Review of Rabid (1977) by Kate H — 12 May 2011

Cronenberg's second film, also funded by the Canadian government, continued to develop his body horror aesthetic by following the story of a woman who becomes seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and undergoes radically experimental plastic surgery.

Starring 70s porn star Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door) as the female lead, Rabid proceeds to depict her bizarre transformation into a kind of sexual vampire. Her underarm contains a bizarre phallic protrusion that allows her to feed on the blood of her victims, who in turn become transformed into zombie-like creatures that further spread the disease.

Cronenberg has not quite developed his themes to their full potential in this early film, but Rabid already provides a powerful meditation upon the connection that society draws between sex and confession.

It essentially a film about sex as a social evil that spreads rampantly once a society begins to be licentious. Furthermore, it begins to develop the posthuman themes that will possess Cronenberg more compelling in later films like Videodrome.

While it remains flawed and a little bit cheesy, Rabid still represents an original vision for the time and marks the origins of one of horror/sci-fi cinema's great auteurs.