Cronenberg Collection (Stephen King’s The Dead Zone, Shivers, Rabid) (Blu-Ray Review)

Cronenberg Collection (Stephen King’s The Dead Zone, Shivers, Rabid) (Blu-Ray Review)
Rated: R18+/Region B(Also plays in A)/1080p/Number of Discs 3 (Movies on their own discs)
Available from Via Vision Entertainment

*Before I start this review I want to point out that while the back of this case says Region B, it will indeed play on a Region A player*

The Dead Zone (1983)
Directed By: David Cronenberg
Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt
1:78

Based on the novel by Stephen King. Christopher Walken wakes from a coma due to a car accident, only to find he has lost five years of his life, and yet gained psychic powers. Foreseeing the future appears to be a ‘gift’ at first, but ends up causing problems.

The Dead Zone is a movie that David Cronenberg put his fingers on despite it being based off a book from Stephen King and having the script written by someone else. While not along the lines of the more gruesome and bloody body horror movies we were used to seeing from him at the time, Cronenberg uses a great lead in Christopher Walken and brings a very compelling and at times tense story to the screen. Like a lot of movies based off novels, you can sort of sense perhaps a bit of packing a bit much in too quickly. Once Walken’s character gets this “gift” he handles a subplot about a killer in his hometown which alone would have been enough to carry most films for the complete running time. That is just the start here, however, as thing eventually dwindle down into the film’s main plot, which becomes him getting a sign that a politician running for office will some day be president and do some very awful stuff. That leaves him to ask a friend of his in the movie that if he could go back knowing what he knows now and kill Hitler before he had time to do what he did, would he? That question is the bread and butter of the final act here. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the movie and overall this is another keeper by a great director, but things are compacted together here and maybe a bit too quickly settled in some cases. Again, while still interesting from start to finish, Christopher Walken and his performance are what keeps this one as memorable as he turns out to be.

In a lot of ways, this is a movie that still manages to have a little bit of everything. This is vintage Stephen King in the story and if you read a lot of King’s work then I’m sure it won’t take long before you know what I’m saying. The movie is a story of love lost that turns into a bit of a sci-fi romp with detective and thriller elements. You, of course, can’t forget about the horror tones either. It is a movie that has something for everyone and might be the most universally appealing film in this three-film set. The Dead Zone is something you can do a lot with and they packed what they could into a running time of nearly two hours. I can see why they went with a TV show based on the same material some years ago. As for the look of this disc here, it looks great! The movie looks gloomy in its more times than not snow covered settings, but I like it. Mixed in with some cool extras and we have a movie that anyone reading this site should be content with. This is an interesting and creepy movie that packs an award winning performance on top of it all. Good stuff!

Extras

– Audio Commentary by Screenplay Writer Stephen Jones and Film Critic Kim Newman
– Memories from The Dead Zone
– The Look of The Dead Zone
– Visions and Horror from The Dead Zone
– The Politics of The Dead Zone
– Original Trailer

Quality of Transfer: 93%

Shivers (1975)
Directed By: David Cronenberg
Starring: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry
1:78

The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.

I’ve seen Night of the Creeps, I’ve also seen Slither. But I had a lot of interest in seeing a film that was just about in the same boat at those, only directed by the great David Cronenberg. And we do have a few things in this film that make your skin crawl. You just know from the start that things are not well. And when you have a character start playing with some THING inside of him that people are calling a cyst, you just know your ideas are confirmed. And in typical Cronenberg style, things get interesting and very creepy. However, being one of his first films, things are not on a very polished level as you’d come to expect but I like the grimy and raw feel of the film. Things do drag a bit, but the typical weirdness you get from a David Cronenberg movie is here in full effect. As a matter of fact, we even get one scene here that would be repeated in the most current film, Slither. Still, it makes you squirm here just the same. But one of the more bizarre things about this is the fact that these slugs aren’t really turning people into zombies, they are turning people into sex crazed maniacs! So, welcome to 1975, my friends! And welcome to your doom in the fashion of having a mob of hot women (for lack of a more PG term) “screw” you to death. Oh, it’s a hard way to go I’m sure. This movie offers us a whole slew of weird and interesting things that manage to be just as creepy as crazy.

