Rabid

Rating:
Summary: CRONENBERG'S BEST
Review: From the low angle motorcycle shot to the final,apocalyptic shot of the inevitable,RABID draws you into its cold chilling world of vicious horror completely.Some of the acting is a bit shaky and some of the characterization a bit one-dimensional but the direction is never less than masterful.The two combined,make the film realistically unnerving.The film's basic premise is that a virus transmitted by humans,once virulent,is incapable of being contained.Unchecked it results in primal,brutal and wanton behaviour,a theme prevalent in many Cronenberg films.The film even succeeds in gaining sympathy for the main victim and cause of the disease,via of her disposal of several unlikeable characters and an appealing performance by Marilyn Chambers.RABID is almost totally bleak,totally downbeat in portraying a city out of control......Totally classic.

Rating:
Summary: A horror film with a great story.
Review: I allways thought David Cronenberg was a very underrated director ,his films are mostly about human diseases or weird transformations this is about a virus that infects a small population of people in Canada. Rose played by Marilyn Chambers is brought into a hospital after suffering through a motorcycle accident with her boyfreind ,the doctors at the hospital soon realise that there is a posibility of doing an experiment on her by using a skin grafting operation on Rose ,what they don't realise is the experiment has gone wrong and it seems that Rose has a thirst for blood kind of like a vampire but she uses a stinger underneath her armpits.
As soon as she leaves the hospital she ends up infecting everyone that comes to her path including a doctor who is preped up for surgery but then gets infected and chops a nurses fingers in half, overall I think that the film was great but not as good as Cronenbergs other films like Videodrome or shivers. What I like about Cronenberg films is that he is always seriuos about the horror films that he does and doesn't add humor to them like other directors like Wes Craven or Tobe Hooper, I hope you enjoy this film like the way I did.

Rating:
Summary: It was actually cool...
Review: I am a pretty big fan of Marilyn Chambers work from the 1970's. The neat thing about this movie is the chance to see her work under a different type of camera. I was born in 72 the year Behind The Green Door came out so I obviously didn't learn about what Marilyn is most noted for until I was much older. Rabid allows someone who does'nt appreciate adult films to still see Marilyn in her glory days. You still get a couple glimpses of her in an unenhanced frontal expose, which in all honesty don't seem to follow the plot, but just enjoy it. Let's face it today her looks back in the 70's are so appealing and natural vs. many of the pierced/tattooed/enhanced mangled freaks that walk the streets now a days.
The opening scene of Rabid shows Rose(Marilyn) and her boyfriend enjoying a highspeed motorcycle ride on a chilly Canadian day. When I close my eyes I can picture Ms. Chambers behind me on my ride, hugged up on me as we speed down the highway, very cool. The crash scene wasn't very elaborate due to technical limitations and there doesn't seem to be an explaination for the "blood sucking proboscis-like" appendage that mysteriously sprouts from Marilyn's armpit.
I suggest just enjoying Rabid for the simple special effects and natural good looks of Marilyn Chambers of the 70's.

Rating:
Summary: No cure for this film!
Review: I consider myself a big horror fan, what with a video collection of about 110+, but this is a bad egg, of which I regret owning. I hate this film to be perfectly blunt! The only Cronenberg movie thats half decent is THE FLY. I found this film far too slow, and character development was totally scarce. The FX are naff and it all seems like an excuse for ex-porn star Marilyn Chambers to get her kit off every few minutes. Whats with the virus/mutant thing coming from out the armpit, wouldn't it have been more creative to have it coming out of other, more visible parts, like the mouth or something? This could have been a good film, but to me it's one of the... movies ever made. Avoid!!!

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Cronenberg film
Review: I first saw this film in the late 1980s on tv, and loved it. I was really excited when it came back in print and I purchased the VHS edition. The movie was even better than I had remembered! And of course unedited for tv. Marilyn Chambers gives a great performance as a woman who is subjected to experimental surgical procedures by an unethical doctor after being in a bad motorcycle accident. The result is that she develops a strange...apparatus and becomes a bit vampiric and murderous. The scenes of panic in Downtown Montreal are really priceless. I also like the performance of the actor who plays Marilyn's boyfriend. I don't know who designed the new cover to this film but it is really a travesty, the old cover was really cool. Don't let the cheesy cover scare you away from this real treat. The downbeat ending is really satisfying also. Don't miss "Rabid".

Rating:
Summary: This Lady Has a Little Drill Under her Arm!!!
Review: I remember seeing this film as a child, curiosity had me revisit it last night. Some films stand the test of time, even if filmed in the 1970's, they can still be viewed enjoyably today. An example would be The Exorcist or One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. This film, Rabid, just screams 1970's and does not stand the test of time. The music, clothes, hair, even the film used just does not date well...therefore making it a cringe worthy viewing today.
The movie is more gross than scary. Marilyn Chambers develops some kind of drill in her armpit that sucks people's blood...the victims then exhibit rabie like symptoms..it isn't really explained what is going on, or why she gets this mutant thing under her arm...I'm not going to destroy this film in my review, I am just saying it doesn't date well..

