Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Rabid Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 5, 2017

David Cronenberg's fourth feature-length film Rabid (1977) represents arguably the most polished and mature work of the Canadian auteur's career up to that point. The Toronto born filmmaker had a larger budget to work with and more locations to use than in his previous picture Shivers (1975). Cronenberg had seen Badlands and wanted to cast Sissy Spacek in the lead but producers feared that her Texas accent and freckles would make her ill-suited for the role of Rose. Producer Ivan Reitman supposedly had seen Marilyn Chambers portray the Ivory Soap woman alongside a baby in commercials and was also familiar with her work as a popular adult film star. Chambers brought a youthful beauty and sexiness to the main part that would make her appealing to a segmented Canadian entertainment market composed mainly of horror films and porn. After all, Cinépix, the production house that backed both Shivers and Rabid, also released skin flicks. Reitman, who also served as music supervisor, culled a pastiche of non-original music from the Cinépix library that once was used for the distributor's soft-core porn films. Reitman uses the rather lovely flute and woodwind music to comment both on Chambers's other screen persona and the innocence her Rose character once embodied. When Rabid came to the US, a critic for Variety picked up on Cronenberg's tongue-in-cheek example of intertextuality during the scene when Rose enters a porno cinema aptly named Eve Theatre. (Chambers had appeared in an X-rated film titled The Resurrection of Eve.)

When Cronenberg made Rabid, he had developed a deep affinity for motorcycles so it's apropos that he begins the picture with Rose riding one with her boyfriend Hart Read (Frank Moore). Cronenberg shows his strength for building up suspense as he crosscuts between Hart and Rose's fast trek around the winding road with an oncoming large van containing a man, his wife and child. Cronenberg also interweaves an office meeting at a clinic involving Rose's soon-to-be plastic surgeon, Dr. Dan Keloid (Howard Ryshpan). A terrible accident happens when the van collides with the motorbike, leaving Hart with a non-fatal injury but Rose badly burned. Keloid is alerted and perhaps sensing that he could use a potential survivor for his experiment, decides to visit the crash site. While Rose is in a coma, Keloid and his medical technicians apply skin grafts that aesthetically enhance Rose's appearance but clog her digestive tract. As she awakens with fellow patient Lloyd Walsh (Roger Periard) in her room, Rose's bodily needs override her own volition. Unable to intake normal food, she desires blood so she sensually embraces Lloyd before making a move to penetrate his skin. A unexpected result of her plastic surgery, a phallic-like instrument sprouts out of the vaginal cavity in Rose's left armpit, piercing and contaminating first victim Lloyd. This sets off a rabies-like epidemic throughout Montreal, which critic Richard Combs describes as "part aphrodisiac and part venereal disease."

Rose is both sexy and deadly.

In her mixed review of Rabid, the Los Angeles Times's then movie critic Linda Gross chastised Cronenberg for "slothful and haphazard" storytelling. "Instead of narrative cohesion, he assaults with graphic bludgeoning, bloodletting and skin grafting." I strongly disagree as I contend that Cronenberg's screenplay deftly balances a large cast of primary and secondary characters across the 91-minute run time. The film also continually maintains an editing rhythm of suspense/tension for two reasons. One is that Rose is subconsciously aware that she is the carrier for the deadly parasitic virus but cannot find the willful capacity to stop it. Since she appears attractive and innocuous following her surgery and departure from the clinic, no one assumes that she is the original carrier. Second, as she progresses on her rampage, the audience is kept hanging on a thread because Hart may be the only one who can prevent her from inflicting further damage. Cronenberg and editor Jean LaFleur cut back and forth between Rose's activities and Hart's search for his infected girlfriend. The film's prolonged pace keeps the audience on edge, awaiting the next victim Rose plans to strike.

