David Cronenberg's Shivers is a very clever, calculated piece of film making. The fashion it's made in is very similar to George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead, being lo-fi and confrontational, with a rich vein of social commentary running under the madness. Shivers is a disturbing concept, made unnervingly believable with it's low-budget realism.<br /><br />The basic premise of Shivers is this, a mad scientist unleashes a parasitic organism into an apartment complex that multiplies rapidly and turns its hosts into sex-crazed zombies, with the goal of bringing man back to his savage roots. Cue lots of scenes of people charging down corridors in attempts to rape everybody they can get their hands on, and mass orgies in various bits of the complex.<br /><br />As you can tell, Shivers intends to disturb. In fact, it doesn't waste ANY time getting on with that, opening with a scene that intercuts a new couple being shown around the complex with the graphic strangulation and dissection of a young girl (I might add though NOT a minor as many have suggested). This scene is later put into direct context by the rest of the movie but it's a stark, shocking opening to a stark shocking film.<br /><br />Unless you've been living under a rock for the past thirty years, you've probably heard a lot about how sick and warped Cronenberg's films and the man himself are. Rubbish. Shivers is shocking yes, but that isn't the point of the movie. Through the medium of scary worm like parasites and hordes of horny zombies, Cronenberg manages to effectively flag up a warning about the potential dangers of an increasingly sexualised society, and seems to wrestle with a lot of internal demons. He also works a lot of warmth and wit into the movie. In fact the bottom line with Shivers is that if you can stomach the graphic violence and dizzying horror of the concept, Shivers is a very human, emotive movie. The cast are all very convincing, and by and large the characters are very likable, meaning you will be rooting for them.<br /><br />So, I'll recommend Shivers whole-heartedly, but it is NOT for the faint of heart. It'll probably disgust conservative viewers, and I understand totally that the idea of a movie that's about the spread of a mutant parasite that turns you into a brain dead rapist is probably not gonna be for everyone, but if you dig intelligent horror, especially that of the 60s and 70s, Shivers'll probably be a movie you'll really dig.