David Cronenberg, now cemented as one of the greats when it comes to sci-fi horror, started his mainstream career with Shivers in 1975.
Shivers is a prime example of what became Cronenberg’s signature style…body horror, where physical changes gross out or titillate the viewer while manifesting into a psychological thriller. The film featuring Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry and Barbara Steele was alternatively titled as The Parasite Murders and They Came From Within. If you watch carefully, you may be able to spot a young Cronenberg as a background extra.
The movie was shot on location in a high rise apt complex called Starliner Towers for the film. Things start of with a murder mystery when Dr. Hobbs kills a petite young woman. He posthumously cuts open her abdomen and dowses the cavity in acid then slits his own throat. An adulterous neighbor enters the apt shortly thereafter and sneaks away again without reporting the crime. The Starliner Towers has a medical facility on property, and the resident Doctor, Roger St. Luc has a lunch appointment to meet Dr. Hobbs upstairs at the location of the murder, so he discovers the horrid scene and calls the police.
Dr. St. Luc contacts Hobbes’ research partner, Rollo Linsky to discuss his obviously premeditated murder-suicide. Dr. Linsky tells him that the pair had been working on creating a parasite that could replace an organ and symbiotically function in the organ’s place. As Dr St. Luc continues with his day, we are introduced to a range of Starliner residents. Linksky, who has gone to clear out his partner’s office, phones Dr. St. Luc to tell him that Hobbes’ research notes revealed that he had used the murder victim as a guinea pig for a parasite that both replaces organs but also makes people mindlessly sex crazed. He warns him to not approach anyone acting strangely.
