Rabid

Plot synopsis:
Rose (Marilyn Chambers) and her boyfriend Hart (Frank Moore) are taking a little spin in the Quebec countryside on Hart's motorcycle when they have an accident. A family in a camper van stops in the middle of the road to argue about directions, and Hart must swerve to avoid them, going off the road and crashing. A patient at the nearby Keloid Clinc for Plastic Surgery witnesses the accident and calls for an ambulance. At the clinic, Murray Cypher (Joe Silver) pitches a promising franchising deal to Dr. Dan Keloid (Howard Ryshpan) and his wife Roxanne (Patricia Gage). Keloid is unconvinced, afraid that he'll become the "Colonel Sanders of plastic surgery". Just then, an ambulance containing Hart and Rose arrives. Hart has a broken hand, separated shoulder, and a concussion, but Rose, having been pinned under the motorcycle, is more severely injured. Dr. Keloid recognizes that Rose needs immediate surgery and decides to perform a radical procedure on her, one which uses morphogenetically neutral grafts of her own skin to patch the injured tissues in and on her chest and abdomen. The treated skin will be able to form new tissue of whatever type it is grafted to, but it also might lead to cancer.A month or two passes. Hart has already gone home to Montreal, but Rose still remains in a coma at the Keolid Clinic. Then one night, one of the other patients, Lloyd Walsh (J. Roger Periad), hears Rose screaming and goes to her room. She has awakened and is pulling out her I.V. drip tube. In an attempt to warm her and calm her down, Lloyd holds her, and Rose causes some sort of vague injury to him as she holds him. When examined a few hours later, Lloyd can't remember anything afterwards, and the doctor doesn't know what caused his injury to his right arm. They know only that his blood isn't clotting from the small wound and that Lloyd's right side has no feeling. Dr. Keloid thinks that it might have been a mild stroke and transfers him to Montreal General Hospital for further evaluation.Over the next few days, Rose leaves the clinic periodically to feed; her experimental procedures have caused a wild card mutation in her body, and now the only thing she can subsist on is human blood. To help her attain it, a bizarre new organ has developed in Rose's armpit; through a small sphincter opening, a large red phallic spike emerges to pierce her victims and draw blood like a syringe. First she feeds on a cow in the barn of a nearby farm, but she vomits up the blood, realizing that she needs only human blood, so she feeds instead on the drunken farmer who wanders into the barn. The next night, Rose attacks a young nurse in a hot tub, and then hides her unconscious body in a freezer.The next day, Lloyd discharges himself from the clinic. He hails a taxi to take him to the airport. But during the trip, Lloyd, already looking deathly pale, transforms into a foaming, green-eye zombie-like person and attacks the driver, biting out part of his neck making the driver lose control of the car. The taxi breaks through a bridge guardrail and the car falls to the freeway below where it is totalled by an approaching truck, killing both the driver and the infected Lloyd.At the clinic, Dr. Keloid is examining the unconscious Rose. He notices the strange opening under her arm, but Rose wakes up and the phallic syringe emerges and strikes him in the hand.At a nearby diner, the farmer, infected the previous night by Rose, walks in, bleeding from his left eyeball where Rose's stuck the phallic thing, and after asking for chicken, he attacks and bites a waitress before he is subdued by the cook and a few patrons.At the clinic, Rose phones Hart to come to her aid, for she feels that she's in trouble. Hart calls Murray Cypher to tag along with him. Later that day, Dr. Keolid goes into the O.R. to operate on a patient when he suddenly begins foaming at the mouth and also transforms into a green-eyed zombie who proceeds to hack off a nurse's finger with surgical scissors and drinks her blood. A few orderlies attack the vicious Dr. Keolid, as Rose takes advantage of the chaos and confusion to make her escape from the clinic. She hitches a ride to Montreal from a passing truck driver, who has food in the cab of his truck. After he offers some to the famished Rose, she eats it and it seems to satisfy her momentarily, but she then vomits it back up, eventually feeding on the driver as she has done to the others.Hart and Murray pass the diner where the infected farmer attacked the waitress, and then arrive at the clinic to find more police cars and a rabid and vicious looking Dr. Keloid in the back of a police van, growling and foaming at the mouth. The police tell Murray and Hart that they think it's a new strain of rabies. Hart panics when he learns that a body was found in a freezer, but to his slight relief, it's the