Rabid (1977)
"Pray it doesn't happen to you."
| |
 |
© 1976 Concorde-New Horizons Corp.
All Rights Reserved
|
The drive-in theater provided the perfect venue for movies that were hard to
classify. No director's films avoid genre categorization better than David
Cronenberg's and his 1977 Canadian film "Rabid" was no exception in his
indefinable and twisted cinematic canon. "Rabid," in other words, is tough to
pigeonhole. The film is a little sci-fi, a little horror and fits into a
couple of subgenres as well—the cinema of lonliness and apocalyptic cinema.
Most of all, "Rabid" is about sex and even has porn star Marilyn Chambers in
the lead as the blood-starved Rose (Sissy Spacek was originally slated to
play Rose but the film's producer, Ivan Reitman, didn't care for her
girl-next-door looks. Besides, at the time, Marilyn Chambers had a proven box
office name).
On one level, Cronenberg takes George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" a
step further—we see and understand the progression of a plague-like
disease. In "Rabid," Rose, who has been in a motorcycle accident, is given
experimental skin grafts that leave her with a sexual lust for blood. She
becomes the host for a nasty strain of rabies and, after seducing her
victims, infects them, thus turning them into violent and bloodthirsty zombies
who, in turn, spread the virus in rapid succession. Cronenberg follows Rose's
disease from inception until the installation of Martial Law in order to
protect Toronto's citizens from becoming further contaminated.
Back in 1977, "Rabid" was a tough sell to mainstream theaters but was given
top billing status at the drive-in, playing alongside other genre bending
flicks like Larry Cohen's "God Told Me To" or Dario Argento's "Suspiria."
Since its release almost 25 years ago, "Rabid" has achieved a certain cult
status. And it's no wonder. "Rabid's" bizarre visuals include:
A phallic growth protruding from Rose's armpit as a receptacle for blood.
A doctor slicing a nurse's finger off with a pair of surgical scissors in
order to suck her spurting blood.
Rose hanging out in a porn theater looking for her next victim in an odd
homage to Scorsese's "Taxi Driver."
Santa Claus getting peppered by an AK-47 in a shopping mall full of little
kids.
The second part of Cronenberg's trilogy of bodily dysfunctional films,
"Rabid" is more palatable than its counterparts—"Shivers" (1975) and "The
Brood" (1979). Although both are visceral and intellectual excursions into
the repulsive, "Rabid" is justified more by its strange and off-kilter beauty.
Credits:
Written/Directed by David Cronenberg
Actors:
Marilyn Chambers
Frank Moore
Joe Silver
Links:
Internet
Movie Database
Next: Walking Tall >>
