Shivers

David Cronenberg’s directorial debut, Shivers follows the denizens of a high-tech condo as they’re infected by a parasite that transforms its victims into sex-crazed maniacs. First-time filmmaker Cronenberg admittedly does an effective job of initially drawing the viewer into the low-rent, deliberately-paced proceedings, as Shivers kicks off with a fairly compelling stretch that intriguingly cuts between a commercial for the aforementioned condo and an attack on a young woman by an older man. It’s a promising start for what slowly-but-surely becomes an absolutely interminable piece of work, with Cronenberg’s inability to deliver even a single interesting protagonist merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the picture’s failings. The arms-length atmosphere only serves to highlight the various deficiencies within the production, and it goes without saying, certainly, that the violent yet meaningless third act is hardly able to compensate for the thundering incompetence of everything preceding it – which undoubtedly (and ultimately) cements Shivers’ place as an almost shockingly unwatchable first effort by an admittedly erratic filmmaker.

* out of ****