nurse that Rose killed in the hot tub.Meanwhile, Rose hitches a ride with another car driver, leaving behind the unconcious truck driver whom is infected. He is woken up by a highway patrolman and goes on his way. The trucker returns that night to a depot where he transforms and attacks his colleagues at the place, infecting some of them before being subdued.At the police station, the chief of police, Claude LePointe, meets with Hart, Murray and a few public health officials who talk of an epidemic. Just then, as Hart and Murray watch a TV broadcast of various other reports of attacks, an officer, who was apparently bitten by the infected Dr. Keloid at the clinic, appears growling and foaming at the mouth. The infected officer attacks Hart only to be shot dead by the other officers. To stop the disease from progressing, everyone at the scene, including Hart and Murray, are to be held at the police station for 48 hours. Hart calls Mindy Kent (Susan Roman) who is Rose's best friend, and is pleased to hear that Rose has been in touch with her. Over the phone, Hart tells Mindy to keep Rose at her apartment until he can get there.Meanwhile, Rose arrives in Montreal, meets with Mindy, and asks to stay with her in her apartment for a few days, but refuses to explain why. Mindy watches another TV broadcast detailing a new strain of lethal rabies that is now reporting all over Montreal. That night, Rose goes out to the local red-light district and visits a sex cinema. A leering patron sits next to her to fondle her, only to become a victim himself.The next day, Claude LePointe is riding in a limo with a local health official to inform the mayor that the situation is getting out of control. Just then, the limo is blocked at a construction sight, and two infected crewmen attack, putting a jackhammer through the limo door and dragging the shocked driver out to feed on him, while the official and LePointe barely escape by driving away in reverse.Elsewhere, Mindy is riding on a subway train when an infected woman attacks another passenger, causing panic and forcing Mindy and the rest of the passengers to flee after the train arrives at the station.On TV, Dr. Royce Gentry talks about the dozens of rabies cases popping up all over the city, and advises a "shoot-to-kill" policy to prevent the infected from infecting others. Rose goes out to a local shopping mall filled with Christmas shoppers. Another leering man approaches her to make small talk, and to try to pick her up. As Rose agrees to walk with him, he asks her for a light, but she tells him that she doesn't smoke. The man asks another man standing nearby for a light, and the man turns around... an infected zombie who proceeds to bite and infect the man Rose is with. Panic breaks out in the mall as two armed security guards appear and shoot the infected man dead, as well as an unfortunate man dressed as Santa. The guards shoot the wounded man who tried to pick up Rose as well, since he is now infected. Rose again slips away unnoticed.When Mindy arrives home, Rose hides in her room, in blood-hunger. She tells Mindy not to come into her room for she is not feeling well. Meanwhile, extreme martial law is declared in Montreal and all the surrounding areas. Dr. Royce Gentry makes another TV appearance to announce that the current rabies shots don't appear to be working. But he and his men have developed a vaccine to administer to those not infected with the virus. Those already infected, however, must be killed to prevent the epidemic from spreading any further.At a National Guard road block to check for people infected, Hart and Murray view a long convoy of soldiers in NBC suits and riding on garbage trucks heading into the city to assist the local authorities with the body disposal. Hart then takes Murray home and drives off to look for Rose. When Murray walks in his house, he is attacked and killed by his wife, now infected.As Hart drives through the deserted city, a infected maniac jumps on his car, but is shot dead by a militia marksman. Soldiers in bio-warfare suits remove the infected man's body to dump it in the nearby garbage truck and spray disinfectant on Hart's car windshield and permit him to carry on his way.At Mindy's apartment, she watches a news report about a possible "carrier" of this lethal disease which has now been traced back to the Keloid Clinic, who is possibly immune. Rose walks into the room. A little later, Hart arrives to find Rose feasting on Mindy's body. Hart finally realizes that Rose is the carrier of the virus and tries to reason with her to seek treatment, but Rose refuses to believe him. She is in denial that she is feasting on blood and the one responsible for the city-wide epidemic that has now claimed thousands of people. She tries to run, but he chases after her. In a struggle, Hart falls down a fire escape ladder and is