Rabid - The Roaring Death

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Movie
German title Rabid - The Roaring Death
Original title Rabid
Country of production Canada
original language English
Publishing year 1977
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (re-examination)
Rod
Director David Cronenberg
script David Cronenberg
production John Dunning
music Ivan Reitman (musical supervision)
camera René Verzier
cut Jean LaFleur
occupation

Rabid - The roaring death (Original title: Rabid , German alternative title: Raid of the devilish beasts and Rabid - Pray that it doesn't happen to you ) is a Canadian feature film by David Cronenberg from 1977 . In this horror film borrowed from the science thriller, Marilyn Chambers plays a young woman who falls victim to a medical experiment and causes a rabies epidemic through a penis-like organ that grows in her armpit as a result . Together with Parasiten-Mörder (1975) and Die Brut (1979), Rabid Cronenberg's contribution to the subgenre of Venereal Horror (in German: Sexual Horror) forms.

action

The young couple Rose and Hart have a serious traffic accident with their motorcycle. The two are rescued and taken to the nearby Keloid Clinic, a plastic surgery institute . While Hart was only slightly injured, Rose was seriously injured. Dr. Dan Keloid, the director of the clinic, decides to use a high-risk new treatment method on Rose. It removes your healthy tissue, which is then “morphogenetically neutralized” by canceling the programming of the cell nucleus so that it can replace destroyed tissue elsewhere with great adaptability. Keloid accepts the risk of uncontrolled overgrowth of the untested graft . After weeks in a coma, Rose wakes up and appears to have recovered. It soon turns out that she is no longer able to eat normal food, but has to feed on the blood of other people, which she sucks out of her victims by means of a newly formed penis-like organ in her armpit. Her first victim is a fellow patient whom she seductively lures at first, only to then attack him in her blood lust. Another patient becomes her next target, and finally Dr. Keloid itself. It turns out that their victims develop a rabies-like disease that turns them into uncontrollable monsters who transmit the disease through bites; the clinic is falling into chaos.

Frightened by her mutation, Rose flees towards Montreal to find her boyfriend, Hart. A farmer and a truck driver become their next victims along the way. The epidemic spreads, Montreal falls into a state of emergency and the military is mercilessly hunting down the infected. Meanwhile, Rose in Montreal, suffering from withdrawal symptoms, is looking for more victims, but refuses to believe that she is responsible for the rampant epidemic. She struck gold in a shopping center and in a porn cinema ; the men seduced by her there become further carriers of the infection. Hart, who, together with Keloid's business partner Murray Cypher, suspects that Rose is the source of the epidemic, sets out to find her. He finds her when she has just attacked her best friend Mindy in desperation. Hart makes it clear to her that she is the source of the plague, but Rose knocks him down. In a self-experiment, she wants to clarify whether she really causes the disease. She draws blood from a young man and waits for him to fall ill. In fact, he is attacked by the plague and attacks Rose. You can see her lifeless body lying in the middle of garbage in a backyard. Men in protective suits transport their bodies in a garbage truck.

History of origin

David Cronenberg in 2002, 26 years after making Rabid

Cronenberg's previous film Parasite Murderer was panned by the specialist press and the public as "perverted" and "tasteless". Working on a new film project therefore turned out to be difficult for Cronenberg. The state-owned film funding organization Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) was reluctant to help fund another film, despite the success of Parasite Killer. Together with the production company Cinepix , Cronenberg worked out a script called Mosquito . As a modern vampire, a woman was supposed to infect an entire city with an epidemic after a failed medical attempt. In the course of his preparations, Cronenberg also attended a three-hour operation by a plastic surgeon. As his work progressed, Cronenberg feared that the story he had invented would not be viable as a basis for a film and that he would make a fool of himself with the audience. However, Cronenberg's producers John Dunning and Ivan Reitman tried to allay his concerns and helped bring the script into a filmable form. The CFDC finally agreed to indirectly fund the film. By funding a group of two or three films at a time from a single budget , she always had the option of denying direct funding from Rabid when in doubt.

