There’s really no other way to say this except bluntly: “Rabid” is fucking fantastic.
The Soska Sisters, Jen and Sylvia, have done right by David Cronenberg, and by their fans. But more so, they have taken body horror to a new level in a way that even I was not expecting.
When it sticks the landing, which is often, “Rabid” delivers one of 2019’s brightest, most satisfying genre experiences.
The characters feel real. There’s a depth and purpose to the story that manages to transcend a few brief blips of muddled exposition in the third act (more on that shortly). And Laura Vandervoort, in the lead role as Rose, is nothing short of a revelation. Seriously, it’s one of the best performances I’ve seen all year.
Excuse me while I pump my fist like a true film geek.
As someone who has, excuse the pun, rabidly followed the Soska Sisters since their 2009 debut, “Dead Hooker in a Trunk,” I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for them to achieve the kind of mainstream acclaim that they deserve. No lie, I would put them right up there with Quentin Tarantino, Joe Begos and S. Craig Zahler. They’re just that good at transforming genre cinema into art.
Taking on Cronenberg’s 1977 classic, his second feature that helped lay the foundation for his reputation as a master of body horror, might have seemed on its face like a big swing, and big swings can sometimes produce bigger strikeouts.
But damn if the Terror Twins didn’t just crush it, they completely changed the game.
“Rabid” takes Cronenberg’s framework and wholly reimagines Rose’s story, using current gender politics and the #MeToo movement as a springboard. An argument could be made that much of the film plays like a personal response to anyone who thinks women should just look pretty and not flex their creative muscles in the typically male-centric horror genre.
Rose is a fashion designer working for Gunter (Mackenzie Gray), a mean-spirited egomaniac who delights in cutting his subordinates down to size with vicious barbs.
Early on, “Rabid” distinguishes itself by showing how all the men in Rose’s life casually diminish and dismiss her professional aspirations. One such person is Brad (Benjamin Hollingsworth), a photojournalist who fancies Rose, despite breaching her personal space and putting his hands on her simply because he thought that’s what she wanted.
When Rose confides in a moving soliloquy that all she’s ever wanted to be is a fashion designer because it allows her to not only create beautiful art, but also to inspire other introverts to find their courage and voice, Brad’s response is callous and cold.
Everything changes once Rose is involved in a horrific accident. The reveal, in particular, of the ghastly scars and flayed flesh across her face is incredibly powerful. It’s impossible to overstate how good the practical special effects are throughout “Rabid.”
Rose receives an invitation to receive a free experimental skin graft procedure at the Burroughs Clinic, which specializes in cutting-edge regenerative medicine.
The sequence spotlighting the procedure by Dr. Burroughs (Ted Atherton) showcases the Soska Sisters’ clear appreciation for medical fetish imagery, but it also marks the first of many seeming homages to other directors and cult films.
As Burroughs and his team enter the operating room in blood-red gowns with just their eyes visible, I couldn’t help but think of the visual kaleidoscope championed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Panos Cosmatos.
“Rabid” is packed with such beautifully twisted and surreal dreamlike moments. Each set is so carefully curated to reflect specific details that you just want to pause the film to take a picture.
Rose’s recovery is remarkable, and remarkably quick, but there are side effects, namely the voracious hunger that knots her stomach and fuels a series of nightmare hallucinations where she stalks, seduces and bites different men.
With each encounter, a virus spreads, leading to a full-on outbreak of mutated rabies that threatens to decimate the city and spread beyond its borders.
As good as “Rabid” is, it’s not perfect, and that’s okay. There are two minor hiccups that thankfully don’t hobble the film’s overall impact.
The first is a brief sequence following Rose’s realization that something is growing inside her. The Soska Sisters shoot the scene from behind Rose’s head, hinting that her face might have blossomed like a Demogorgon, but they never return to that transformation or show it in a full light.
The second involves a bit of muddled exposition during the third act climax when Rose and Brad finally learn the scope of Dr. Burroughs’ medical ambitions. It’s a great sequence that actually recalls the standoff between Herbert West and Dr. Hill in “Re-Animator”; however, it’s loaded with so much pertinent information that it’s almost overwhelming. I only wish some of those details had been doled out sooner.
“Rabid” showcases the many ways that the Soska Sisters have evolved, and improved, as both writers and directors. It’s a film wholly confident with its own artistic vision that respects but doesn’t simply repeat Cronenberg’s original.
More so, it’s breathtaking, beautiful, messy and gleefully gory, sometimes all at once.
I just don’t know how anyone could ask for more.
John W. Allman has spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist and writer, but he’s loved movies his entire life. Good movies, awful movies, movies that are so gloriously bad you can’t help but champion them. Since 2009, he has cultivated a review column and now a website dedicated to the genre films that often get overlooked and interviews with cult cinema favorites like George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell and Dee Wallace. Contact him at Blood Violence and Babes.com, on Facebook @BloodViolenceBabes or on Twitter @BVB_reviews.
This article appears in Dec 12-19, 2019.