knocked out. Rose runs into the apartment building lobby, where she picks up another man in the lobby and has him take her back to his apartment.To see if Hart's accusations are true, Rose infects the guy with her phalic piece and then locks herself in the man's apartment and intends to stay there until she can see whether or not he becomes sick. Rose dials Mindy's phone number, and Hart stumbles back into the apartment to answer it. Rose tells Hart what she is doing, but he knows what will happen and frantically tells her to get out of the man's apartment. Hart sits helplessly at the receiver as the infected man in his apartment wakes up, growling and foaming at the mouth, and approaches Rose....The next morning, Montreal is nearly deserted. The streets are quiet except for distant gunfire and the sound of police and ambulance sirens. Soldiers in bio-ware suits find Rose's stiff, open-eyed body, laying next to some garbage cans in an alley. The body collectors pick up her body, toss it in the back of a garbage truck, and drive away, not realizing that she is the carrier of the virus.... and possibly the solution and antidote to the mayhem that continues to plague the city.[Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl]

Tags: cult, horror, murder

Review:
The second big-screen feature from Canadian horror genius David Cronenberg was this twisted well-done low budgeter.Following a motorcycle wreck, a young woman receives skin grafts that cause her to have a murderous thrust for blood - which leads to a deadly plague.Rabid is one nicely done little shocker.
Frank Moore is also good as Chambers' boyfriend who must save her before disaster strikes.While granted that Rabid isn't as great as the films that Cronenberg would later unleash (The Brood, Videodrome, Dead Zone etc.) it is never the less a solid sophomore effort that well-foreshadowed the greatness Cronenberg would achieve in his later films.*** out of ****.
It's an interesting, original take of vampirism, especially the aspect that her victims get sick and turn homicidal ("Rabid," I guess).In my opinion, this is Cronenberg's best 70s movie (I enjoyed it more than THEY CAME FROM WITHIN/SHIVERS and THE BROOD, also good horror films).
The film carries its director's signature on it in terms of content, but lacks the Cronenbergian style that viewers would later see more developed in films such as `Videodrome,' `The Fly,' and `Dead Ringers.' Here, in what is essentially Cronenberg's second `commercial' feature film, we as an audience are treated to many of the same themes that pop up in the later films of this master of the sci-fi/horror fusion genre: faceless medical/scientific corporations that do more harm than good, a main character that is reluctant to serve whatever purpose he or she is destined to perform for good or evil, and a pervading sense of an impending plague or epidemic that cannot be prevented.
Bob Silverman, a minor player in a few of Cronenberg's films, also shows up for a brief cameo, although those used to his idiosyncratic performances may be left a little disappointed.On the whole, `Rabid' is an interesting film to watch if for no other reason than to get a sampling of the director's unique sense of story and theme.
Rabid (1977) ** 1/2 (out of 4) After a motorcycle crash, a young woman (Marilyn Chambers) is given a certain plastic surgery, which has a major side effect when she wakes up as it turns her into a rabid creature wanting human blood.
Whoever she bites also gets infected and soon the plague is sweeping across the nation.David Cronenberg's rather bleak horror tale is a pretty good film, although it does suffer from a few flaws that keeps it from being much better.
Meanwhile Hart is seeking for her."Rabid" is a horror film by David Cronenberg that becomes better with time.
David Cronenberg perhaps maybe didn't get too ambitious as he forged ahead in the 70s as a low-budget director of bloody, outrageous horror films in Canada, but it was probably a good chance to learn tricks of the trade he'd know for the rest of his career.
It's rough and with a terribly bleak ending, and it's got a certain pizazz that should keep it humming on genre fans shelves in the years to come.Marilyn Chambers is one of the reasons the film got made- Ivan Reitman chose her over Cronenberg's (more interesting) choice of Sissy Spacek- though it is and isn't her exactly that makes Rabid a little sleazier for some reason that it might be without her.
Those are when Cronenberg strikes it best as a pure genre director, not going too deep into theme (aside from that of the unawareness of disease and infection, a theme that would grow stronger in the 80s to be sure), plus in the shock value of the actual creature that sprouts out of Chambers mouth, which is probably even *better* concealed and revealed than with the parasites in Shivers.
