Shivers / They Came from Within | September 26, 1975
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| They Came from Within |
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| Shivers |
"Shivers," also known as "The Parasite Murders" and "They Came from Within," is a 1975 Canadian science fiction body horror film directed and written by David Cronenberg. The film stars Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry, and Barbara Steele, and is also known by its French title "Frissons" (IPA: /friːˈsoʊn/ free-SOHN; meaning 'chills' or 'shivers').
Plot: In the upscale apartment complex Starliner Towers on the outskirts of Montreal, Dr. Emil Hobbes murders a young woman named Annabelle. He then slashes her abdomen, pours acid into the wound, and commits suicide. Nick Tudor, who suffers from stomach convulsions, discovers the bodies but leaves without reporting them to the police. The bodies are later found by resident physician Roger St. Luc, who reports them to the police. Hobbes' medical partner, Rollo Linsky, tells St. Luc that he and Hobbes were working on a project to develop a parasite capable of replacing the functions of human organs.
After experiencing more convulsions, Nick leaves work early and vomits a parasite onto his balcony railing. The parasite re-enters the apartment and attacks a janitor in the basement, attaching itself to her face. Nick’s wife Janine tries to care for him, but he prefers to ignore her and talk about the parasite wriggling in his abdomen. At the hospital, Roger examines a sexually active middle-aged resident with abdominal pain and suspects his condition might be a sexually transmitted infection acquired from Annabelle.
Linsky calls Roger from Hobbes’ office downtown and reveals that Hobbes developed a parasite that combines an aphrodisiac with an STD, hoping to turn the world into a place of beautiful, meaningless orgies. Hobbes believed that modern humans were overly intellectual and alienated from their primal instincts. Driven by his ambition to create this parasite, Hobbes sought to reawaken humanity's unrestrained sexual aggression, using Annabelle as an experimental subject. Linsky warns Roger to avoid people exhibiting strange behavior.
Nick attempts to force his wife Janine into sexual activity, but when a parasite emerges from his mouth, she recoils in horror. She runs to her friend Betts’ apartment, who is infected with a parasite, and Betts seduces and kisses Janine, transferring the parasite to her. Meanwhile, other residents, including a young girl with her mother in an elevator, are assaulted by a delivery man and infected by parasites, which then attack and infect other residents, spreading the infection further. The corridors soon fill with people engaging in sexual violence or fighting. Roger searches the complex for the parasites, and his nurse and lover, Forsythe, tends to an elderly couple attacked by parasites.