The things going against this film is the slower pace and lack of a strong lead. That still isn’t enough to hurt the movie overall when you get down to the core of things. By the time the film reaches it’s climax, we have a guy (not the most exiting chap in the world) running from mobs of infected people trying to do dirty things with him. Guys, girls, old people, ect. are all in on this hippie activity that is brought on by some type of slug-looking thing. It’s probably more humorous than anything else, but it’s a nice start for what would lead to better things for a very talented director. While I know Cronenberg did better movies like The Fly, Scanners, and The Brood, I still find myself more times than not wanting to see something like this while wanting to watch movies at weird hours of the morning than those. That says a lot about what kind of fun movie this one really is. The movie here was remastered for an HD release by TIFF and I think it looks really good while still maintaining that grindhouse feel. I don’t think anyone will be complaining about how this one looks. Overall If you are fans of such films as Night of the Creeps and Slither, you may even find yourself a little more fond of this one. Since it does pack a whole lot of similarities. Some of the stuff here would even be honored later in those films, so while it’s not his best film, there are very good things here to see. I at least don’t see many people not enjoying what they get here.

Extras

– On Screen: The Making of Shivers
– Original Theatrical Trailer
– Interview with David Cronenberg

Quality of Transfer: 88%

Rabid (1977)
Directed By: David Cronenberg
Starring: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver
1:78

A young woman develops a taste for human blood after undergoing experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into rabid, blood-thirsty zombies who proceed to infect others, which turns into a city-wide epidemic.

Believe it or not, this was the first time I had the plesure of seeing David Cronenberg’s Rabid. I had always heard good things and now having seen it for myself I understand why. The movie is basically everything I ever liked about Cronenberg from around this time. We have a movie that makes good use of body horror as you’d expect from the director but it also turns into a more secluded zomie flick as well (or more infected than zombie). Now on paper, the plot doesn’t make a lick of sense but what makes this movie so good is the fact that it works anyway. We have the porn star Marilyn Chambers playing a girl who was involved in probably one of the more avoidable mothercycle crashes that you’ll ever see on film. This was her first real role (apparently the last as well) but she makes the best of it and is great in the role. Anyway, she crashses happens, she’s given some radical medial stuff, and the next thing you know she has what looks like a penis coming from her armpit that stabs people and takes their blood. She starts to do this more and more, the people she does this to turn into some form of zombie or person with an extremely bad case of rabis (hince the name) and somewhere in the middle of all the chaos she leaves the confines of the medial center enabling her to spread this stuff more and more in Canada. Like I said, it is total B movie cheese and sounds hilariouly bad in the most entertaining way on paper, but the darn thing manages to be entertaining but a solid and good movie in general as well.

Her boyfriend who was the driver in the crash that startes this whole mess is also out and about on her trail. He knows something is wrong but it doesn’t yet know why. He stays hot on her trail as the number of people infected grows and grows. In some ways, the movie has her as the center but is like two movies in one. We follow her and her armspit thingy doing what it does, but then at the same time, we see scenes of chaos being caused do to the blood thristy, green foaming at the mouth, infected that are causing so much trouble things get tossed into martial law. Maybe when all is said and done you feel more could be done with the plot or at least more to make it more conclusive but I loved it anyway. The early films of Cronenberg are a sight to see and Rabid is a prime example of just what I mean. While I’ve not seen the Arrow Blu-ray of this film, I can at least say the movie looks great here. It does look its age but that only adds to the vibe and doesn’t really hurt the details. A lot of the film is shocking in a darker setting that might take some definition to some scenes away but when the movie is in the right setting the look of this one really struts its stuff in this transfer. This is a great way to cap off what is overall a great set from Via Vision Entertainment.

Extras

– Audio Commentary with David Cronenberg
– Interviews with David Cronenberg
– Documentary: “The Directors” David Cronenberg

Quality of Transfer: 90%