A collision between motorcycle and motorhome on a country road leaves Hart Read(Frank Moore)and his girlfriend Rose(Marilyn Chambers)badly injured.Read is stable enough to be shipped to a hospital,but Rose is shipped to the clinic.The operation to save her life appears at first to be a complete success,but soon all hell breaks loose.Marilyn Chambers is pretty believable as Rose-even Cronenberg was surprised that she didn't do more mainstream movies.The film has some great moments of terror-the shooting of a man trying to get into a car  and the immediate washing down of the windshield that follows,is a perfect example."Rabid" isn't as gruesome as "Shivers" and "The Brood",but if you are a fan of Cronenberg's movies you can't miss it.Highly recommended..
Sure, it had plenty of bad acting (though Marilyn Chambers was good-*gasp*), was a bit too long for what it was, and was uneven overall, but I could definitely see the genius that was too come from this very young Cronenberg.
After a nasty motorcycle accident, a young couple, Hart (Frank Moore) and Rose (porn star Marilyn Chambers), are taken to a nearby plastic surgery clinic, where Rose undergoes a revolutionary skin grafting technique that results in the growth of a bloodsucking tumour.
As the disease rapidly turns into a city-wide epidemic and martial law is imposed, Hart attempts to locate his missing girlfriend, unaware that she is the carrier of the disease.With crisper cinematography and more confident direction from David Cronenberg, Rabid is a technically superior effort to his 1975 film Shivers, but doesn't manage to be as satisfying an experience thanks to a script that becomes a tad too repetitive at times, strays a little to close to George Romero's The Crazies (1973) for comfort, and perhaps most importantly, fails to answer burning questions about the nature of Rose's condition: the needle tipped, phallic mutation, which emerges from a sphincter-like orifice from under Rose's arm, is as grotesque and unsettling as anything Cronenberg has conjured up since, but it's existence is never adequately explained, most likely because no amount of in-depth exposition could ever be convincing enough.On a more positive note, Chambers does reasonably well in her first non-porn lead role, there are some genuinely nasty moments for which makeup guy Joe Blasco provides some pretty decent effects work (I particularly enjoyed the 'finger snipping' moment, and the impressive use of a pneumatic drill by one of the infected), and Cronenberg occasionally ditches his sober approach for the odd spot of delightfully twisted humour, such as the scene in which a mall Santa Claus gets accidentally machine-gunned by a trigger happy cop (well, I found it funny!).Whilst Rabid certainly doesn't qualify as essential Cronenberg, it is still worth a look if you're a fan of the man's work and merits a reasonable 6.5 out of 10 from this viewer (generously rounded up to 7 for IMDb)..
The story A young woman develops a taste for human blood after undergoing experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into rabid, blood-thirsty zombies who proceed to infect others, which turns into a city-wide epidemic.This is not that scary at all, but that dose not mean, it not a good movie.When the people become rabid, they do look a bit scary and when they attack, so-what bloody then gory.
What attracted me to this film were basically 2 things: seeing Marilyn Chambers in a "mainstream" role, and seeing one of Cronenberg's earlier works.RABID sets a premise expanded on future films such as SCANNERS, THE BROOD and THE FLY, where science goes berserk, although in this film we clearly see David Cronenberg acquiring the skills he became so known for in those latter day movies.
Cool to know that the excellent Ivan reitman was producer on this & this is very well directed by david & the rabid people look cool like i said it's just a low-budget bit of gross fun & nothing more it's not a masterpiece but it is excellent & very rewatchable, I love these 70s & 80s Horror flicks so i enjoyed this lots & would make a cool double feature with Shivers.
Soon, a full scale epidemic is overtaking the city of Montreal, and Rose goes about not knowing that she's become the carrier of this plague.Due to the substantial controversy surrounding writer / director David Cronenbergs' breakthrough film, "Shivers", funding for this sophomore effort was refused.
The bad news is that, like "Shivers", he must deal with the debit of an insipid leading man, in this case Frank Moore as Hart, Roses' boyfriend.The makeup effects by Joe Blasco and Byrd Holland are top notch, the use of locations is excellent, and executive producer Ivan Reitman does a fine job of utilizing stock music.Chambers's role doesn't require her to do a whole lot of acting, but she's good in scenes requiring her to be seductive.
