Starts off unsettling and effective. The horror plot is imaginative enough to invest in. A parasitic organ replacement gone wrong. Joe Silver does a great job in putting ths idea across. You believe it as much as you can.
The early gore is used effectively and brings the normal world in contact with the parasitic world. Like the blood vomit on the umbrella, I enjoyed the clash of these worlds.
Once a parasite is roaming the horror did change into more a basic monster movie. I didnt understand how the parasite could nagivate so easily and jump from a washing machine like a cat onto someone's face. Some parts are that type of jump horror. The bath tub scene is another example.
Luckily themail horror changes and the parasite prefers being spread during sex and turns humans into sex obsessed zombies. It's not as tacky as it sounds. It allows for some creepy personal encounters and sexual relationships. It got odd stuff like girls walking as dogs?... The end really feels like you cannot escape or move and more like a full on zombie movie.
It was worth watching. I wonder that if this parasite existed, how many people today would actively be willing to live in that state?

I'm torn between rating this "So Bad, It's Good" or "So Bad, It's Atrocious".... But I'm leaning a lot more towards the "atrocious". Good lord, I don't know what I just sat through but suffice it to say I'm glad I watched it on company time so at least I was getting paid while watching it. I have to admit, there were parts that really were _"so bad, it's good"_ but overall, this had to rank up there with _Flesh-Eating Mothers_ and _Chopper Chicks from ZombieTown_ on the "AWFUL MOVIES" scale. Wow, what a stinker. So instead of a zombie apocalypse, we now have a horn-dog apocalypse, with the world being overrun by men and women with an insatiable appetite for screwing. Wow, this was just bad on so many levels, but I have to admit, that snap-in windshield that popped out - completely intact, mind you! - after their car got almost completely crushed (at the 1:06:30 mark) really made me laugh. I kept hearing the _"Safelight Repair, Safelight Replace!"_ jingle in my mind. About the only good thing I can think of regarding this movie is that it was made and released in 1975...so there were a lot of cool throwbacks to enjoy. Other than that, this blew chunks.

Watch this for the laughs but be prepared to kick yourself for wasting an hour and a half of your life.

Fun horror movie that reminded me a bit of Dawn of the Dead (one location, people being "infected" and going after one another (hungry for flesh so to speak) and the few survivors fighting for their lives. Not great per se but still entertaining and a solid debut for David Cronenberg (well, feature length anyway). **3.75/5**

Disease is the love of two creatures for one and other.

Shivers is written and directed by David Cronenberg. It stars Fred Doederlin, Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry and Barbara Steele. Music is by Ivan Reitman and cinematography by Robert Saad.

Montreal's Starliner Island Complex suddenly becomes home to parasitic organisms that upon entering a human host, turns them into flesh-eating sexual predators.

Cronenberg's first commercial feature film has become a little too over analysed over the years due to the Canadian auteur's subsequent career. Meanings and motives within Shivers have been searched and scrutinised so as to give it more resonance. It really isn't worthy of that sort of cranial thinking, but what Shivers is is a fun low-budget horror film, a movie that has dashes of Cronenberg magic that shows he started as he meant to go on.

With its chaotic observation of mundane everyday people suddenly turned into sexually charged beings now devoid of inhibitions, it's not hard to see why it caused some controversy upon release. Yet that sort of controversy is gold publicity really, and ultimately when you look at it now, it's played out as being more tongue in cheek than any design to shock the audience out of their seats. That's not to say there isn't horror here of course, one only has to see the brilliant opening to know this, but there is an intentional airiness about the piece, and yes! This is even as the director pushes buttons by pushing taboo subjects into our visual event.

The acting is generally poor, the sound mix is off and some of the dialogue is awfully cheesy, but Shivers still comes out in considerable credit. It's an important movie in the pantheon of horror because of its director, while it's enjoyable to tick off some of the traits that would dominate his work from this point on. It also makes you evaluate the state of horror as a genre today, with the ream of sequels, remakes and unsurprising slashers dominating the box offices, now more than ever we could do with a young up and coming Cronenberg type to announce himself to our cinematic world. We can but hope. 7.5/10