tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-431609518471013077.post551109644455480096..comments2024-01-24T08:01:12.354-05:00Comments on A Lifetime In Dark Rooms: Shivers: The Social DiseaseUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-431609518471013077.post-24507269471107497552014-12-16T09:51:08.001-05:002014-12-16T09:51:08.001-05:00Man, I don't think Cronenberg is on the side o...Man, I don't think Cronenberg is on the side of people in general. Not that that's a bad thing, that's what I love about his early work, that he approaches the idea of biology and humanity without any of the basic assumptions or taboos we usually take for granted. I can see the ideas here, he just hadn't quite gotten his directing chops down yet.Cliff Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14601389977814866457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-431609518471013077.post-80561620060171326872014-12-15T18:55:40.934-05:002014-12-15T18:55:40.934-05:00Nice take on this seminal (heh) movie. Cronenberg ...Nice take on this seminal (heh) movie. Cronenberg clearly struggled with trying to make a more mainstream movie after his earlier experimental works, in which he didn't have to deal with things like dialogue or conventional narrative structures. He's talked about how much he struggled with directing actors here, resorting in one case to slapping an actress repeatedly (on her suggestion) to induce tears. He didn't really start getting good performances until Videodrome, when he started casting more verbal actors like James Woods. As you say, the only really effective performer here is Lynn Lowry as the nurse, who was already well established as a b-movie star having worked with folks like George Romero and Lloyd Kaufman (she's in the first ever Troma movie).<br /><br />I keep meaning to do a compare & contrast between Shivers (which Cronenberg wanted to title Orgy of the Blood Parasites) and John Waters's much later A Dirty Shame, in which head injuries turn ordinary folks into joyously sex-crazed fetishists of various sorts. Cronenberg claims to be on the side of the sex zombies, but it really doesn't play that way; Waters is very obviously on side with his happy perverts.Pearcehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04585713305682813718noreply@blogger.com