The victims eventually turn into rabid zombie creatures and terrorize Montreal!The not-so-subtle messages about the dangers of plastic surgery and hubris in the medical field aren't all that effective, and it never really makes sense why or how this woman ends up incubating a spiked phallus in her armpit.
"Shivers" in 1975 had revealed a director."Rabid" is more of the same,but not as devastating,by a long shot.Once the girl is infected,nothing -or so little- will change the humdrum routine of the plot which only consists of assaults (the title does not lie for that matter),and which is nothing but a rehash of vampires movies.The humor,which was fierce in "shivers" goes down the drain here.Only one funny line (so to speak);the journalist asks the official how to protect oneself against the sickness:"don't let anyone bite you!" is the limpid answer.After Cronenberg's excellent debut ("Shivers") it wasa let-down,which "the brood" and "scanners" did nothing to rectify.It was 1983 before he was again in clover with "dead zone" thanks parly to Christopher Walken's presence..
"Rabid" is more properly elaborated and definitely more sophisticated-looking than its predecessor "Shivers" (released two years before) but the plot and tone are very similar, which sometimes makes it feel like a rather repetitive and unoriginal horror film.
All of Cronenberg's obsessions (clinics and hospitals, dangerous sex, the body in decay) made it into Rabid, an effective, entertaining, and unsettling horror movie that REALLY seems like a response to the AIDS epidemic, even though it predated that real-world nightmare.Porn star Marilyn Chambers turns out to be an actual actress; it's a shame she didn't get more chances to break into legitimate movies.
David Cronenberg's third feature-length film, but Like most his early work this movie is fascinating.
My only niggle is the amount of time Rose spends naked in the film, in many scenes where it is simply not relevant, and it seems like Cronenberg exploited Chamber's past movie career by asking her to do this and boost box office takings.
After having a motorcycle accident Rose (Chambers) has to undergo surgery with a new technique but things go wrong and she becomes addicted to blood and people who are bitten are turning into some kind of zombies.
An outbreak is soon on the cards as the infected go on a biting rampage, spreading a strange disease which causing the host to turn rabid and zombie- like.Only his fourth feature, and only his second horror after Shivers (1975), this is not Canadian director David Cronenberg's finest achievement.
These infected people are turning wild rampaging blood-thirsty zombie-like creatures in the city of Montreal.Written and Directed by David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises, The Fly, Videodrome) made an interesting horror film that certainly has some of Cronenberg's trademarks and themes on his future films about the flesh and human nature goes wrong.
I had an occasion to meet the lovely and talented Marilyn Chambers, star of this David Cronenberg classic, recently and even though it was a horror movie convention, she seemed almost unwilling to discuss this film which is her only attempt at "mainstream" acting.
Her character suffers a tragic motorcycle accident and is carted off to the hospital only to return with an added "appendage" to her armpit that looks like a vagina from which emerges a parasitic creature, very "phalic" in shape as Ms. Chambers puts it, that sucks all of the blood from it's victim and turns them into rabid zombie-like creatures.
Basicly a re-run of Shivers on a larger scale,(This time half of Montreal is infected)but much slicker and professional.Featuring another weird disease created by Cronenberg,this time the unfortunate Rose (Marilyn Chambers) is the carrier of a strange vampiric appendage that emerges from her armpit to drink blood and infect the poor victim.The cause of Rose's affliction is unclear,only that her experimental skin grafts performed by a private clinic,is the culprit.Not quite as gory as Shivers but close,the first victims wounds after an attack by rose are wincingly realistic,and theres a nasty scene where an infected surgeon cuts off a nurses fingers with a pair of scissors.Cronenberg creates a city in a mass panic very well,most noticeable when a store Santa is gunned down in a military crossfire!Chambers gives a sympathetic performance as Rose,as she tries to comprehend what has happened to her.Rabid reinforced the view that Cronenberg was a name to watch in s.f/horror cinema.If you haven't seen it then do so,this is classic Cronenberg..
