Rabid (1977)
Directed by David Cronenberg
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into bloodthirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.
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What critics compared Rabid to
Working on a low budget, Perkins’ use of lenses, low angles and queasily naturalistic lighting are reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s earliest films like Shivers and Rabid; there’s a similar feeling, too, that nothing is taboo or off the table.
However, I found myself just as much reminded of such early Cronenberg works as Rabid or The Brood.
Con la influencia del estilo visual expresionista de Dario Argento en Suspiria (1977); los guiños a las atmósferas surrealistas y enigmáticas de David Lynch en Mulholland Drive (2001) e Inland Empire (2006); y las referencias al body-horror temprano de David Cronenberg en Rabid (1977) y The Brood (1979), Nicolas Winding Refn (NWR, como una marca de alta costura) configura un thriller de horror a partir de una premisa bastante clara: el mundo de la moda funciona como un mecanismo perfecto que se devora a sí mismo para renovarse y continuar; es un proceso de regeneración cíclica.
Brian De Palma's Carrie is another antecedent in the literal sense; thematically, though, Ginger Snaps is even closer to the body-horror cycle kicked off by (Canadian) filmmaker David Cronenberg in the late 1970s (especially his downright venereal Shivers and Rabid) and mainstreamed by Ridley Scott's Alien , itself fairly aghast at the particulars of reproductive processes.
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David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977) may not be officially zombie films, but they contain many of the core elements and powerfully establish the venereal infection symbolism.
And this whole franchise remains a scrawny reiteration of George Romero's The Crazies and David Cronenberg's Rabid � I hope Romero, in particular, is getting a few bucks from Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (who directed and wrote the previous film, respectively, and executive-produced this one).
Whether it's the venereal metaphors of his early work (Shivers, Rabid) or the through-the-looking-glass, AIDS-esque horrors of The Fly or even the subtler moral conflagrations of 2005's A History of Violence, Cronenberg has an almost preternatural gift for exposing the intricacies, both physical and spiritual, of failures of the flesh (new or otherwise).
Until recently, the violence has always stood apart from humanity, seeping into our pores from outside sources and poisoning the charactersâ lives in films such as Rabid, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, The Dead Zone, Dead Ringers, and many more.
Early horror flicks such as "Rabid" and "The Brood" detailed his fascination with the human body turning against itself.
Now in his early 60’s, Mr. Cronenberg, a one-time honors student in English language and literature at the University of Toronto, has retained his obsession with the yearnings and vulnerabilities of the human body and mind in increasingly depraved human societies, in such films as Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1981), Videodrome and The Dead Zone (both 1983).
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He followed that up with films featuring, among other things, mutant sex organs (Rabid, 1977), mutant superpowers (Scanners, 1981), and mutant cable TV ( Videodrome , 1983).
Videodrome, Dead Ringers, Rabid, and The Fly) play like coming attractions of our inevitable demise, focusing on the excruciating period between the knowledge of death and its occurrence--which is why they're so much scarier than the sum of their (severed) parts.
Make no mistake, Cronenberg, a veteran filmmaker ("Rabid," "The Brood," "Videodrome," "Dead Ringers") who has always been intrigued by what's out of conventional bounds, has made exactly the film he, his devoted cast and expert cinematographer Peter Suschitzky intended.
Cronenberg is, after all, the man who made Rabid, in which a vampiric penis sprouted from Marilyn Chambers' armpit.