As big of a name that David Cronenberg is in the horror scene, then I can't really claim to be a fan of everything that he touches. I have never heard about "Rabid" before I happened to stumble upon in this late in 2017. I read the synopsis and it sounded like something that could potentially be alright, as it did have that zombiesque vibe to it.I managed to endure 30 minutes of "Rabid" before I gave up out of sheer and utter boredom. I actually found myself with my mobile phone in my hand and was playing a game while watching this movie. Yeah, it was that boring to me.From what I managed to see during the 30 minutes that I sat through, then there was nothing appealing or interesting here that fell into my taste and preference. So I can in all honesty say that I am not going to return to watch "Rabid" later on in order to finish it.As for the cast and their acting talents, well, I can't really complain about anything here. The acting seemed adequate considering that the movie was from 1977 and given the limitations of the script and storyline imposed on them."Rabid" didn't really make much use of special effects in the 30 minutes that I managed to endure. So whether or not the movie actually did well on the effects department, that I cannot make a proper statement about.This was a rather bland and uneventful 30 minutes that I will never get back. And from what I saw, then my rating of "Rabid" is a meager 3 out of 10 stars, and I do feel somewhat large and generous here actually. The movie cover boasted "Pray it doesn't happen to you", which actually happened to summarize the feeling of having to sit down to watch the movie quite well.

I'm a fan of director David Cronenberg (The Fly especially, but also Videodrome), but Rabid didn't do a whole lot for me, honestly, despite going into it with high hopes. As always, Cronenberg deals heavily in deeper themes than simple horror, injecting sexuality and desperation for an interesting twist on an almost vampiric outbreak.It starts off with Rose (porn star Marilyn Chambers) getting in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend, Hart (Frank Moore), in the Quebec countryside. She's in critical condition and brought to a remote clinic nearby where Dr. Dan Keloid (a brilliant name, played by Howard Ryshpan) performs experimental surgery on her using morphogenetically neutral skin grafts in order to repair her terrible burns. When she finally wakes from her coma, it becomes clear pretty quickly that surgery didn't go quite as planned. She has a phallic stinger-like protrusion in her armpit that is thirsty for blood, and everyone she feeds from turns frenzied and rabid (ah-ha!). Soon the infection has spread from Quebec into Montreal and no one is sure how to stop it.It definitely has the aspect of slow dread to it — but the keyword here is "slow". I definitely found myself bored at times waiting for things to happen. But Cronenberg is undoubtedly skilled at merging a cold, clinical atmosphere with hysteria and paranoia. This movie doesn't focus quite as much on the chaos — you learn about much of the growing outbreak from TV clips and radio — but on Rose's journey.The aspect of sexual independence (and fear of sexuality) — especially when paired with a lead female character played by a well-known porn star — is awesome. Many of Rose's victims deserve what they have coming — the old farmer who is all too happy for the chance to rape her in his barn, the sleazy movie theater goer who "accidentally" brushes against her — and it's some kind of satisfying to watch her lull them into a false sense of seduction before stabbing her strange, phallic friend into them. Though she is clearly driven by a deeper force, as she also has many victims who are innocently in the wrong place at the wrong time.Again, playing into the overwhelming dread, there are some scenes that fit well into the classic set-up of a world gone mad: the doctor cutting off the nurse's finger in the middle of surgery, the man biting a fellow diner patron, the chaos on the subway (one of the best scenes of the whole movie). At some point, a doctor is giving the public some info during a news interview and says "What I am saying is very simple and it may not be palatable for your viewers: shooting down the victims is as good a way of handling them as we have got". I think the very real fear of an epidemic spiraling out of control is utilized well, and the desperation that goes along with it. The scene at the mall — with Santa getting gunned down — is another highlight, with something as mundane as kids visiting Santa turning into a bloodbath. The boyfriend at one point is driving around and a rabid person attacks his car. A sniper picks off the attacker from a rooftop and men in hazmat suits just casually come over, spray down his bloody windshield, and wordlessly wave him on. CHILLS, man.The boyfriend doesn't seem too concerned about her throughout the movie — he spends almost the whole thing just trying to find her and, despite the fact that things are crashing down around him, he never gets quite as frantic as you'd expect someone to be in that situation. He knew she was in critical condition — in a coma, for god's sake — and now she's roaming free on the streets and he always just seems minorly determined to find her, like if it didn't work out he'd just shrug it off and go back to his garage. His ONLY redeeming scene in the movie is at the end when he is screaming at her through the phone to get out of the apartment.There was one bit of the music — "Hideout" by Brian Bennett — that gave me a serious John Carpenter vibe. It worked really well with the overall creeping vibe of the movie.The ending is also KILLER. I feel like an ending can make or break a movie in some cases, but this one delivered in an even more hopeless and shocking way than I imagined. Awesome. There's a remake in the works by the Soska sisters which supposedly has a 2017 release date — I will definitely be checking that out!