Cronenberg wanted Sissy Spacek for the female lead , who had just celebrated her first successes in Badlands - Shattered Dreams . Reitman and Dunning turned down the American because of her freckles and her Texan accent. Reitman came up with the idea of ​​hiring Marilyn Chambers, who was already an established porn actress and showed an interest in starring in a non-pornographic film. His plan was to be able to better market the film worldwide with the additional attraction of a well-known porn star as the leading actress. The filming took place from November 1, 1976 to December 5, 1976 in Montreal and the surrounding area. Cronenberg describes working with Chambers as difficult. Through her involvement in business in Las Vegas together with her then husband and manager Chuck Traynor , he found her charisma to be tough and already drawn from life, while he actually wanted to make her role more innocent and naive. Ultimately, however, he was quite pleased with her acting qualities due to the hard work she put into the film.

reception

Publication, Market Success, and Contemporary Criticism

The first performance of the film was on April 8, 1977. In the Federal Republic of Germany it was shown on June 24, 1977. On a budget of Can $ 530,000, Rabid grossed $ 7,000,000 at the box office, making it the first film to make a profit for the CFDC. Unlike parasite killers , the film did not attract any public attention, but was favorably received by critics and the genre's fan base. Cronenberg suspects that the reasons were “that society had developed further at that time.” Jill McGreal sums up: “From the appearance of Rabid, the imagery and content of Cronenberg's films aroused more enthusiastic reviews than provincial moralization, and especially in The director has a steadily growing fan base in France and Great Britain. "

In Germany, however, the lexicon of international film judged quite negatively: “The technically well-made horror shocker by cult director David Cronenberg monotonously links the same effects to one another, whereby the tension suffers. The absurd story is so exaggerated that it almost seems parodic. "

Awards

Rabid won awards for Best Screenplay (David Cronenberg) and Best Special Effects ( Al Griswold ) at the Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya

Film studies assessment

Edward R. O'Neill states that Rabid forms with Parasite-Murderer and The Brut “a uniform triptych in which Cronenberg creates metaphorical mutations in the human body that destroy the self-control of the individual, just as they subsequently threaten to tear entire society apart. " Grünberg judges the film, he claims " the universe of Val Lewton , full of subliminal sex and horror, only made visible in the shadows. Or that of Herschell Gordon Lewis , a downright bloodthirsty but paradoxically more innocent world, invented to seduce teenagers into petting in drive-in theaters . ” Cronenberg used the film “ to smuggle in some of the main themes of underground film : orgies, sexual liberation, the art of contamination and viral infection as William Burroughs likes, criticism of urban planning, etc. ”. The film is one of the “eccentric, unclassifiable works” of Cronenberg, “as if it were shooting in a foreign language.” Beard emphasizes the aspect of portraying a battered creature: “One of the things that Cronenberg's work (...) of its genre - What distinguishes conspecifics is the fact that it represents something other than just a spectacle of desire and horror, namely a (...) perspective of human sadness and human suffering. "

Film analysis

Staging

Visual style

With more numerous and more opulent locations, Rabid offers a significantly higher viewing value than its predecessor films. Beard notes that the underlying locations of the mise-en-scène , such as the clinic and the shopping center, “create an ironic contrast between the expression of a society that thinks it is in control and the chaotic signs that this order is in reality very uncertain “ Offered. Cronenberg's "growing skills as a filmmaker," would find expression in visual details like the staged to an assault scene yellow-white abstract painting that by a red smears of blood "to a new abstract work of art that now expresses the true conditions better than before" will, . The work of art of a split head in another scene also works in the same way, which, according to Beard , embodies “the vision of man as a schizoid creature whose head lies in battle with the body and yet is inescapably connected to it” .

dramaturgy

Beard states that Rabid offers "the brisk fun of a well-told story." The action scenes are staged "with great finesse and self-control" , and he considers the spectacular car accident shown to be "a perfect delicacy of the action cinema." Cronenberg makes extensive use of the tension the means of parallel assembly. In doing so, the director integrates several subplots into the film's “apocalyptic macrostructure”, according to Riepe , “whose systematics Cronenberg cleverly unfolds in a tense and dramatic way” . The futile mutual search of Rose and Hart is the "dramaturgical bracket" of the film, in which, for example, the story of Murray Cypher is integrated, who, as a loving family man at the beginning of the film, has to experience the violent dissolution of his family structure by the end of the film finds his dead baby.

The repeatedly inserted radio announcements and television reports function as a leitmotif , which ironically contradicts the plot. Beard explains that Cronenberg's "sharp irony, his sardonic sense of humor" creates a narrative escalation in the film that "arises from a crazy exaggeration of ordinary situations and the contrast between 'normal' and 'sick'" . As an example, he cites the scenes when one of Rose's victims in a fast food restaurant rushes first on a roast chicken and then on the other restaurant guests, or when Santa Claus falls victim to a military operation in a shopping center and is mowed down by machine gun salvos.

