Shivers feels more like a film to study than to enjoy. It’s a fascinating, uneasy watch—more of a historical curiosity than an essential horror film. For fans of Cronenberg, it’s worth seeing to track the evolution of his twisted vision. While it introduces many of the themes and obsessions he would refine in later films, Shivers lacks the narrative control and technical finesse that would come with time.
‘Shivers’ Movie Review
Shivers (1975), David Cronenberg’s debut feature, plays like a raw blueprint for the filmmaker he would become. It’s grotesque, cerebral, and packed with the kind of boundary-pushing body horror that would eventually define his legacy—but it also feels, understandably, like a first draft. While it introduces many of the themes and obsessions Cronenberg would refine in later masterpieces like Videodrome, Scanners, The Brood, and even his remake of Crimes of the Future in 2022, Shivers lacks the narrative control and technical finesse that would come with time.
The film takes place in a high-rise apartment complex just outside Montreal, where a parasite begins infecting residents, turning them into hypersexualized, violent hosts. Dr. Roger St. Luc (played by Paul Hampton) attempts to contain the outbreak, but as in many Cronenberg films, the chaos quickly becomes unmanageable. It’s a tightly wound premise that echoes the social paranoia and viral fear that would recur in the director’s later work, but here it’s executed on a shoestring budget, and you can feel the limitations in many of its frame.
That said, Shivers has moments that are undeniably effective. The slug-like parasites are a gnarly piece of practical effects work—slimy, squirmy, and appropriately revolting. But compared to later Cronenberg fare, they feel almost quaint. There’s none of the surreal extremity of Videodrome, where James Woods pulls a gun from his own stomach, or the grotesque artistic bodily transformations of Crimes of the Future. Even Cronenberg’s son, Brandon Cronenberg, has since gone further in exploring these themes with Possessor and Infinity Pool. By contrast, Shivers now reads as subdued—disturbing, yes, but not the full-tilt nightmare Cronenberg would later become known for.
The film’s subtext about social breakdown, sexual repression, and the dangers of modern isolation is sharper than one might expect for such an early work. It’s smart exploitation—an exploitation film that actually has something to say. And that in itself is a hallmark of Cronenberg: to challenge viewers not only with what they’re seeing, but with what it means. Even in this early form, his fascination with the intersection of body and mind, technology and flesh, is already clear.
READ MORE MOVIE REVIEWS: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Rocky, Eraserhead
Still, Shivers feels more like a film to study than to enjoy. It’s a fascinating, uneasy watch—more of a historical curiosity than an essential horror film. For fans of Cronenberg, it’s worth seeing to track the evolution of his twisted vision. But outside that context, it’s a rough, queasy ride that doesn’t quite stand the test of time on its own.
It’s a solid debut, but ultimately a film Cronenberg would outdo in nearly every way.
Score: 5/10
Shivers (1975)
- Cast: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Allan Kolman, Barbara Steele
- Director: David Cronenberg
- Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
- Runtime: 88 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: May 16, 1975
- Movies Like Shivers: The Exorcist, Pulse, Birth/Rebirth