NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast
Episode 94: Vicious Virus Videos: Shivers, The Crazies (1973), and Mayhem.
Vicious Virus Videos: Shivers, The Crazies (1973), and Mayhem
November 14, 2022
Outbreak films have been around as early as the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to say the very least, but most of these features focus on humanity being absolutely lost. Lost via body theft by aliens or demons. Individuality vanished due to a disease taking over the body and conscience. What happens when a virus removes your inhibitions and replaces it with madness? Cool Movies Darth investigates this idea as presented in the 1970s and the 2010s by reviewing Romero's "The Crazies", Cronenberg's "Shivers", and Joe Lynch's "Mayhem".
Allow me to get out of third-person. Are we happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CM Darth) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective.
My introduction to horror movies as art came with Dario Argento. With his greatest works being associated with the 1970s, it was not much a stretch to find myself being fascinated by the ideas of his legendary friend George A. Romero. As I am discovering these artists, Cronenberg was making waves with his relatively down to Earth features "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises". Obviously, this Canuck gained my attention if wanting to see the film with the most famous exploding head was not enough.
There was also the release of Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later", but Boyle narratives got a little long in the tooth after the success of "Trainspotting". Fortunately, I have seen another member of the Great North get inspired by that "zombie" film, so do not hold it against me not covering the Rage virus in this episode.
When it comes to zombies, of course I have seen all of Romero's films about the undead. But surely there is more than that when it comes to the auteur. "Bruiser" was fun, but it does not make a case for him having range. Fortunately, "The Crazies" received a remake in 2010. Gut reaction is to consider that an insult. To make sure of that, the original has been on my queue for a while.
A pathogen driving people crazy, I knew that was the plot of "Shivers" and that brings us to why I got around to this feature (aside from viewing it for the "Gen X and Scorsese V. Millenials and Marvel" episode with ThePoeticCritic). When I think back to "28 Days Later", the realization that there are two extremes to viral madness. The sides are excessive violence or excessive sexuality. Inhibitions stop those from occurring.
So the narrative of this blog post should end with Rob Jabbaz's "The Sadness" where the violence and sex intermingle, but that is for next weeks episode. Plus, I feel I got to add some genuine fun into this episode. You can enjoy the ride that are "The Crazies" and "Shivers", but they are not meant to receive out loud laughter. "The Sadness" may also still be to serious for its own good.
Gregory Carl will return to "NinetyForChill" next week to discuss this crescendo. So to get my relatively guilt-free kicks in, I got around to "Mayhem". Samara Weaving has been a sign of great sub 100-minute cinema on this podcast, and I wanted to see the office place purge film that "The Belko Experiment" sold itself as. It did not disappoint.
With all this said, the next episode that I need a guest for will need to be recorded by December 4th, 2022. There are not too many Christmas movies, so I do not expect anyone too feel restricted to a seasonal theme. The Twitter migration to Mastodon is not as grand as Neil Gaiman has implied, so I need to call for assistance on any platform I can find.
Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.
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