ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

lukem-52760 I really enjoyed this 70's grimy shocker Horror,Cronenberg is an excellent Horror director & like most his early movies are the best as they are much more darker & daring!!! Rabid (1977) was very similar & also directed by Cronenberg. The little slimey slug like parasites are really well made & scary & such good practical FX for a very old movie & still better than c.g.i fx used today. I really liked the big building setting that was very cool & creepy too it gave an almost lost abandoned atmosphere that worked great,none of the acting was very good but i didn't expect it to be excellent as Shivers is just a well thought out sick Shocker Horror flick & it really was good fun & very rewatchable!!! Would make a great double bill with Rabid,that's how i watched it

GruesomeTwosome This early David Cronenberg body horror effort is rough around the edges (low budget, some not-so-great acting) but it's an interesting take on "infection" horror. The setting, as detailed in a somewhat unsettling advertisement that kicks off the film, is a new high-rise apartment building full of amenities on an isolated Canadian island. A perfect setting for mass parasitic infection to let loose utter chaos, and the whole film takes place here. Things are kicked off by a scientist (yep, he's a bit mad) who believes that genetically engineered parasites can be placed into bodies for organ transplants, and also to return humanity back to matters of the flesh (i.e., our base sexual instincts). Of course, his experiment all goes wrong and a parasite is set loose in the apartment building, causing residents one-by-one to become infected and spread it through sexual promiscuity.The recent Ben Wheatley film High-Rise (2015) reminded me a bit of this one, as it also uses an upscale, socially isolated high-rise apartment building as a setting for gradual, social devolution leading to moral decay and outright chaos. Interestingly enough, the JG Ballard novel that High-Rise adapts came out in 1975 just like Shivers, and Cronenberg of course has a Ballard connection since he adapted Crash in 1996. Of course, there is some good ol' Cronenberg body horror, with icky crawly parasites being spewed out of people's mouths. It's a solid early effort in what would become a great career. I wouldn't call this a conventionally "scary" horror film, but the sheer psychosexual anxiety is certainly palpable. Greatness lay ahead for this Canadian visionary.

SnoopyStyle It's an apartment complex with all the amenities on an island in Monteal. Dr. Emil Hobbes is doing deadly experiments to substitute organ transplants with parasites. He kills young Annabelle Brown and then himself. He had infected Annabelle with the parasites which causes uncontrollable sex drive. She had infected others in the apartment which continues to spread. Roger St. Luc is a doctor at the complex who investigates the work of Dr. Hobbes.David Cronenberg has an idea with good potential. It allows for creepy parasites and some sexuality. There are good horror set pieces from Cronenberg. The movie lacks good acting and that seriously holds it back. The directions and camera work are still amateurish. It probably should have concentrated solely on the Dr. Hobbes and Annabelle for the first act. It could have been more bloody and grotesque. It should explain the parasites more at the beginning. The exposition to St. Luc is clunky. It becomes a series of attacks which has some good moments. It's a nice step up for the young Cronenberg.

Neil Welch Residents of an apartment block are afflicted with parasites which turn them into sex-mad zombies.His record shows that David Cronenberg is a director of considerable talent. It also shows that he has a number of bees in his bonnet, in that certain themes and motifs recur throughout his output, and it is interesting to look at Shivers in terms of it being the first place where a number of such matters are put on show.There is no other reason for seeing it because, as a film, it is perfectly dreadful. The horror film attractions are not enough to save it from the non-stop torrent of awful acting from the entire cast,and the inexperienced Cronenberg is unable to do anything to rescue it from this: indeed, if anything, his direction adds to the mess.This is one for Cronenberg completists only.