Rabid

RABID-1977-While a woman named Rose (porn star Marilyn Chambers) is out riding a motorcycle with her boyfriend Hart (Frank Moore), they have a horrendous accident. She is badly burned but fortunately the accident happens right near a clinic where three doctors are working on a new type of plastic surgery. The head doctor (Howard Ryshpan) decides to use his new "radical plastic surgery" on her. A month later she awakens and craves blood because she now has some kind of deadly parasite in her body. She infects several people (2 doctors, a drunk, a woman in a jacuzzi) and soon there is an epidemic of blood thirsty crazy people who foam at the mouth and kill. The head doctor cuts off a nurse's finger during an operation and a woman goes nuts on the subway. Meanwhile, a clinic associate (Joe Silver) and Hart search for Rose who's running around Montreal infecting anyone she comes in contact with. The city is put under martial law and everyone panics. Even a mall Santa Claus gets shot! This movie has it's moments but the Hart's enraged crying scene in the climax really ruins it.

David Cronenberg made this 2 years after the similar THEY CAME FROM WITHIN (which also featured Silver). Like that film RABID  contains strange characters and situations. Perhaps the strangest of all is the casting of Chambers as Rose. Her acting isn't bad. In fact she's a better actor than Frank Moore who portrays her boyfriend! Cronenberg's first choice for Hthe role of Rose was Sissy Spacek. Howard Reitman was an executive producer.

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