulation for the closest person toward you, regardless of anything or anyone, is so far from terrifying some might see it as something to enjoy and be desired of. The change is one for the better, and despite the vomiting, is a positive experience that seems to be desired rather than shunned or launch a strike against. That is a big flaw against the film, since it builds nicely to it, and the end result is something pleasureful rather than feared, which is the reaction provided here. A more terrifying end result would've made this one a little better. The other flaw here is that the threat here is ignored early on and would've been discovered then had pure stupidity not allowed it to get out of hand. The follow-up check-ups would've found them at an early time, yet nothing is done and the creatures are able to disperse amongst the tenets. The parasite looks a little cheesy and not at all like what they should look like, but they're hardly seen and won't be a bother to some. These here are the film's flaws.

The Final Verdict: This wasn't a completely terrible film, but the fact that the flaws in here are pretty big lower this one somewhat. It's good enough to be given a look-see, so fans of the creative staff's work would enjoy this one, while those curious should also give it a shot, but others should heed caution with it.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Language and several sex scenes

Hard to believe that I once thought this ludicrously daft horror-comedy, (although I'm not sure the laughs are intentional), was about the sickest movie I'd ever seen. It is fairly nasty in a visceral sort of way but it's also derivative, (it's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in all but name), and appallingly acted, (look out, in particular, for the elderly European couple with the walking frame), so that any serious point it may be making is lost. It's really another mad scientist movie, in this case the creation is a parasite, part aphrodisiac, part venereal disease, let loose in a self-contained Montreal apartment block. It could be seen as an AIDS metaphor and it's full of Cronenberg's usual queasy motifs but it's also pretty terrible.

"Shivers"/"They Came From Within" is a wonderfully twisted horror film directed by Canadian maestro David Cronenberg("The Fly","Rabid","The Brood").It certainly works as a gory shocker(it actually managed to make my skin crawl),but there's not enough tension for my liking.There are some great gross-out moments and the parasites are suitably disgusting.The plot is simple:bizarre parasites lead the inhabitants of a high rise apartment building to go on an orgy of sex and violence.The film is delightfully disgusting,so if you like horror movies check out this masterpiece.Highly recommended.10 out of 10.

Before he became a respected director, upon the release of classics such as The Fly and Videodrome, David Cronenberg was the director of cheap little films such as Rabid and this one; Shivers. Of the two movies mentioned, Shivers is certainly the weakest of the two, but then again it was also the earliest, so budget constraints are more likely to have been a bigger problem and it was also made before Cronenberg was a fully fledged professional. While the film is lacking in many elements that are needed to make a successful film, things such as coherency and interesting characters, it does feature lots of horror, and that just about pulls it through. Obviously, due to the man in the director's chair, it's not a straight horror and the film focuses primarily on the psychological terror of changes occurring in one's body, and although Cronenberg explored this idea much better in films such as the aforementioned The Fly and Videodrome, along with other films such as The Brood and Dead Ringers, he doesn't do a bad job here.

The film is halfway between a zombie flick and an alien film such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and it certainly could have been a lot better if it had been more professionally handled. The film is typical of this type of movie in the seventies as it is cheap looking and the camera work, lighting and other techniques aren't exactly high quality either. None of the cast stands out, and the acting is terrible on the whole. Still, these things are part and parcel of this sort of movie and personally, I quite like it. The movie is very much of the 'schlock' persuasion, and the way it fuses a fast paced plot with sex and violence will ensure that fans of that type of film will be happy. The creature effects in the film aren't very spectacular, but at least they look real enough not to simply look stupid. Some of the images that Cronenberg presents to his audience are shocking, and a lot of the fans of this movie no doubt will be so for that reason. Personally though, I just like it.

There is a lot of nothing in this movie. A lot of points where people just stand, talking about nothing that pertains to any part of the story until there are just exposition dumps. The parasites seem to effect different people differently and it's unclear how or when certain people got it yet they seem to be the major players.

Ending is sort of good though.

I love the opening - a cheeky advertisement for the apartment tower featured in the film, over which credits roll. I love the first concurrent scenes - strong violence juxtaposed with the perfectly mundane introduction to the tower of potential new tenants. From there 'Shivers' develops slowly, with unsettling goings-on and acutely jarring scenes scattered across the next half hour or so, paired with surprisingly thorough dialogue to set up the plot for the rest of the film. At that point, though, events escalate quickly, and the spiral of sex and violence can begin in earnest.

