I remember a time when seeing the early works on David Cronenberg was damn near impossible, works like Shivers, Fast Company, even stuff like the Brood and Rabid were difficult to secure in small-town Florida where I was raised. His even earlier more experimental films like Stereo and Crimes of the Future were next to impossible. Even on DVD Shivers got a lackluster short lived released that was next to impossible to find, so when Arrow Video’s initial Blu-ray of that came out, even with it’s minor cuts to the film it was a revelation. Now, we have a legitimate Region A release of the film from Liongate’s revised Vestron Video, uncut, and fully restored, packed with extras and issued at a bargain price, AM I DREAMING?

Shivers doesn’t really have a main character so much it has a main location. The film takes place in a posh “futuristic” apartment building with all the amenities an upscale 70’s family could want. The story takes off when a Doctor kills his female assistant, and it’s discovered that he and she were taken over by parasites that turn them into overly horny homicidal maniacs. These parasites inevitably get around the apartment turning the denizens of this domain to also become a bunch of homicidal horndogs that begin to turn on one another.

Shivers in many ways qualifies as Cronenberg’s “debut” film even though he had already made films like Crimes of the Future at near feature-length. Those films were more on the experimental side, while these films traded in on exploitation elements taking Cronenberg’s vision of cinematic weirdness, and finding away to make it palatable to audiences through the guise of a mix of sci-fi and horror. A style that he would make his own through the next decade.

Shivers like his next 4-5 films would have a raw quality to it, that could liken him to Toronto’s version of George A. Romero especially the 70’s films from Pittsburgh’s horror auteur. The film is also known for being one of Lynn Lowry’s (The Crazies, I Drink Your Blood) most iconic roles, and it is quite easy to see why.

Shivers is presented by Vestron in a solid 1:78:1 1080p transfer. This transfer accurately represents the early Cronenberg aesthetic, but is quite washed out in places, but that’s how it always looked. Detail is solid, and colors are well reproduced. Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA track that sounds excellent and accurately recreates the feel of the film. Extras include 2 commentaries, numerous interviews, trailers and MORE.