Review: 'Shivers' is the latest Vestron darling

Posted Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 3:14 PM Central

by John Couture

If you've been sleeping under a rock these past few years, you may have missed the exquisite work that Lionsgate is doing under its Vestron Video Collector's Series. The releases were hot and heavy there for awhile, but this week's release of Little Monsters and Shivers are the first two entries in the home entertainment collection in almost two years.

These days boutique labels are as ubiquitous as popup streaming sites, but there have been few more successful in delivering hit after hit as Lionsgate's Vestron Video Series. They are cherry-picking the rich Vestron library and making sure that the releases are jam-packed with goodies before they finally see the light of day.

Many, if not all, of these titles were previously out of print and most of them are made their Blu-ray debuts with the Vestron Video Collector's Series. As a child of the horror heyday of the 1980s, these films were highly sought out in my youth from my local video store, but it's not just nostalgia that is driving their success.

No, these films are iconic in their own right and signify a simpler time in America when gore was great. Business was good and these films helped to shape a world that was just coming to grips with the idea of being able to watch films in the comfort of their homes. Beyond TV, the advent of the home entertainment market drove the success of these types of films and allowed their makers to bone up on their skills on their way to bigger and better things.

One of those filmmakers was David Cronenberg and his feature-length debut Shivers (or They Came from Within) is the latest film to get the Vestron Series treatment.

Shivers is one of those early sexual horror films from 1975 that looked to bridge the gap between exploitation films and true horror films which were about to experience a renaissance. Residents of a luxury apartment complex outside of Montreal are infiltrated by parasites and turned into violent, sex-crazed maniacs.

As a director, David Cronenberg would later go on to give us Scanners, Naked Lunch and The Fly among so many other classics. I was probably introduced to him with The Fly, but I remember making it a priority to rent as many of his films as possible after seeing it.

So, I'm thinking the first time I watched Shivers was when I a newly-minted teen and hormones were raging through my body. In other words, I was the perfect demographic for the lurid tale of gore even if my warped mind wasn't old enough to properly handle it.

Over the years, I would periodically check in on the film and my appreciation for it grew with each viewing. Prior to this review, it has probably been about 20 years since I last watched Shivers and it was beyond time to revisit the movie.

As I fired up the machine to watch Shivers, I was filled with a bit of anxious trepidation as I was concerned that it might not live up to the high acclaim I had given it in my memory. Thankfully, my apprehension was unfounded and while the film certainly took on a much more campy feel with this viewing, it still holds up.

Shivers remains far from perfect, but as a first stab at a feature-length horror film, it really resonates. You can see Cronenberg playing with themes and experimenting with styles that would continue to pop up in his films many years later. It's obvious that beyond the shock and voyeuristic tendencies that were rampant during the mid-1970s, the filmmaker had a passion for his craft and that his best days were ahead of him.

A full forty-five years later, I think it's safe to say that these observations have come true.

As with all Vestron Video Collector's Series releases, Shivers is packed with both new content and legacy bonus features that will satisfy even the most ardent Cronenberg fanatic. The new audio commentary provides a great retrospective of his early work.

The new interviews with Cronenberg, actress Lynn Lowery and Make-up Special Effects guru Joe Blasco give weight the collection and provide great value to the film. There won't be any buyer's remorse with this one.

Lionsgate continues to knock it out of the park with this series and I only hope that we don't have to wait another two years before their next entries.