Review for Rabid

‘Rabid’ remains one of my favourite Cronenberg movies. I came to the director late, actually as a result of hearing the news that he was working on a version of ‘Naked Lunch’, one of my all-time favourite books, and intrigued to discover what type of a director would even consider such a thing I checked him out. That was in the very late 80’s, a couple of years before ‘Naked Lunch’ was released and since that time I have enjoyed some, if not all, of his films.


Watching his debut, ‘Shivers’, I swiftly followed that with screenings of ‘Rabid’, ‘Scanners’, ‘Videodrome’ and ‘The Fly’ – all of which I enjoyed tremendously despite the commonalities of very de-humanised acting and flat, cold cinematography. Of course, it was that trait that eventually worked so well with his adaptation of another great but un-filmable novel, ‘Crash’ which was perhaps his finest hour. But I’m digressing. There’s so much to discuss about Cronenberg that it’s tough to know when to stop.
Arrow’s Blu-Ray edition of ‘Rabid’ will thrill fans old and new and if you’re lucky enough to bag the excellent looking limited edition steelbook it’s going to look great in your collection. But even if you get the standard amaray release you’re in for an absolute treat.

‘Rabid’ (1976) very nearly didn’t get made. As a Canadian director with just one film under his belt – despite its commercial success – raising finance was never going to be easy. Especially after the furore that surrounded the partial public funding of ‘Shivers’ which so offended taste that, despite making a huge amount of money at the box-office, was never likely to happen again.
Luckily, Cinépix (the exploitation distributor of films like ‘Sassy Sue’ and ‘Deadly Weapons’) picked it up and helped finance it.
‘Rabid’ runs a very similar theme to ‘Shivers’ in that it explores the themes of viral diseases, this time unleashing the consequences on the whole of Montreal.


Although Sissy Spacek was slated as the lead for the film and was the preferred choice of Cronenberg, one of the backers felt she had too strong a Texan accent. So Marilyn Chambers was suggested, a notorious porn-star who had started out as the face of a soap product and ended up shaming the company by starring in a popular porno , ‘Behind the Green Door’. Realising the box-office allure of the starlet, producer Ivan Reitman suggested they try her out and Cronenberg was impressed. In fact, to this day he proclaims his incredulity that she didn’t go on to greater success as a bona-fide actress.


Following a motor-bike accident, Rose (Marilyn Chambers) is rushed to a nearby hospital and has an emergency skin-graft operation. But things go awry and she awakens from a coma to find that she has developed a sharp penis-like object which extends through an anus like hole in her underarm. Refusing to take sustenance from her drip, she’s compelled to embrace visitors which, once pierced with the ‘penis’, are drained of blood which seems to feed the new host and Rose. However, a vampiric plague sets in amongst her victims who, like Rabies victims, foam at the mouth and ravenously attack all around them in true Zombie style.

As one attack leads to another, it’s not long until the whole city is a no-go zone with trained personnel in protective clothing clearing up the bodies into dumper trucks and the police and army shooting to kill.

Rose herself continues to ‘feed’ unabated and in scenes that resemble the ecstasy of orgasmic sex, we see various victims fall foul of her natural allure.

Rose’s boyfriend (Frank Moore), a strangely emotionless individual, sets out to find her but does not necessarily like what he sees.

Despite its sometimes clunky dialogue and cold, stark cinematography, the film moves apace. It’s certainly repetitive and very little happens beyond the core narrative, but many of the victims / zombies jump out at just the right moments and Chambers is, at this stage of her career, very kind on the eyes – a slightly low-rent Cybill Shepherd.
 
Image quality is fair; the movie was never going to look amazing as it started out a little stark and grainy and lacking ion much contrast. Print damage seems minimal so I assume Arrow have done all they can to make this the best it’s likely to be - certainly the best version I have ever seen.

The set comes replete with some great extras – as much background material as you could realistically ever expect for a film like ‘Rabid’.
First up are two commentary tracks, the first from David Cronenberg himself though it’s unclear when he recorded it and for what edition. It can’t have been exclusively for this one as he mentions Marilyn Chambers at one point as if she were still alive. As she died in 2009, it was clearly recorded before then. It’s a fascinating and measured commentary by the man himself so well worth sticking with. The second commentary comes from William Beard, author of ‘The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg’ and is really first-class. Is it me or are expert commentaries infinitely more illuminating than those of actors?

There are also a number of interviews. A lengthy one with Cronenberg as well as one with producer Ivan Reitman, and a very brief one with make-up man Joe Blasco and co-producer Don Carmody.

There’s an exclusive featurette called ‘Raw, Rough and Rabid: The Lacerating Legacy of of Cinépix , the history of Canada’s independent/exploitation supporting film company which released countless well known, and less well known exploitation films. Basically an interview with a female academic who’s name I didn’t quite catch but well-illustrated with cutaway footage from many of the movies. It only runs for about 15 minutes so well worth a look.

A particularly nice inclusion was an hour-long episode of a 1999 TV show called ‘The Directors’ – this time featuring David Cronenberg. Although presented in full-frame 4:3, it’s great stuff and has some really great interviews with containing interviews with Cronenberg, Marilyn Chambers, Deborah Harry, Peter Weller and tons of others. Worth the price of admission on its own.

You also get a trailer that you definitely won’t want to see until you’ve watched the film as it’s absolutely full of spoilers, taking all the best bits of the film and playing them out regardless.

The disc also ships with a very decent booklet, which is where all the images in this review were taken from.

‘Rabid’ is a cult-horror worthy of the Arrow treatment and fans will not be disappointed. An essential film for Cronenberg fans and all self-respecting horror cinefiles will need to get a copy too. Highly recommended.