Lousy Lottery 15: Rabid
Welcome, friends, to the Lousy Lottery! Here’s how it works. First, I post four movies to a poll on Twitter. Fans vote to pick which movie to make me watch that week. I watch it, review it and spread the word about an amazingly awful, terribly terrific b-horror flick.
This is week 15! Your pick for this week is 1977’s body horror masterpiece Rabid! This movie is not nearly as well known as other David Cronenberg films. Since it is truly fantastic, consider this piece an attempt to right that wrong. So, find it streaming on Amazon Prime and watch it. You won’t be disappointed. For now, let’s start with the plot.
Rose and Hart are in love and riding down a country road in rural Quebec when they suddenly come upon a van parked in the middle of the lane of travel. They collide and both lovers are taken to hospital straight away. Hart is badly hurt with broken bones and concussion, but Rose was nearly entirely burned, horribly injured and now in a coma. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, this hospital is home to a very prestigious but unconventional plastic surgeon named Dr. Keloid, who uses grafts to attempt to replace Rose’s damaged skin.
Hart recovers, but Rose doesn’t seem to be getting any better. A month later, though, she suddenly wakes screaming and seemingly healed. A staffer tries to intervene only to be cut by her and pass out. When he awakes, she is gone and he has a wound that doesn’t seem to clot. He also doesn’t remember what happened. It seems Rose has a phallic-looking thorn on her side that she can use to draw blood from others. She soon learns she can only subsist on human blood, after trying cow and, well, not taking to it.
But, wait, there’s more! It seems her victims turn zombie-like and also start thirsting for blood. The staffer, the farmer she attacked, they’re all now also on the hunt. So Rose isn’t just a monster, she’s a pandemic. The news thinks this outbreak is a new strain of rabies. Problem is, rabies don’t lead infected construction workers to kill you with a jackhammer and drink your blood. Since the thirst for blood is insatiable, the ‘rabies’ is spreading far, wide and fast.
Pure mayhem ensues. Babies, government figures, celebrities, rich, poor, it doesn’t matter who you are, everyone is turning rabid. Martial law is declared in Montreal and the National Guard is called in. Things turn into an outright gore-fest and the end is nowhere in sight. Hart feels somehow this may all have to do with Rose, as the first victim seems to be the hospital staffer she attacked. Will he find a cure or a way to stop her before the whole world is overrun? Well, you’ll just have to watch and see.
There’s a distinct feel and look to Cronenberg’s early movies. This includes The Fly, but really I’m talking about the period preceding The Fly. That movie was his big Hollywood break, before that he made a string of dark, gritty, dystopian films set and filmed in Canadian cities, mainly Montreal. His vision for these films, namely The Brood, Videodrome, Scanners and Rabid, was so uniform and consistent that one might think they’re part of a series. I’ve often said that movies benefit from singular visions and this pack of flicks should be Exhibit A. Cronenberg used much of the same crew for these films and wrote and directed them all himself. It shows and Rabid truly benefits from this in many ways.
Beyond a consistent approach to production, there is also a common thread of themes. It seems, at this time, Cronenberg was very concerned with the body in many ways. It is the source of identity, sexuality, sensuality and, in some cases, a weapon. I sometimes wonder what was going on in Cronenberg’s life at the time. Was he struggling with illness? Was a loved one dying of cancer? Whatever the cause, you can see a central theme of the power of the body throughout Rabid and many of his early works. Hell, doesn’t get much more body horror than his version of The Fly. Likewise, Rabid, with its phallic growths and quests for human blood, is a prime example of what I’m talking about. He uses the body as a starting point to wax poetic about many existential questions and concerns. He has talked about his atheism and belief that this, the here and now, is all there is. So, why not start an existential quest right here in our own bodies?
Whoa buddy, getting a lot deeper this week in the Lousy Lottery, eh? How can we not? Cronenberg is truly a master at taking the grotesque and using it to dig deep into many personal issues and topics. He does it with his incredible and poignant production design, with the cinematography style and approach and with his incredible writing. To bring it all to life, Rabid also has some truly natural and fantastic performances from Marilyn Chambers and Howard Ryshpan, especially. Director Robert Bresson once said that a truly great director can get great performances out of anyone and he famously once made a film using no actors, only models. It seems Rabid may well be an example of what Bresson meant, as he got a truly natural and truly fantastic performance out of Marilyn Chambers whose other films include Marilyn Chambers’ Guide to Anal Sex and Lusty Busty Housewives. How he got such a gut wrenching performance out of a hardcore porn actress is beyond me, but he’s a master director for a reason.
So, what do you get when you watch Rabid? Well, you get a truly fantastic film that will make you cringe, gasp and stay gripped to the screen from start to finish. The visuals are dark and textural. The writing is meaningful and interesting. To top it all, you get some of the best, gooey gore of late ‘70s horror. What more could you ask for?! So, log onto Amazon Prime and give it a go. Tell ‘em I sent ya!
Don’t forget to see what’s coming next in the Lousy Lottery. Make sure you tune into Twitter later today and vote for Lousy Lottery 16! My handle is @MrJosh79, look for it and don’t forget to vote!
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