They Came from Within (1975)
"Shivers" (original title)

The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.

Director:

David Cronenberg

Writer:

David Cronenberg

Stars:

Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Hampton	...	Roger St. Luc
Joe Silver	...	Rollo Linsky
Lynn Lowry	...	Nurse Forsythe
Allan Kolman	...	Nicholas Tudor (as Alan Migicovsky)
Susan Petrie	...	Janine Tudor
Barbara Steele	...	Betts
Ronald Mlodzik	...	Merrick
Barry Baldaro	...	Detective Heller (as Barry Boldero)
Camil Ducharme	...	Mr. Guilbault
Hanka Posnanska	...	Mrs. Guilbault
Wally Martin	...	Doorman
Vlasta Vrana	...	Kresimer Sviben
Silvie Debois	...	Benda Sviben
Charles Perley	...	Delivery Boy
Al Rochman	...	Parkins

Storyline

A scientist living in an apartment complex kills a girl and uses acid to destroy her internal organs, and then kills himself. While investigating, a doctor discovers that the scientist was doing experiments on the use of genetically engineered parasites as organ transplants. Soon, other people in the complex begin showing signs of carrying the parasites, spreading the things through wanton orgiastic abandon, and the complex begins suffering an attrition problem.

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Plot Keywords:

parasite | apartment | apartment building | doctor | violence | 

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Taglines:

BEING TERRIFIED IS JUST THE BEGINNING!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 July 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

They Came from Within

Filming Locations:

Île-des-Soeurs, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 179,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), Cinépix, DAL Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Lynn Lowry, the shoulder that Nurse Forsythe stabs with the fork is actually that of David Cronenberg. A pad was inserted under Cronenberg's shirt for Lowry to stab, but, unfortunately, she missed and hit Cronenberg's real shoulder instead.

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Goofs

When the nurse escapes the French couple's flat and reaches the underground car park, she has blood over her hands and leg. However shortly after her car is crashed and she climbs out of the front window with the doctor there is no blood on her.

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Quotes

Bearded man: Have you met my daughter, Erica? She's a very beautiful girl. Come here, Erica. I just know you'll like my daughter, Erica.

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Connections

Featured in The Directors: The Films of David Cronenberg (1999)

User Reviews

Cronenberg's Impressive Feature Debut

Shivers(1975) is a fascinating first film especially for a person who was learning to direct professionly on the job. An interesting part about this movie is that Cronenberg did Shivers(1975) without having a clue of what people in the film crew does or containing knowledge of film terms. The fact that he made a cult classic is a testament to his potential at the time to be an excellent movie maker. Shivers is basically the first horror film made in Canada as far as I know and David Cronenberg was the first director to open the flood gates for the horror film in Canada.

This motion picture mixes together the erotic with the zombie genre made famous by George Romero in 1968. In fact, there are many references to the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. The movie is about parasites who enters people's bodies and turn them into sex maniacs. It dares to break many sexual taboos that many film makers would be afraid to explore.

Shivers would provide a starting point for some themes that David Cronenberg would explore in later films like Rabid(1977), The Brood(1979), Scanners(1981), Videodrome(1983), The Fly(1986), Dead Ringers(1988), and Crash(1997). The two themes are disease as the transformation of the body into the next state of evolution for the human being and the other theme of the outsider who does not understand why they are so different from other people. Barbara Stelle provided the movie with many memorable moments especially the infamous "bath tub" scene. It is a groundbreaking movie because it would become a source of many movie directors for the next two decades.

One great scene is the "bath tub" scene which is a classic example of building up suspense until the final moment when the scene ends. Another excellent scene is when the protagonist tries to escape outside and he goes back in as swarms of Sex zombies go chasing after him. I consider this movie the beginning of a trilogy I call the 'sexual evolution' trilogy. The trilogy starts out with Shivers(1975), continues with Videodrome(1983), and finishes with Crash(1997).

Shivers(1975) would be a major influence for the scifi-action thriller The Hidden(1987), especially with the idea of a parasite entering a person's body and changing their entire personal behavior. Also influenced by Shivers were the Alien series(especially Alien(1979) which was made four years after Cronenberg's directioral debut) and there are a couple of examples of this influence. First, the two movies involve parasites who go in and put out of a person's body as well as having acid for blood. Second, They both take place in an isolated and high placed area with Alien(1979) taking place on a spaceship in the middle of nowhere and Shivers(1975) takes place on a apartment complex called the Skyliner Towers on the middle of an island that is isolated from the rest of Canada.