Attack of the Sex Zombies~!

Shivers (1975)

Shivers is the film that introduced the world to auteur and all-around sex-fiend David Cronenberg. Cronenberg, like many young directors, found it far easier to gain notice making low-budget horror features than working his up through the studio system in hope of maybe one-day being granted the possibility of helming a film with an actual budget. Unlike many of those same directors, Cronenberg wasn't satisfied making violent, misogynistic slashers that exploited the lowest common denominator's lust for blood and nudity. Instead, he subverted that lust, luring unsuspecting audiences into an exploration of themes that he would continue to pursue for the majority of his career (and to some extent, still does): man's disconnect from reality, modern science as a means of transformation (both physical and mental), and, more important to this rant, sexual taboos.

In the title I jokingly refer to Shivers as, "Attack of the Sex Zombies," but in actuality, that would be the best way to describe the creatures in the movies. They attack blindly in pursuit of one purpose -- sexual fulfillment. In much the same way George Romero used zombies as a metaphor for racism and blind consumerism, Cronenberg uses the zombie as a metaphor for sexual repression.

Shivers, Cronenberg's first feature, introduces us to a group of residents living in a new high-rise apartment complex. Throughout the course of the film the residents become infected with a parasite that turns each into a mindless zombie intent on infecting others through a kiss. Despite the timid nature through which the parasite is transmitted, the zombies increasingly display stranger sexual tendencies ranging from incest to rape and eventually pedophilia.

While many might look at this as an example of a filmmaker attempting shock for shock's sake, it's important to look at the context in which this film was made.

Created in 1975, Shivers can be seen as a direct response to the sexual revolution that was in full-swing throughout most of North America. The characters contained therein are mostly average, everyman archetypes that are forced to respond to a world gone crazy with sex fiends. The interesting part is that the zombies, while viewed as a menance, aren't necessarily villified. Their sexual perversions are used to give the audience an uncomfortable feeling, but are not necessarily condemned.

At one point, we see two mostly nude young men pursue the hero with the implication of homosexuality, but in a lesser movie the two would've been bludgeoned to death with a phallic stand-in or killed in some other non-ironic manner by the hero to allow the audience to return to a state of "heterosexual normalcy." The hero is never granted this opportunity, and in fact, must hide from the deviants, leaving the audience emasculated. Cronenberg doesn't allow anyone the chance to feel morally superior. He forces the audience to confront what are viewed as immoral sexual behaviors. Is this because he himself condones the actions? I don't think so.

In many ways, Shivers can be looked at as both a horror movie and a pitch-black satire. The sexual revolution in the late '60s and early '70s created a generation more open to their own sexuality but it also produced a backlash from those in conservative circles who viewed most if not all young people as deviants. Shivers is parodying this notion of a world gone crazy with sex by taking it to such an extreme degree; it's lumping together all forms of sex as deviant, regardless of their nature. In an interesting twist, the zombies themselves retain almost everything about their original personality they originally had, they're just now completely sexual beings ruled entirely by their id. This is taking the conservative view of young people as sexual monsters and turning it into the joke it rightly is.

Another interesting footnote to Shivers is that it actually acts as something of a harbinger for the AIDs epidemic of the '80s. The zombies in the film must infect each other through sexual contact, although in this case it's merely a kiss. But it is something of an eerie coincidence especially given Cronenberg's later remake of The Fly, which explored the AIDs epidemic in similar pulp fashion.