The premise is curious, and the concept underlying that premise even more so - but it's an oddity that's ripe for storytelling potential. For much of the initial length the film takes a more restrained approach that works to build a distinctly unsettling atmosphere. Make no mistake, though - that disquiet is increasingly punctuated by some truly bold, unexpected scenes that are weirdly disturbing - and also wonderfully fun. At first the pacing comes off as a little lethargic, but it's only to allow the sequence of events to progress naturally, without being forced. I was anticipating a concretely visceral, bombastic explosion of aggression and passion, and that's just what we get - only on its own time, and not ours, a show of determination for which I am glad. The writing here is solid through and through, and David Cronenberg's eye and guiding hand as director is just as confident and well practiced. Characters, scenes, and the overall narrative are gratifyingly complete, and compelling, and the movie absolutely holds our attention from the very start.

Everyone involved is clearly having such a good time bringing this cheeky, creepy, clever tale to fruition, and it's a joy to watch them at play. The makeup and effects are fantastic, including substantial blood, gore, and the excellent little plot device around which the whole narrative is slyly crafted. Though marginally sluggish in the first third, the feature builds most marvelously to an electrifying, entertaining sequence of events for the bulk of the runtime - culminating in an exquisite climax and ending. And with that said, not only can I happily overlook early plodding, but I think the remainder of the film handily outweighs any marginal shortcoming.

This is full of nudity, sex, and violence, and it's not for the squeamish, either. But this is tremendously exciting, invigorating, and highly enjoyable as a superb slice of sci-fi horror. With the noted content warning out of the way, I'd be remiss not to recommend this to just about anyone who appreciates the genre: 'Shivers' is an outstanding, stimulating, smart and boisterous film that's very much worth seeking out wherever you might find it.

Shivers is written and directed by David Cronenberg. It stars Fred Doederlin, Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry and Barbara Steele. Music is by Ivan Reitman and cinematography by Robert Saad.

Montreal's Starliner Island Complex suddenly becomes home to parasitic organisms that upon entering a human host, turns them into flesh-eating sexual predators.

Cronenberg's first commercial feature film has become a little too over analysed over the years due to the Canadian auteur's subsequent career. Meanings and motives within Shivers have been searched and scrutinised so as to give it more resonance. It really isn't worthy of that sort of cranial thinking, but what Shivers is is a fun low-budget horror film, a movie that has dashes of Cronenberg magic that shows he started as he meant to go on.

With its chaotic observation of mundane everyday people suddenly turned into sexually charged beings now devoid of inhibitions, it's not hard to see why it caused some controversy upon release. Yet that sort of controversy is gold publicity really, and ultimately when you look at it now, it's played out as being more tongue in cheek than any design to shock the audience out of their seats. That's not to say there isn't horror here of course, one only has to see the brilliant opening to know this, but there is an intentional airiness about the piece, and yes! This is even as the director pushes buttons by pushing taboo subjects into our visual event.

The acting is generally poor, the sound mix is off and some of the dialogue is awfully cheesy, but Shivers still comes out in considerable credit. It's an important movie in the pantheon of horror because of its director, while it's enjoyable to tick off some of the traits that would dominate his work from this point on. It also makes you evaluate the state of horror as a genre today, with the ream of sequels, remakes and unsurprising slashers dominating the box offices, now more than ever we could do with a young up and coming Cronenberg type to announce himself to our cinematic world. We can but hope. 7.5/10

As a big fan of David Cronenberg's later films, I was eager to see this one. Even though I knew it was his first--and therefore probably cheesy--I still hoped for something of value. I was mostly disappointed. The production values were so incredibly awful they made Roger Corman movies look like epics; the lapses in logic were big enough to drive elephants through; and the acting was so bad it actually became entertaining. (I've never seen anyone "act" walking across a room before!) There were two saving graces: if you're in the mood for a blast from the past, the ultra-hip 70's feel is totally groovy, man; and if you still happen to have a dusty bag of grass in a drawer somewhere, this is the movie for which to bring it out.