According to Rodley, however, Cronenberg's "tendency to cut excessively during the editing process" also leads to narrative omissions that can lead to problems of understanding for the viewer. The origin of the new organ in Rose's armpit remains unexplained, as Cronenberg's scissors fell victim to a scene in which Kelloid tells a nurse that the new tissue should grow to replace Rose's destroyed intestine. Cronenberg later admitted: “That was a mistake. It would have made a simple, rational explanation for people to understand. Even the audience who liked the film asked: 'What kind of thing was that?' ” Beard also criticizes “ the not completely satisfactory performance ” . Chambers and her teammates had "a number of weak and unconvincing moments."

Themes and motifs

sexuality

Marilyn Chambers in 2005, 29 years after making Rabid

Sexuality, its change through external influences and the swap of sexual roles play an important role in Rabid . Beard calls this dominant motif “crossing sexual boundaries.” In the game with the violation of sexual conventions, the film can initially be placed in a voyeuristic context, just like the porn film uses. Kauffman explains: "You could say (...) behind the story of Rabid (in which the vampire is a phallic woman) lies the story of Deep Throat (which is also about a genital in the wrong place)." Rose's new Organ transforms them into "sexual aggressors" according to Kauffman and destabilizes "all of our well-guarded concepts of stability of sex and gender." Beard notes that all of Rose's attacks have "consistent, but often unacknowledged sexual undertones." First the metanarative fact that Rose is played by the porn star Marilyn Chambers, sexualized her actions for good. Beard explains : “From a diegetic point of view, Rose is basically innocent, suffering, and pitiful. Seen beyond the diegetic, Marilyn Chambers is wreaking havoc with her terrifyingly powerful sexuality. ” Seeßlen explains that actress Chambers was “ made for the role that needs sexual experience as an essential elixir of life, and not just that crosses one or the other limit, but can never really achieve satisfaction. The use of your body always happens close to the pain; an indestructible masculine element characterizes their appearance ” . Kauffman sees Rabid as “the parable about the revenge of a porn queen.” The seductive beginning of her attacks would arouse expectations of heterosexual male viewers, which are then not fulfilled, but turned into the opposite: the seduced victims perish in the seduction. Beard confirms: "Sexual voyeurism and sexual fantasy are not only excluded, but explicitly rejected and punished." Kauffman explains that Rose returns "the male lustful look with the cold stare of Medusa ."

Medicine and science

As is often the case in Cronenberg's oeuvre, in Rabid the theme of mutating sexuality is embedded in a medical background. Riepe notes that “Cronenberg is using science fiction to anticipate stem cell research , which is so hotly debated today .” For Kauffman in Rabid, medicine and medical research are “a perverse inoculation that tries to control the body.” Cronenberg investigates “ their influence on our psychosexual basic structure " , failed medical research changes " the sexuality of his characters (...) fundamentally. "

According to Riepe, the fact that Keloid does not act out of dark motives in his attempt to save life, but at most out of scientific vanity, leads to a “radicalization of the mad scientist motive.” He explains: “The mistake that Keloid is made in Rose's rescue does not work to the account of a moral weakness, it lies in the system of science itself or its application to humans ”. For Humphries, however, the figure of the keloid is not to be blamed; he extends the vampiric motif to him and his scientific hubris: “Rose, the heroine / victim of the film, is transformed into a vampire who feeds on new victims, just as the plastic surgeon feeds on her in the name of progress and Science feeds. "

Social Criticism and Nihilism

Humphries analyzes that Rabid depicts "the fate of a woman in an arrogant man's world" and draws comparisons to The Night of the Living Dead , in which the hero, as an African American, is also socially disadvantaged, just like Rose not only against rampant horror, but also society falls victim to who does not protect him. Kauffman states that Rabid plays “in the main squares of consumer culture” , including a shopping center and a cinema. The sexual undertones would thereby be associated with aspects of consumption. She explains: "Sex is just a commodity (...), the consumers are cannibals and civilization is just a thin cover-up" . Humphries adds that the type of seduction shown in the context of consumer society reflects "the quality of capitalism (...) to transform every person and every object, even a concept like sexuality into a commodity."