An effective early effort from director David Cronenberg, RABID is a disturbing tale of a city overtaken by disease and fear. A cast of unknowns work hard to make this film seem as morally depressing and hauntingly realistic as possible, and the low, almost documentary style film making and the use of Canadian cities as a setting really work in its favour. The film deals with the subject of disease - something akin to rabies in this case - spreading through a city. It starts off with small isolated attacks but soon the city is put under martial law and the infected people are being shot on sight. Disease films are a frequent fixture in Hollywood - take OUTBREAK for example - and RABID is stylish and entertaining enough, in a low budget way, to warrant repeat viewings.Marilyn Chambers I found at first to be pretty annoying. A former porn star (as the box so proudly proclaims), she has a habit of removing her top in this film, but displays precious few acting talents. However her performance grew on me as the film progressed and she even becomes quite moving at the end of the tale; her offbeat acting style makes her in some ways quietly unforgettable. The rest of the cast have little to do, while the male lead looks strangely like Christopher Walken (who went on to star in Cronenberg's THE DEAD ZONE in 1983). However all involved turn in performances that are at the least adequate.The special effects are kept to a minimum in this film, with the 'star' of the show being a strange, pulsating tube which comes out of Chambers' armpit to suck the blood of her victims. This typical Cronenbergian image is pretty sick to watch but it's what you come to expect when you're a fan of the director. There are a few explosions and shootings to keep things moving along (the shootings are all violent scenes - the best taking place in a police station and involving a contaminated police officer and his companions all armed with shotguns - it's quick, blunt, and cuts straight to the point).The attacks on unsuspecting strangers by rabid, foaming maniacs are perpetrated throughout the film and are all handled with such style that you can't help but look forward to the next one (as sick as that may sound). All this and a downbeat ending help to make RABID a small, but nonetheless powerful, outing for Cronenberg, which is a must see for any fan of his. The film is at its best when it focuses on the spread of the disease and it does pack lots of horrifying vignettes into the running time, like the bit with the machine-gunned Santa Claus. I find that it outdoes Romero's THE CRAZIES in terms of pure effectiveness.

After a near-fatal motorbike accident, Rose (Marilyn Chambers) undergoes experimental skin-graft surgery to help her recover from the horrific wounds she had inflicted. Luckily for her, and surprising to most of her doctors, her body takes to the transplants and starts an immediate recovery. However, the surgery has left her with a strange orifice under her armpit which contains a stringer. She is soon seducing men and infecting them, leaving her victims in a shocked state and unable to remember anything. An outbreak is soon on the cards as the infected go on a biting rampage, spreading a strange disease which causing the host to turn rabid and zombie- like.Only his fourth feature, and only his second horror after Shivers (1975), this is not Canadian director David Cronenberg's finest achievement. But thankfully, a bulk Cronenberg's filmography is outstanding and Rabid is still an extremely effective little horror film. The infected are a mixture of zombies and vampires, although they aren't really either by definition, but Cronenberg uses them as well as anyone could hope for. The film is little more than a series of set-pieces, but one in particular, involving a woman on a packed trained slowly coming to the realisation that one of the infected is on board, is as good a scene depicting sheer terror and panic as I've ever seen.Of course, this being Cronenberg, undertones of psychosexuality run throughout. It's no coincidence that the orifice underneath Rose's armpit looks like a vagina, and no surprise that it attacks with a phallic stinger. Rose's sexuality is her real weapon, as it lures her victims close enough for the attack. Whether it be a fear of women or a warning about progressive plastic surgery that her character is trying to articulate, ex-porn star Marilyn Chambers handles her role extremely well. Though she is naked for the most part, she convinces as a seemingly nice girl turned sexual predator. Cronenberg would translate similar themes into better films and he would go on to develop body horror into a true art-form, but Rabid is an accomplished early effort.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com