I'm just curious. I bought this film on impulse. For the first twenty minutes or so I was severely disappointed. After the awkward set up, however, I just adored every moment of it. Fantastic film, absolutly love it. Am I the only one or is there anyone else who agrees with me?
PAX
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It is classic truly original horror. I love it. The idiot who wrote the critique on this page is an idiot. He talks about movies of today and how the visual effects are so much better and shocking etc. Bull-crap! Todays movies are absolute garbage! Shivers Rules!
shareI thought the imagry here was way more upsetting than most modern horror films I've seen. Its not so gory as it is just so downright unexpectedly shocking.
PAX...
Are you serious? I just saw the last 45 minutes of it yesterday on tv and could not believe how bad it was. pure trash IMO but not trashy enough to be funny either. after about fifteen minutes when i realized nothing else would happe then the same thing over and over again (really awkward semi-sex-scenes)i just wanted it to end. the whole story is laughable too. i can only pardon it thinking about the time it was made. but i am really curious: what could you possible like about this movie?
shareI actually just saw this in a theatre (30 years after release).
This film is worth seeing for camp value. It's is a study of everything wrong with the 1970s style (not counting disco).
This is a film to watch, to appreciate bad taste:
1) The clothing. OMG, I almost forgot how bad people dressed in the 70's.
2) Male chauvinism. Remember that scene in "Anchorman" where will Ferell, playing a classic slimeball, says "maybe don't wear a bra next time" to a woman. I guesse Cronenberg must of said that same line to every single woman in this movie.
3) Who needs acting when women have breasts.
Now, before I went to this film, I of course knew it was controversial, and exploited sex and violence. I'm not turned off by nudity and sex in the film. My reason for seeing it, and thinking it could be good, is the premise of the creatures. The idea of parasites inside your body, crawling around, spreading, growing, being a part of you, is a great base for classic terror. It later on worked great for Alien(s). So, surely it could work in an apartment. Not! (minor spoil) the creatures were shown outside the body a bunch. But, nothing was remotely frightening about the creatures inside the body. I mean, this should have been scarey, but it wasn't in the slightest.
You can excuse, and have to allow, violence and death in a horror, to acheive horror. But, there wsan't any real horror hear. In theatre, there was no fright, just a bunch of laughs, and the film wasn't going for laughs.
I thought I'ld see in the theatre, since many fright films really require a big screen and big sound to have an effect. But, this film really didn't make use of the screen space at all. Quite disappointing.
But, it's still worth seeing if you want something to laugh at.
Hey Calgarian, which theatre did you see this in? the one on Kensington Road? I lived there for a while....
Anyway... this is one of my favorite films ever. The scene at the swimming pool inspired me to make music that sounds like a hundred sex crazed blood thirsty maniacs. SO good. man.
Anyone in London England on Monday night should come and see us play live at the Bardens Boudoir. a map to the venue is here...
http://www.bardensbar.co.uk/location.htm
-Outahand-
Cultural Design
Boring, annoying, not scary or even shocking. There's no horror, there's not even sex (when that's supposed to be what it's all about), what the heck is all the hype about? I wouldn't sit through this crap again if you paid me!
shareOn the DVD, there's a little introduction by David Cronenberg, who admits that he had no idea what he was doing while making this movie (his first), and that basically, he learned how to make a movie by making a movie. Fortunately, he got better.
"Shivers" is pretty bad no matter how you look at it, but there are little hints of things to come in his later movies.
i don't agree with you
shareI first saw this movie four years ago and found it to be rather boring. But I've really been in the mood for Barbara Steele movies lately, so I decided to give it a second chance and absolutely loved it. I don't know what I was thinking the first time I watched it, but it is entertaining all the way through. It is extremely bizarre; certainly one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. But that's the appeal of it.
Burn, witch! Burn, witch! Burn! Burn! Burn!