Review of Rabid (1977) by Ian R — 12 Feb 2016

As a basic zombie movie, this movie is elevated by Cronenberg's style. The problem is that as a Cronenberg movie, this is pretty bland and uninspired. It lacks the oddness of Shivers and the drama of The Brood. And while the mayhem in this movie may be at the largest scale of any Cronenberg movie, it seems to be missing the humanity and dread that his more character driven movies had.

Worth watching for Cronenberg fans, but be warned that it is not at the level of his other early horror movies. It kind of gets lost in between two of his better early horror movies (Shivers and The Brood), much like The Crazies gets lost between Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead for George Romero. That I feel is a fair comparison to be made here.