Rabid (1977) by David Cronenberg

Director: David Cronenberg

Year: 1977

Country: Canada

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Body-Horror

Plot:

While cycling through Canada, a woman severely injured in a crash near a hospital learns that the radical surgical procedure to replace her damaged skin has resulted in a vampiric creature on her arm and is creating others like her, forcing them to track them down and destroy them.

Review:

This one was a pretty pleasant surprise. The majority of the good points are mostly due to its scattering of select scenes that come off as entertaining, which come from the action scenes that come into play when the film gets going. From the opening crash on the road to her waking up in the hospital and attacking the different patients and staff, as well as the quick ambushes she gets in with the various members of the community in the barn, a neighborhood pool, and inside the trucker's cab, this one here has plenty of great action scenes that keep the interest levels pretty strong. There's also the greatness of the film's signature moment, where a creature manages to cause uncontrolled chaos in a crowded shopping mall, which is sheer delight, and it manages to hold on to a few good gore gags to help it out, which goes great with the various assaults on the countryside strangers that provide the film's main gore quotient to the work of the authorities to calm the various creatures spawned that have come out of the situation.

There's also the fact that this one decides on having the different idea of introducing the creature that will transmit the disease rather than feed, as it makes for a strong series of dueling story lines focusing on her degenerating condition in the beginning and the outpouring of the investigation into the disease and the followers afterward. Another good thing this has going for it is the plentiful nudity going on, and with the nice gore in here from the new and quite unique prospect of the actual position of the appendage on her coming into play, are what make the film entertaining.

This one here doesn't really have many flaws, but they are present. One of the main ones is the fact that this one has a really slow-going second half, right when there shouldn't be one. This section of the film is concerned with very few good ideas at the point where the disease seems to spread, and there's a lot of little shot-overs to the couple arguing in the apartment complex that really just hopes that there's enough in it to justify taking time away from the other areas that could've used the time. There's also the fact that this one has a really weak ending that completely plays down what it could've done. This one really could've used a big finale compared to what it threw up before it, and to end it with such a really depressing ending really doesn't fare too well. It hurts the film somewhat, and combined with the other flaws, it's all that can be lowered on the film.

Overview: ***.5/5

A generally entertaining body-horror, but not much else going on for it, there's some worthwhile factors here to keep this one going, even though there are some big issues here keeping it down. Those with an interest in the style or era of genre fare, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.