Shivers

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Cronenberg directs. Robert Saad behind the camera. Patrick Dodd cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Canada. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 3Made its money back 5.6× over at the box office.
• 451 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 5Directed by David Cronenberg, shot by Robert Saad. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Editor Patrick Dodd shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Paul Hampton and Joe Silver and Lynn Lowry carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Being Terrified is Just the Beginning!".
• 9IMDB entry: tt0073705 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 10 themes, including "island", "panic", "attack", "sexual attraction".

The technical file

Cinematography

Robert Saad

Editing

Patrick Dodd

Makeup / hair

Suzanne Garand

Sound

Nolan Roberts

Runtime

88 min · 1h 28m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$179,000

Box office

$1,000,000

Return

559% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Shivers (1975) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

85% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

58/100

IMDB rating

6.3/10 · 26,513 votes

MPAA

R

Also by

David Cronenberg

• 
  Winter Garden

  1972 · ★ 9.0
• 
  The Fly

  1986 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Eastern Promises

  2007 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Friday the 13th: The Series

  1987 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Videodrome

  1983 · ★ 7.2
• 
  A History of Violence

  2005 · ★ 7.2

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Shivers ≣ 1975 ≣ Trailer

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  Shivers ≣ 1975 ≣ Teaser

  Teaser
• 

  ▶
  David Cronenberg SHIVERS on CBC | David Cronenberg Virtual Exhibition

  Featurette

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2013-11-17
  ★ 7.5/10

  Disease is the love of two creatures for one and other. Shivers is written and directed by David Cronenberg. It stars Fred Doederlin, Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry and Barbara Steele. Music is by Ivan Reitman and cinematography by Robert Saad. Montreal's Starliner Island Complex suddenly becomes home to parasitic organisms that upon entering a human host, turns them into flesh-eating sexual predators. Cronenberg's first commercial feature film has become a little too over analysed over the years due to the Canadian auteur's subsequent career. Meanings and motives within Shivers have been searched and scrutinised so as to give it more resonance. It really isn't worthy of that sort of cranial thinking, but what Shivers is is a fun low-budget horror film, a movie that has dashes of Cronenberg magic that shows he started as he meant to go on. With its chaotic observation of mundane everyday people suddenly turned into sexually charged beings now devoid of inhibitions, it's not hard to see why it caused some controversy upon release. Yet that sort of controversy is gold publicity really, and ultimately when you look at it now, it's played out as being more tongue in cheek than any design to shock the audience out of their seats. That's not to say there isn't horror here of course, one only has to see the brilliant opening to know this, but there is an intentional airiness about the piece, and yes! This is even as the director pushes buttons by pushing taboo subjects into our visual event. The acting is generally poor, the sound mix is off and some of the dialogue is awfully cheesy, but Shivers still comes out in considerable credit. It's an important movie in the pantheon of horror because of its director, while it's enjoyable to tick off some of the traits that would dominate his work from this point on. It also makes you evaluate the state of horror as a genre today, with the ream of sequels, remakes and unsurprising slashers dominating the box offices, now more than ever we could do with a young up and coming Cronenberg type to announce himself to our cinematic world. We can but hope. 7.5/10

  Read full review ↓
• JPV8522020-09-25
  ★ 8/10

  Fun horror movie that reminded me a bit of Dawn of the Dead (one location, people being "infected" and going after one another (hungry for flesh so to speak) and the few survivors fighting for their lives. Not great per se but still entertaining and a solid debut for David Cronenberg (well, feature length anyway). 3.75/5

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• DA

  DAL Productions

  CA

• CA

  Canadian Film Development Corporation

  CA

• CI

  Cinépix Film Properties (CFP)

  CA

Key crew

• Co-ProducerDon Carmody
• Art DirectionErla Gliserman
• Executive ProducerAlfred Pariser
• Makeup ArtistSuzanne Garand
• Executive ProducerJohn Dunning
• Production ManagerDon Carmody
• EditorPatrick Dodd
• Executive ProducerAndré Link
• Creature DesignJoe Blasco
• ProducerIvan Reitman
• Special Effects Makeup ArtistJoe Blasco
• ContinuityDiane Boucher
• Still PhotographerAttila Dory
• First Assistant CameraYves Drapeau
• Sound AssistantLen Blum
• Second Assistant CameraPaul Gravel
• Assistant ElectricianDexter Pattie
• Boom OperatorJean-Claude Matte
• ElectricianTom Sawyer
• Art Department AssistantRose Marie McSherry
• First Assistant CameraRick Maguire
• Key GripJohn Daoust
• Production SecretaryIrene Litinsky
• Production AssistantStewart Harding

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• island
• panic
• attack
• sexual attraction
• zombie
• organ transplant
• parasite
• infestation
• sex fiend
• luxury hotel

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1975-05-16R
• Theatrical1975-09-26R· (San Antonio, Texas)

Also known as

International titles

• They Came from WithinUS
• The Parasite MurdersUS
• HuiveringNL
• FrissonsFR
• FrossaSE
• 데이 컴 프럼 위딘KR
• David Cronenberg's ShiversUS