Shivers
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are infected by parasites that turn them into mindless nymphomaniac fiends.
Why it matters
A lurid blend of body horror and social satire that marks David Cronenberg’s first leap into his signature blend of the grotesque and the cerebral.
- Early Cronenberg: the germ of themes he’d obsess over — parasitic infection as metaphor for uncontrollable desire and social decay
- A claustrophobic, single-location nightmare that prefigures the survival horror template later perfected by Romero’s zombie films
- Practical effects that still carry a visceral punch despite modest budget constraints — the physicality of the parasites is unnervingly tangible
- For fans of 1970s Canadian horror and anyone curious about the origins of a director who would reshape body horror’s landscape forever
Director
15 horror films in catalog
From the Drain 1967
Crimes of the Future 1970
Shivers 1975
Rabid 1977
The Brood 1979
Scanners 1981
Videodrome 1983
The Dead Zone 1983
The Fly 1986
Dead Ringers 1988
The Nest 2013
The Death of David Cronenberg 2021
Crimes of the Future 2022
Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection 2023
The Shrouds 2025
Cast
Horror DNA
Gore
43
Slow Burn
100
Psychological
71
Supernatural
0
Creature
73
Disturbing
100
Fun Factor
17
Cerebral
71
Survival
83
InfestationParasiteZombie
