Friday, September 23

Rabid (1977) - 1983 Warner Home Video Clamshell Beta

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Believe it or not, the first time I saw this film was on television as a kid and only revisited it last night. Sure to be garner criticism from his legion, let me first say that I'm not the biggest fan of Cronenberg's early work and Rabid proved no different. The filmmaker is still finding his footing in his sophomore feature that's essentially Montreal's own rendition of George Romero's 1973 maniac outbreak film, The Crazies.

There's sparks of Cronenberg's body horror fancy and Chambers turns out the best performance (stale male lead Frank Moore delivers lines like Christopher Walken with a severe concussion), but plenty of dull moments and dodgy acting fill the duration when the controversial porn star isn't on-screen.

That's another forced aspect, again Chambers is surprisingly solid yet the couple topless scenes and the seductress finding a crimson dinner in a seedy adult theater just scream of producer pressure to milk that certain angle of Rabid's star. Funny how, despite the back repeatedly stating "horror film", Warner decided to peg the film as an "ADULT DRAMA" on this cover. That actually might work better when viewing Rabid as a deadly addiction metaphor rather than most synopsizes trying to make this out to be a zombie flick.

1 comment:

Franco Macabro said...

I also saw it as a metaphor for STD's, she gets it, she has to get intimate with her victims, after she bites them, they are infected, also, her attacks are sexually charged in nature, she uses seduction to get close to her victims.

Also, she's consider damaged goods and thrown to the garbage by the end of the film, a comment on Cronenbergs part on how people with STD's are treated in society?

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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