Rabid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rabid makes its North American debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory as a Collector's Edition on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. The movie had already been available on Blu-ray in the UK, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Japan. This features-laden package supersedes the other editions in more ways than one. Shout! advertises that the transfer is struck from a "new 2K scan from the negative at director David Cronenberg's preferred aspect ratio of 1.66:1." Shout!'s video streams are encoded with an average bitrate of 28994 kbps, with a total bitrate reaching 38.44 Mbps. The transfer differs significantly from the one appearing on the UK Arrow edition that my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov reviewed over two years ago. Visual comparisons between the two reveal that Arrow has horizontally stretched the image while Shout! shows more information along the left side and marginally more on the bottom for much of the film. Arrow's colors look washed out with brightness boosting that casts a large shade of white over the frame. For lower lit and dark scenes, Shout!'s contrast is vastly superior. Some scenes are so dark on the Arrow that faces, objects, and other details are obliterated from view. Skin tones are much more natural on the Shout! A thin layer of grain is consistently present on the US BD and only becomes coarser in shots where white and gray pervade the frame. A smudge of dirt is stuck on the camera lens during the main titles (see Screenshot #16) but the print is very clean without the intrusion of DNR. I only noticed two shots where a thin vertical tramline crept into the frame but Shout! seems to have performed a pretty thorough frame-by-frame restoration.

Shout! has demarcated the main feature into a dozen chapter stops.

Rabid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has included Rabid's original monaural sound track, represented here as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (1806 kbps, 24-bit). The master is in very good shape with only some analog hiss present on occasion. There is no distortion and dialogue sounds reasonably clear save for a couple of scenes in which radio or f/x muffles the words. Music is generally light and doesn't reach any high pitches. It would have been ideal had Shout! also included a stereo mix in lossless but they appended three additional audio options for the commentary tracks.

Like Arrow's release, Shout! has provided optional English SDH.

Rabid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout! Factory has licensed several extras previously available on DVD and BD versions of Rabid. Shout! has ported over the very intelligent feature-length commentary with Cronenberg that originally appeared on the Region 1 Canadian Somerville House/Ventura DVD. The US indie label also lifted a twenty-minute interview with the the director (which looks like it was transferred from VHS) that was on both the Canadian DVD as well as a TF1 Vidéo/Metropolitan PAL DVD. Both bonus items also made their way on to Arrow's BD/DVD. From Arrow, Shout! also acquired a commentary track with Cronenberg scholar William Beard, a half-hour video essay on Canadian horror, a twelve-minute interview with Ivan Reitman, and a fifteen-minute chat with co-producer Don Carmody. In addition to the film's ad campaign materials, Shout! has added a new audio interview with Jill Nelson and Ken Leicht that plays along with the film (and isn't necessarily screen-specific) and a new interview with actress Susan Roman, who portrayed Rose's good friend and roommate, Mindy Kent. Missing from Shout!'s disc that are present on the Arrow package are an isolated music and effects track, a three-minute interview with Joe Blasco, an hour-long video documentary titled "The Directors: David Cronenberg," a fifteen-minute featurette called "Raw, Rough and Rabid," and an illustrated booklet containing a new essay on the film and interviews. The doc on Cronenberg that is part of AFI's "The Directors" series can also be found on Australia-based ViaVision's three-disc Cronenberg Collection. It is also still available in the US as a standalone DVD released by Winstar.

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director David Cronenberg

• Audio Commentary with William Beard, Author of The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg

• NEW Audio Commentary with Author Jill C. Nelson (Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968- 1985) and Marilyn Chambers's Personal Appearances Manager Ken Leicht

• NEW Young and Rabid – An Interview with Actress Susan Roman (33:06, 1080p)

• Archival Interview with David Cronenberg (20:37, upconverted to 1080p)

• Interview with Executive Producer Ivan Reitman (12:28, 1080p)

• Interview with Co-producer Don Carmody (15:38, 1080p)

• From Stereo to Video – A Video Essay by Caelum Vatnsdal, Author of They Came from Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema (28:22, 1080p)

• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:09, upconverted to 1080p)

• TV Spot (0:32, upconverted to 1080p)

• Radio Spots (U.S. and U.K.) (1:38)

• Stills Gallery (5:49, 1080p)

Rabid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rabid reveals Cronenberg's perverse fascination with and ingenious combination of sex, death, and bodily fluids. In the graded area of video, Shout! Factory's newly minted digital intermediate print greatly surpasses Arrow Video's dated transfer. In terms of special features, Shout! acts as a complimentary release to Arrow's. Shout! adds two of its own supplements while the Arrow has some exclusive bonus materials. Fans of the film will want to own both. On the whole, I think that the Shout! has the best overall package and it comes VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.