This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.
Night 9: Cronenberg Night
“So, don’t let anybody bite you.”
David Cronenberg’s second feature film, Rabid, along with his controversial debut feature, Shivers (aka They Came
From Within), established him as a distinct and creative voice in horror
cinema and helped make his name synonymous with the body horror subgenre. Rabid shares a lot of common ground with Shivers. Both involve a manmade
infection or plague that spreads through bodily contact and causes the veneer
of civilization to crumble. Both involve a “mad,” or at least overconfident,
scientist experimenting on a woman’s body, causing it to become monstrous.
In Rabid, however, the woman that has been experimented on is the main
character, and she comes across as more of a victim than a monster.
After a bad motorcycle accident, Rose is rushed to the
nearest medical facility where an experimental skin graft is performed, even
though the doctor is aware of the potentially dangerous side effects. One side
effect the doctor did not foresee is Rose growing a bloodsucking needlelike
appendage that shoots out of a slit in her armpit so she can feed an uncontrollable
bloodlust. Rose becomes a sort of vampire, but the people she feeds on become
like ravenous zombies attacking anyone they encounter.
Rose is played by Marilyn Chambers, the adult film star most
famous for the cult classic porn film Behind the Green Door. Chambers was
looking to transition to mainstream movies, and the producers decided to cash
in on her notorious fame. As a legitimate actress, Chambers gives a sympathetic
and believable performance as the tragic Rose. Rose oscillates between embracing
being a bloodthirsty predator and fighting her monstrous desires, and Chambers
does a good job portraying both sides of the character. There is a complexity
to her role that is not typically given to female characters in horror movies. If
there is a stiff, underwritten character, it is Rose’s boyfriend, Hart (Frank Moore), who spends most of the movie being confused or receiving exposition. In
any other horror movie, Hart would be the hero and Rose would just be the
monster.
Rabid does not oversexualize Marilyn Chambers. There
are nude scenes of Chambers, but there are more scenes where Rabid uses the
Marilyn Chambers persona to subvert lurid audience expectations. When Rose is
on the prowl, she exudes a seductive aura. Her encounters with her prey (mostly
lascivious, predatory men) appear as though they will lead to sex, but they end
abruptly and very un-erotically.
Rabid makes such good use of its resources that it
does not feel like a low budget movie. There are impressive car crashes,
chaotic crowd scenes, shoot outs, and even soldiers and tanks in the streets of
Montreal. The special makeup effects have a dated look (the blood is that
certain shade of bright orange-red that was popular in 1970’s horror films),
but they are still effective. Rabid is not as gory or effects heavy as Cronenberg’s
later movies, but a more squeamish viewer would still probably have to avert their
eyes more than a few times.
There is more to Rabid than some would be willing to
give it credit for. Cronenberg packs in themes of science run amok, how society
responds to a crisis, and women losing body autonomy. In the world of
Cronenberg, supernatural occurrences stem from radical scientific discoveries and
are accepted by the characters. The challenge characters in a Cronenberg movie
face isn’t convincing skeptics, but in how they will deal with an extraordinary
problem. Whether you dive into the subtext and themes or just want to enjoy a
hybrid vampire-zombie movie, Rabid will make for a thrilling and interesting
Shocktober viewing.
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