Rabid
David Cronenberg
(1977)
After undergoing radical surgery for injuries from a motorcycle accident, a young woman develops a retractable, vampiric stinger in her armpit and a thirst for human blood.
Cast
Crew
Hook
What happens when the self becomes something unrecognizable? Rabid explores that question in visceral, unsparing terms — a horror rooted not in darkness but in bright, clinical detail.
Identity
Rabid performed well commercially in Canada and in international exploitation markets, earning a return considerably in excess of its production cost, and received appreciative notices from critics who recognized Cronenberg's growing technical confidence and thematic consistency. It is now regarded as an important step in the development of Cronenberg's distinctive body of work, bridging the intimate provocations of Shivers and the more fully realized personal vision of The Brood, and it occupies a significant place in the history of Canadian horror and of body horror cinema more broadly.
Collector Focus
The practical effects and the director's singular vision make it a collecting priority for anyone serious about the body horror tradition. Every piece of associated material carries the weight of a film that pushed the genre's physical boundaries.
Context
Directed and written by David Cronenberg, Rabid was produced by Ivan Reitman and John Dunning on a budget of approximately $530,000 Canadian dollars, representing a larger production than Cronenberg's debut feature Shivers. Rabid performed well commercially in Canada and in international exploitation markets, earning a return considerably in excess of its production cost, and received appreciative notices from critics who recognized Cronenberg's growing technical confidence and thematic consistency.
