Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Shivers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 9, 2020

This may not exactly be a great time to remind people about a film comedy about a quasi-pandemic, but 1968’s What's So Bad About Feeling Good? was exactly that: the tale of a virus caused by a toucan that ended up making everyone nice, frolicsome and totally chill. There’s another kind of viral entity at work infecting people right and left in Shivers, but this being a David Cronenberg film, laughs may understandably be in short supply. While this release’s back cover touts Shivers as being Cronenberg’s first feature length outing, true Cronenberg fans will probably know of Stereo and Crimes of the Future , both of which predate this effort and which at least hint at some of its stylistic flourishes (and maybe even plot elements). But this was the first Cronenberg effort with relatively fulsome budgeting, and it became something of a cause célèbre upon its initial theatrical release since the underlying plot conceit is that the “virus” in this instance is a parasite which, when symbiotically hosted by a human, turns that human into someone who is not just “feeling good”, but who is positively aggressively amorous.

If What's So Bad About Feeling Good? offered the urban setting of Manhattan as a different kind of "Ground Zero", Shivers takes place at an ostensibly somewhat isolated island on the outskirts of Montreal, where a "utopian" apartment complex has been built that has all the modern amenities, from an Olympic sized swimming pool to on site medical and dental facilities. The opening of the film kind of cheekily ping pongs between a supposed marketing video (more of a slideshow, actually) for the development and a chaotic sequence which shows a man desperately trying to throttle a woman. The man ultimately succeeds in his mission, and then rather strangely cuts the woman's stomach open and pours in some kind of acid, at which point he slits his own throat. In the meantime, another man named Nick Tudor (Alan Migicovsky) has been experiencing some bad digestive tract issues which are so bad his wife Janine (Susan Petrie) is starting to freak out.

The two corpses from the opening sequence are ultimately discovered, first by Nick, who does nothing, strangely, but then by police and the apartment complex's resident physician, Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton). A colleague of the suicide victim named Rollo Linsky (Joe Silver) shares some vital information about what's going on with St. Luc, and the two then team up as kind of quasi-investigators when it becomes clear that a number of residents are suffering from the same sort of parasitic "invasion" that is already further hobbling Tudor. Suffice it to say that a number of characters give in to their "freakier" sides once the parasite makes mating the prime directive. This aspect, along with some pretty graphic blood and guts courtesy of things like parasites erupting from midriffs Alien 4K-style, probably helped to make this film so notorious back in the day, but it may actually come off to modern day eyes as surprisingly quaint a lot of the time.

Shivers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shivers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films' Vestron Video imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Arrow's UK division released Shivers several years ago, but I never received a screener and so can't authoritatively opine on any differences between the two. That said, the Arrow version evidently began with some credits stating it was restored from elements held by TIFF and other Canadian entities and was approved by David Cronenberg. This version ends with the TIFF data but does not include any reference to Cronenberg (that I saw, anyway). This has a "vintage" look a lot of the time, with a fairly heavy grain field and variable detail levels. Whites are occasionally pretty badly blown out, as in the scene where Tudor is out on his deck and vomits a parasite onto the umbrella of a senior citizen walking below (in a moment that is rather funny). The palette looks a bit drab at times, skewing slightly toward a greenish tone, but on the whole looks relatively natural. Fine detail is at least decent and often more than merely decent quite a bit of the time, as in the resolution of the fabric of the tweedy jacket that St. Luc wears. There are some occasional signs of age related wear and tear, but I noticed no compression anomalies of any major import.

Shivers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shivers features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that suffices well enough for the film's relatively unambitious sound design. The bulk of the film's soundtrack is dialogue driven, with only occasional sound effects like the slithering of the parasites and what was evidently stock music (the only thing the budget would allow for). What was reportedly some post-looping can mean "sync is loose" (as they say) at times, but on the whole, fidelity is fine and there is really no damage of any kind, though the high end can sound a bit brash on occasion.

Shivers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer / Director David Cronenberg


• Audio Commentary with Co-Producer Don Carmody


• Mind Over Matter: An Interview with Writer / Director David Cronenberg (1080p; 12:01)


• Good Night Nurse: An Interview with Actress Lynn Lowry (1080p; 16:54)


• Outside and Within: An Interview with Speical Make-Up Effects Creator Joe Blasco (1080p; 12:55)


• Celebrating Cinepix: The Legacy of John Dunning (1080p; 10:05)


• Archival 1998 David Cronenberg Interview (1080i; 21:16)


• Still Gallery with Optional Archival Audio Interview with Executive Producer John Dunning (1080p; 8:37) features an interview conducted by Kier-la Janisse in 2011 just a little while before Dunning passed away.


• Still Gallery (1080p; 8:01)


• Theatrical Trailers (1080p; 3:01)


• TV Spot (1080p; 1:03)


• Radio Spots (2:17)

Note: Due to a mix up, this review copy initially went to someone else and by the time it got to me it had neither a slipcover nor an insert with a digital code, though my understanding is the retail version has both items as well in addition to the above supplements.

Shivers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This early effort by David Cronenberg will probably be best appreciated by his fans, though that said the film shows Cronenberg still developing his craft. The appearance by Barbara Steele in a supporting role may add a certain allure for even non-Cronenberg aficionados. Technical merits are okay if not mind blowing, but as with many of the releases in the Vestron Video series, the supplements are quite appealing, for those who are considering a purchase.