Under the conditions of such a dysfunctional society, the film inevitably leads to the death of the protagonist. Rose ends up like garbage, "her body as stiff as a mannequin, a sex toy, a Barbie doll " in a garbage truck. There are no social mechanisms that could have saved them. She finds, according to Kauffman, "no immunity, no transcendence (...), but only total negation" . In this mindset, Cronenberg is in the tradition of Dostoyevsky , Nietzsche , Bataille and Louis-Ferdinand Celine . Humphrey sums up: "There is no hope here, but also no simple pessimism, but rather an unmoved attempt to analyze the social balance of power that led to the tragedy."

Remake

In March 2017 it was announced that Jen and Sylvia Soska were planning to make a remake of Rabid . Paul Lalonde and Michael Walker would act as producers under the direction of John Vidette's Somerville House Releasing . A feature film and a TV series version of the film were planned. In July 2018, production of the remake finally began with the leading actress Laura Vandervoort . The publication took place in 2019.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rodley: p. 51
  2. ^ Rodley: p. 53
  3. ↑ a b Grünberg: p. 40
  4. ^ Rodley: p. 54
  5. ^ Rodley: p. 56
  6. ↑ a b Rodley: p. 57
  7. ↑ Grünberg: p. 34
  8. ↑ quoted in: Grünberg: p. 40
  9. ^ Jill McGreal: Cinema in Canada in: Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (Ed.): History of international film. Publishing house JB Metzler. Stuttgart and Weimar 2006. ISBN 3-476-02164-5 , p. 699
  10. ↑ Rabid - The Roaring Death. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 15, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  11. ↑ Awards for Rabid in the imdb
  12. ^ Edward R. O'Neill: David Cronenberg in: Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (ed.): The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 1996. ISBN 0-19-874242-8 , p. 736
  13. ↑ Grünberg: p. 32
  14. ↑ a b c Beard: p. 52
  15. ↑ a b c d e Beard: p. 69
  16. ↑ a b Beard: p. 70
  17. ↑ Riepe: p. 36
  18. ↑ Beard: p. 68
  19. ↑ quoted in: Rodley: p. 57
  20. ^ Kauffman: p. 118
  21. ↑ a b c Kauffman: p. 123
  22. ↑ Beard: p. 53
  23. ↑ Georg Seeßlen: The pornographic film - From the beginnings to the present. Verlag Ullstein GmbH Frankfurt M./Berlin 1990. ISBN 3-550-06438-1 , p. 331
  24. ↑ Beard: p. 54
  25. ↑ Riepe: p. 33
  26. ^ Kauffman: p. 117
  27. ↑ Riepe: p. 32
  28. ^ Humphries: p. 177
  29. ↑ a b Humphries: p. 174
  30. ^ Humphries: p. 123
  31. ^ Humphries: p. 178
  32. ^ Kauffman: p. 124
  33. ^ Kauffman: p. 124
  34. ^ The Soska Sisters Talk About Their Upcoming Rabid Remake
  35. ^ The Soska Sisters' 'Rabid' Remake Will Have New Perspective, Social Commentary
  36. ↑ Etan Vlessing: 'Code Black' Star Boards Remake of David Cronenberg's 'Rabid' . In: The Hollywood Reporter . July 17, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2018.

literature

  • Chris Rodley (Ed.): Cronenberg on Cronenberg. Faber & Faber London 1997, ISBN 0-571-19137-1 .
  • Linda S. Kauffman: Bad Girls and Sick Boys - Fantasies in Contemporary Art and Culture. University of California Press. Berkley, Los Angeles and London 1998, ISBN 0-520-21032-8 .
  • Reynold Humphries: The American Horror Film - An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press 2002, ISBN 0-7486-1416-8 .
  • Manfred Riepe: Image ulcers - bodies and foreign bodies in David Cronenberg's cinema. Transcript publishing house. Bielefeld 2002, ISBN 3-89942-104-3 .
  • William Beard: The Artist as Monster - The Cinema of David Cronenberg. University of Toronto Press. Toronto, Buffalo and London 2006, ISBN 0-8020-3807-7 .
  • Serge Grünberg, Claudine Paquor (ed.): David Cronenberg - Interviews with Serge Grünberg. Plexus Publishing Ltd. London 2006, ISBN 0-85965-376-5 .

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 30, 2007 .