Not only would a person be scared of leaving the house for fear of being bitten, but also the way killing the crazies and disposing of them would be carried out.The fact is though that I watched a movie that had several things happen that ultimately resulted in random people turning mad and attacking people and kept thinking it has been done so much better in other films.
The premise is basically about an uncontrollable epidemic that starts when a young girl, Rose, (Marilyn Chambers) is injured in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend and is taken to the closest hospital, which also happens to contain an experimental surgery room overseen by a crazy Doctor.
Only one scene shows Rose displaying any sort of emotion and that is when she accuses her boyfriend of causing all of this to happen.David Cronenberg is a talented director - but unfortunately he didn't handle this film very well.
Marilyn Chambers may have been a porn queen at the time, but her performance in this commercial flick is atrocious (credit producer Ivan Reitman, who disregarded the director's first choice, Sissy Spacek), as is the rest of the cast (Frank Moore may LOOK like Christopher Walken, but he has none of the guy's acting skills), who aren't given much to work with, since the characterizations are pretty sketchy.
Her acting in this movie is pretty good, I was suprised.Great funny lines like " what the fu*k are we running here a nursery." "You carry a plague youve killed hundreds of people!."The best thing I can say is that it has some great shots of Marilyn Chambers beautiful figure.
Low-rent thriller from young writer-director David Cronenberg, involving Ivory Snow model-turned-porno actress Marilyn Chambers in a horrific motorcycle accident; she survives, but awakens in the hospital with a curious thirst for human blood.
MORD39 RATING:  *1/2  out of  ****RABID is built around an idea which I would ordinarily enjoy, but it's presented in such a dull and confusing way that it ultimately results in an ineffective film.Porn star Marilyn Chambers should have stayed on her back in bed somewhere; while she appears physically right for the part, I disagree with most reviewers who claim that she can act good enough to pull this off.
Here, a young woman suffers a horrific motorcycle accident and, during the experimental surgery to save her, she contracts a disease (much like rabies) which makes her hungry to bite people (albeit with a weird extra spike protruding from her – you'll have to watch the film to see what I mean by that, as it's a little hard to describe!).Basically, it's a slow burner.
Body-horror master, David Cronenberg is at it again with RABID, his second feature film after SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN).
It had been about 10 years since I had last seen RABID, so I'm glad I gave it another go-round...Following a motorcycle accident and experimental skin-graft, porn legend Marilyn Chambers inexplicably grows what looks like an anus in her armpit that houses a penile looking appendage with a spike on the end that she uses to suck blood from her victims for nourishment and spread a rabies-like disease that causes victims to turn into green-foam spewing zombie-like freaks that cause havoc all throughout Montreal...The reason WHY Ms. Chambers grows the armpit-anus-wiener is never really made clear, but that's to be expected from Cronenberg, and doesn't really detract from the film.
His works in horror were most openly and frankly sexual although often repugnant and were often the result of many nightmares and newfound phobias; a writer and director with the power to affect jaded horror audiences, yet tell a vitally moral and heartfelt tale about the lesser desired individuals within our societies.'Rabid' was his second venture into film and was maybe a lesser moral tale although watched closely delivers many messages for the modern man and woman, the so-called liberated and free to choose.The main character Rose was portrayed by then and now legendary porn star Marilyn Chambers whom Cronenberg placed great faith in as a relatively inexperienced actress and to everyone's surprise, she delivers on so many levels, giving the viewer an unbelievably beautiful but deadly, calculating but no doubt lost and scared Typhoid Mary who spreads a plague of mutated rabies across Canada.Rose is involved in a motorcycle accident.
The recent sad death of Marilyn Chambers revived my memories of her one and only contribution to mainstream cinema - David Cronenberg's horror picture 'Rabid' - when it played in my part of the world in 1979 on a double-bill with 'Shivers', one of the director's earlier pictures.
David Cronenberg's 1977 sci-fi/horror film stars Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore and Joe Silver.
As always, Cronenberg deals heavily in deeper themes than simple horror, injecting sexuality and desperation for an interesting twist on an almost vampiric outbreak.It starts off with Rose (porn star Marilyn Chambers) getting in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend, Hart (Frank Moore), in the Quebec countryside.