Rabid Reviews

A virtual remake of THEY CAME FROM WITHIN, RABID finds director David Cronenberg more in control of his narrative and his visual style than in his previous films, but the results are still somewhat uneven. Once again Cronenberg explores sexually transmitted horror, but this time through none other than hardcore porno starlet Marilyn Chambers, who makes her legitimate debut here as Rose, a woman seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. A local plastic surgeon uses the opportunity to experiment with some new skin grafts he's been developing, but somehow the surgery goes awry and soon Rose sports a grotesque, phallus-like organ in her armpit that sucks blood out of her unsuspecting lovers (the original treatment of the film was entitled "Mosquito"). This soon leads to an epidemic that turns the citizens of Montreal into rabid, blood-seeking, sex-crazed monsters that drool green slime. Once again, Cronenberg has made a rather frustrating film. Although RABID is full of interesting ideas, they are not particularly well developed or presented by Cronenberg's unfocused script. And while the film has an uneasy sense of humor, Cronenberg again overplays his most visceral sequences, including the well-shot but pointless car crash. As with THEY CAME FROM WITHIN, the performances are weak, and while Chambers does add some resonance to the film as a sexual icon, her acting ability is decidedly limited.