BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

rodrig58 If you want to see a movie where the main character is an ugly poo colored worm, watch this! The only cool scene is when Nurse Forsythe (Lynn Lowry) undress herself under the gaze of Dr. Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton). The actors are not bad at all, they are all natural, especially Susan Petrie and Joe Silver. David Cronenberg is not a bad director and despite his obsession for disgusting horror, he gave us good films such as Eastern Promises (2007) and A History of Violence (2005). The cinematography by Robert Saad is not bad but the makeup department it is(bad). This Shivers is for Cronenberg's fans and the amateurs of the genre.

Red-Barracuda After making several experimental films, director David Cronenberg managed to get his first two feature films made by the Canadian exploitation film production company Cinépix, namely Shivers and Rabid. The first of these was Shivers, which remains one of the most direct and uncompromising debut films you could imagine. Even at this early stage it indicates quite clearly his very specific brand of cinema which would go one to be known as body horror. Like his contemporary George A. Romero, Cronenberg was bringing seriousness to the horror genre. Shivers certainly shows the influence of a couple of Romero's early works, namely Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Crazies (1973). Like that latter film, Cronenberg's film has a group of people turn psychotic due to a man-made disaster. The infection in this case is spread by a parasite that was devised to carry out useful functions within a human body. Unfortunately, this well-meaning experiment goes disastrously wrong turning those that come into contact with it into sex maniacs, who in turn transmit the infection to those they assault.Despite its low budget, this is a very ambitious bit of work. It opens very strongly with a promotional slide show detailing a luxurious apartment complex, which is isolated and exclusive. The voice-over, however, is entirely soulless and the complex itself somewhat sterile. Immediately after this we see a young couple arrive here and welcomed to their new home, while we simultaneously witness a brutal murder of a girl in a school uniform by an adult male. It's pretty disturbing to say the least and with no context to understand it, it makes quite an impact and indicates that this is a film which is not too likely to pull its punches. Throughout the rest of the film there are many moments of very provocative imagery, including some impressive low budget effects work. It's a very visceral film, arguably the most singularly intense movie Cronenberg ever made. It's made all the more full-on by its claustrophobia, seeing as all of the horror happens within one building. It shows the definite influence of the J.G. Ballard novel High-Rise, in which the residents of one of the then futuristic and new luxurious high-rise buildings descend to increasingly savage behaviour. Cronenberg's film combines these ideas with his specific interest in body horror, which results in an intense and quite extreme movie in many ways. Cronenberg went on to make more polished movies and some better films but he was rarely quite as uncompromising as he was here with Shivers.

PimpinAinttEasy The film begins with a sinister looking and sounding advertisement for a luxurious urban high rise interspersed with scenes of a teenager being chased and her stomach cut open by an old man. It is later revealed in pain staking detail over a phone call (Cronenberg could not think of a more interesting way to reveal the old man's intentions?) between the hero and another character that the old man was trying to create a parasite that would help humans to get in touch with their base sexual urges. This would turn the high rise into a place for a mass sex orgy. The old man believed humans spend too much time contemplating and rationalizing. Turning them into mindless zombies who crave sex would be an antidote to sadness and urban alienation. The teenage girl was a guinea pig for the old man's experiments which turned out badly.The apartments in the high rise (where the whole film takes place) come across as sterile and tasteless. They engender human alienation from each other. Barbara Steele's (who looks beautiful) character, a tenant in the high rise, is a lonely single woman. Susan Petrie and Alan Tudor are a couple with problems.It is a great premise for a movie. But the characters and plot developments are ill conceived. After a point, it turns into your average mindless zombie blood fest with cheesy acting. A promising first 40 minutes is followed by lots of silly blood letting. An opportunity to provide some interesting insights into the state of modern life is wasted for the compulsions of making a generic zombie-horror flick.The special effects (involving mostly the parasite which usually tears itself out of the infected person's stomach) are gross and make you ill. That is probably Cronenberg's intention. He has this obsession with mutations of the human body (like in The Brood, Videodrome, The Fly etc). There are also many images of hairy and ugly male chests.Paul Hampton, like many other early Cronenberg leading men (Stephen Lack in Scanners and Art Hindle in The Brood) is plain awful. Did Cronenberg simply cast the most pasty faced actor who turned up for the audition? The foxy Lynn Lowry is quite good as the nurse who covets him.So what was Cronenberg's message? Was he echoing what Bukowski wrote about free love in "Tales of Ordinary Madness"? - ".....doldrums of mechanical people in a mechanical act, trying to tickle their cement souls back into life with a spurt of come".I think so.Whatever his intention, this was a great opportunity wasted. Maybe he should remake this film now.

p-stepien In a high-end apartment complex located on the secluded Starliner Island,, a luxury hide-out for the well-off, a mysterious parasite is embodying itself into human beings, feeding off he body, whilst in return removing sexual inhibitions and turning the whole building into a bloody fetishist orgy. The organism a product of a scientist intent on offering the world a release from bodily restraints by indulging into blissful satisfaction. However afraid of his own creation his kills the first host and then cuts his own throat. All too late as the parasite has already been spread...At his worst Cronenberg can be self-indulgent into his obsession with human bodies, flesh and its interaction with outside world. But even then his offers a significantly higher degree of intelligence than standard horror fare, subtly adding levels of contemplation. Even when he misses Cronenberg still manages to evoke a strong reaction, not only due to gross bodily imaginings, but the almost surreal quality of his work. "Shivers" is a very rough first work, chaotic in composition, albeit structurally suiting the increasingly rampaging infestation. At times sexually perversive and unapologetic, for example showing a man playing with his parasite much as with a penis, which ultimately allows him to experience even greater levels of sexual satisfaction. In this twisted world the body - or flesh, as Cronenberg prefers to denominate it - is wholly sexual, even death is erotic with infected becoming zombified heralds of lust. The predominant theme of Cronenberg's body of work - the 'new flesh' is explored here, as entering a new self-induced step in evolution, one however we would better not be taking. Cronenberg seems to point to the modern world as a place, where disease is progress.Despite misgivings towards the plot and the delivery "Shivers" is a fascinating first feature, especially given the consistency of themes presented in future, much superior movies. David Cronenberg apparently didn't know much about filmmaking, when shooting his debut and the deficiencies in that department are pretty obvious. Featuring several B-movie performances Cronenberg nonetheless manages to evoke some disturbing freakish sequences, especially those with Allan Kolman, one of the first victims. The biggest issue lies with the movie itself, which at times comedic, at times disturbing or even horrifying, leaves a lot to be desired in term of story (with incubation rates of parasites changing from days to a matter of seconds) and pacing coupled with almost non-existent tension (aimless scenes of people chasing each other around the complex). Despite its content Cronenberg's movie is not as accomplished as future endeavours, although by far not his worst work.A big call out to the special effects crew - some truly gruesome organisms.