Rabid

[Yojimbo]

Did anyone else see this Cronenberg flick RABID from the late 70s. Marylin Chambers in a non-porno role (though she is nude several times)

If you consider the "infected" from Boyle's 28 days/weeks to qualify as "zombies" then Rabid should also be considered a zombie film.


Nice sequences of Toronto (I think) coming under martial law and a millitary response ala The Crazies with troopers in biohazard suits driving around in trash trucks picking up bodies of the infected dead and sniping live infected from the tops of the trucks. An infected cop goes zombie like and other cops get in a jail holding cell to get away from him. And, in a nod to DOTD, shots of police officers patrolling a shopping mall, carrying machine guns just in case the infected show up to bother the consumers.

[SRP76]

Nope, never saw it.

Does bring back memories, though. I haven't thought of the movie in years.

All I recall is browsing the "horror" section of the video store about a thousand years ago, and seeing the oldschool-style cover of the tape: some girl foaming at the mouth. Looked funny.

Now, I may have to actually find this movie, and watch it.

EDIT-

No, wait, now I remember. I did actually rent the movie, long ago, but didn't get through it.

I got to the part where the girl..um....attacks the dude with her armpit, and said, "this is stupid as hell", and turned it off.

[MinionZombie]

Oh hell yeah, I've got it on VHS and DVD, I love that movie - even wrote an essay on it for a course I took on my film degree, called "Canadian and Quebecois Cinema" (I've got a thing for Canada).

Anyway, I love the movie. Of course, it came out a year before Dawn, so the nod isn't really a nod to Dawn, but I know what you mean.

Likewise, his earlier "Shivers" was also awesome. Can't beat classic Cronenberg. :)

[capncnut]

I saw Rabid around the first time I saw Dawn in the early 80's (before Mary Whitehouse ordered the random censoring of horror movies in the UK, the bitch) and I fell in love with it. It's a weird little hybrid; the sudden shocking acts of violence (road drill anyone?), the melancholic music, the dangerous eroticism (especially the way she feeds herself via armpit)... I could go on forever. As I kid, I remember the bit when Hart smashes up the phone screaming "ROSE!!!" and I almost had a panic attack. Great movie.


Likewise, his earlier "Shivers" was also awesome. Can't beat classic Cronenberg. :)
Shivers is one of my all-time fave horrors. Perfect story, perfect setting, perfect ending. Shame the parasites look like turds tho. :D

[Yojimbo]

Nope, never saw it.

Does bring back memories, though. I haven't thought of the movie in years.

All I recall is browsing the "horror" section of the video store about a thousand years ago, and seeing the oldschool-style cover of the tape: some girl foaming at the mouth. Looked funny.

Now, I may have to actually find this movie, and watch it.

EDIT-

No, wait, now I remember. I did actually rent the movie, long ago, but didn't get through it.

I got to the part where the girl..um....attacks the dude with her armpit, and said, "this is stupid as hell", and turned it off.


Yeah, the first quarter to half is close to intolerable. But if you get beyond that setup, she decides that she doesn't want to kill anyone by sucking their blood, so instead of draining just one victim she figures she will take just a little from a whole bunch of horny dudes, who after bitten come down with a weird form of a rabid, crazy rage-like disease, transmittable via saliva. The rest of the film deals with a major outbreak in Toronto.

Fast forward through the setup if you must, and get to the outbreak stuff. It's worth it.




Shivers is one of my all-time fave horrors. Perfect story, perfect setting, perfect ending. Shame the parasites look like turds tho. :D

Shivers was also pretty freaky and cool. Came out in the states under the title "They Came from Within" which is pretty stupid sounding (Should have stayed with the OG title)




Anyway, I love the movie. Of course, it came out a year before Dawn, so the nod isn't really a nod to Dawn, but I know what you mean.

:)


Oops, thanks for the correction, Minon. My timeline is off since I remember being freaked out by this poster outside of the theater at the same time I was begging my mother to allow me to see DAWN.

[MinionZombie]

Perhaps it was being re-shown when you saw the poster around the same time as Dawn, either that or your timeline is just off, I've done that plenty myself, it's odd how time can compress when it's a memory from your childhood, guess as a kid you don't really have a fully developed sense of time, unlike as an adult when you've always got a schedule to keep...as a kid you're just running around playing...

Anyway, Rabid was released in America in April 1977, so hmmm...yeah if not your mind playing tricks on you, it could be a case of the cinema re-showing the film when Dawn came out, perhaps as a kind of cash-in type affair by the theatre owner? :)

[Yojimbo]

Perhaps it was being re-shown when you saw the poster around the same time as Dawn, either that or your timeline is just off, I've done that plenty myself, it's odd how time can compress when it's a memory from your childhood, guess as a kid you don't really have a fully developed sense of time, unlike as an adult when you've always got a schedule to keep...as a kid you're just running around playing...

Anyway, Rabid was released in America in April 1977, so hmmm...yeah if not your mind playing tricks on you, it could be a case of the cinema re-showing the film when Dawn came out, perhaps as a kind of cash-in type affair by the theatre owner? :)

Oh, to be a kid again and not be forced to have a real conception of time!!!


Yeah, either they were double-featuring Rabid with something else or it was a re-release. Or my memories are getting muddled in my old age!