| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Marilyn Chambers | ... | ||
| Frank Moore | ... | ||
| Joe Silver | ... | ||
| Howard Ryshpan | ... | ||
| Patricia Gage | ... | ||
| Susan Roman | ... |
Mindy Kent
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Roger Periard | ... |
Lloyd Walsh
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Lynne Deragon | ... | |
| Terry Schonblum | ... | ||
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Victor Désy | ... |
Claude LaPointe
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Julie Anna | ... |
Nurse Rita
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Gary McKeehan | ... |
Smooth Eddy
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Terence G. Ross | ... | |
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Miguel Fernandes | ... | |
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Robert O'Ree | ... |
Police Sergeant
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In Camelford, while swinging his van across a narrow road to make a u-turn, a driver stalls the vehicle that does not restart. Hart Read is driving his motorcycle with his girlfriend Rose and he drives off the road to avoid the collision. Hart suffers minor injuries while Rosie is injured and burned by the flames when the motorcycle explodes. The ambulance from the nearby Keloid Clinic for Plastic Surgery brings the couple and Rose, who is in coma, is submitted to an emergency surgery and to an experimental plastic-surgery technique by Dr. Dan Keloid to retrieve her skin in the chest and abdomen. Hart is discharged but Rose stays in coma in the intensive care unit (ICU) to recover. Out of the blue, Rose awakens from her coma one month later and screams. A nurse helps her but is wounded by her and then he cannot remember what has happened. He is sent to a hospital in Montreal while Rose realizes that she needs to feed with blood. However her victims become zombie-like creatures. Rose ... Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rabid (1977)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
After a motorcycle crash, a young woman (Marilyn Chambers) is given a certain plastic surgery, which has a major side effect when she wakes up as it turns her into a rabid creature wanting human blood. Whoever she bites also gets infected and soon the plague is sweeping across the nation.
David Cronenberg's rather bleak horror tale is a pretty good film, although it does suffer from a few flaws that keeps it from being much better. A lot of the attention goes to Chambers who was attempting to make a mainstream crossover after appearing in the hardcore porn film BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR. I really thought she did a pretty good job with what was asked from her as the director perfectly used her to benefit the story. Her sexuality was the best thing in the picture and I especially liked the way Cronenberg used it to help spread this virus. After all, a majority of the victims were those attracted to her and it's almost like there was a STD fear lurking behind the main story.
I do wonder if this "virus" in the film has a bit more of a meaning to the director. Either way, RABID manages to be quite graphic at times in regards to the violence. There's quite a bit of puss flowing from people's mouths and there's certainly a lot of blood throughout. Cronenberg doesn't back off of the violence but I think what's even better is the rather bleak and dark atmosphere that he manages to create. The entire film is very dark in tone and I thought the director perfectly handled this as well as some more dramatic moments (like the motorcycle crash). Chambers is good in her role but we also get nice performances by Howard Ryshpan, Joe Silver and Frank Moore.
The one major flaw in the film is that it has a very slow pacing that really drags out the running time. I think a little quicker pace certainly would have helped things but the film is still worth watching.