Rating:
Summary: A tooth in the armpit saves nine.
Review: If you are ever in the mood for a movie that will leave you with a most profound sense of "huh??" this is it. It's about a woman who, with her boyfriend, falls victim to a motorcycle accident. Afterwards she's in some kind of coma. When she comes out of it, she has, for reasons undetermined, a tooth growing out of her armpit. (If you're waiting for the punchline, unfortunately, there is none.) Anyway, she then begins to seduce men, first from among the hospital staff. She gets them in the sack, they start rolling around, and then WHAM, out comes the armpit tooth. She bites her victims with the tooth, and they become all rabid. (Pasty white face, dark circles under the eyes, frothing at the mouth---like the victim of a Full Moon marathon.)

Now, the rabid victims go around and start attacking other to spread the disease. But, apparently, if you're the "carrier", which is to say the one with the tooth in your armpit, you are seemingly immune to all other symptoms of the disease. By now, the dreaded rabiditis has spread all over the place. The police, and health authorities are called in. The local shopping malls are no longer safe. (When asked to comment, the mayor said, "huh??) Biohazard guys start going around and shooting the rabid people and throwing them in the back of dumptrucks. Eventually, the "carrier" realizes that she's causing all the trouble and decides to lock herself in a room with one of her victims before he goes rabid. What's the ultimate moral to this story? Try not to grow teeth in your armpit? Or maybe, avoid women with teeth in their armpits. I don't know, you decide.

Rating:
Summary: Armpit From Hell
Review: It doesn't really matter that Marilyn Chambers isn't a fine actress. What director David Cronenberg gets from her is a subtle, almost angelic performance which makes the viewer forget that what she is hiding will change the people of Canada for the worse. The opening third of the film takes place in a plastic surgery clinic. This was a brilliant stroke of genius and way ahead of its time. Having had her eyes freshly done, a woman at the clinc witnesses (through binoculars) motorcyclist Chambers crashing her bike near the clinic. The clinic takes Chambers in and all hell breaks loose. Through skin graph surgery, Marilyn becomes RABID. Most of my friends hate this film but I love it for all that is and continues to be: Cronenberg's masterpiece! I want to remake it but I'm afraid my version would lose most of Cronenberg's low budget charm.

Rating:
Summary: The erratic follow up to Shivers
Review: Let's not get carried away. This film is not a masterstroke from Cronenberg nor is it entirely terrible. But the film veers from side to side and in effect there are many parts of the film which have moments of genius mixed with moments of terrible scenes.

Cronenberg himself has admitted that he had a moment of crisis while making the movie. He thought the whole film sounded ridiculous and maybe it wasn't worth it. He's got a point no matter what way your take on this film. It does border on the patently ridiculous but remember we're talking about a standard horror movie here. It's a cheap thrill'n'scare movie that most people would watch at a drive by cinema. We know there's going to be some cagey b-movie standard acting so we're not exactly taxing ourselves are we?

Ah yes which reminds me, Marilyn Chambers actually doesn't do a bad job at giving " serious acting " a go. Cronenberg jokes that he doesn't know whose idea it was to tell her that his movies were " serious " but she acts well. I've never seen any of her porn material ( and I don't really want to either ) but there are times here when her history in porn might have helped her in his role. Actually give Ivan Reitman credit here - it was a brilliant idea to get Chambers in for this film - people are definitely going to take an interest if a porno star wants to make a go at serious acting ( especially men )

There are some brilliantly shot scenes like when somebody takes a drill to a car with people in it ( that WOULD frighten people ) and the ending too which is rather chilling and is an effective ending for the film.

So all in all it's not as good as later films such as Scanners, Videodrome, Dead Ringers or even Crash ( even though I have a love hate relationship with that movie ) in it's affecting creepiness. It's best looked at as a sophomore effort from Cronenberg and while it has serious flaws in the film, it has moments of demented magic too given it's nature. And remember it's a b-movie so you shouldn't expect much

Rating:
Summary: medium + medium = medium
Review: Movie: medium

Of all of Cronenberg's movies, this is one of my least favourite. It is like Shivers, but on a grander scale, though I actually prefer Shivers to this. Maybe I liked the phallic/crap-like parasites of Shivers over the phallic "fang" housed in Rose's armpit.

There is some good gore and action, and perhaps most interesting (as Cronenberg likes to point out on the commentary) are his "prophecies:" an epidemic (like AIDS or SARS), stem-cell research, our increasing dependence on telephones, plastic surgery "resorts," etc.

DVD: medium

Picture looks good, though I'm no expert on the technical side of things. The twenty-minute interview with Cronenberg is interesting, but it was part of the VHS release of the film. His commentary is (as usual) well done. Plus there are some stills and the trailer. Certainly not bare bones, but I was hoping for more from this DVD.

So overall, I would give this a MEDIUM. A must for Cronendrones like myself, but for others I would recommend the wonderful Criterion editions of Naked Lunch and Videodrome (and Dead Ringers if you can get your hands on one), along with Spider and eXistenZ.