User Reviews

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Having felt that man has not lived up to his potentials since he's restricted by the laws imposed on him by society Dr. Emil Hobbs, Fred Doedrlein, has developed this parasitic type earthworm. The parasite when entering the human body, orally as well as sexually, will cause the person to drop all his or her inhibitions, as well as their pants and skirts, and let it all hang out attacking and raping anyone they come in contact with.

Having implanted his new "invention" on one of his patients Annabelle, Kathy Graham, Dr. Hobbs soon realized that he had created a Frankenstein monster! In a wild frenzy Dr. Hobbs strangled Annabelle in his suite at the Starliner Apartment Complex before , feeling a deep sense of guilt, slitting his own throat.

It turned out to be too late for the guilt-ridden Dr. Hobbs to stop the sexually transmitted plague that he created. It soon becomes evident that the parasite left the dead Annabelle's body and started infecting everyone in the apartment complex. Traveling though the air-condition ducts garbage disposal and plumbing systems of the apartment complex the parasite has easy excess to everyone living there. By the time the movie is over everyone living and working in the apartment complex had become a victim of the attacking parasite.

Both young and old, from pre-teenagers to senior citizens, people that were infected by the parasite became so horny and sexually aroused that they went on a full scale wild orgy by the time the movie ended. These uncontrollable sexual acrobatics not only spilled into the surrounding neighborhoods but city's and towns as well.

Even though the movie "They Came from Within" or "Shivers" was made some five years before the emergence of the deadly AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's its striking similarities to that both sexually and blood transmitted disease is absolutely amazing. The deadly parasite, like the AIDS virus, enters it's victim and causes him or her bodily defenses to totally collapses: It's there where the similarities between the AIDS virus and parasite ends.

The parasite soon causes its infected host to go out looking, like a vampire looking for blood to survive, for new victims and strikes out at anyone uninfected in a wild sexual frenzy. This ends up with the infected person implanting the parasite in his or her victims body to start the whole cycle, person to person transmission, all over again.

The film is a lot like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in that nobody knows who's been infected, like the people who's bodies were taken over by the body snatchers, by the parasite until it's too late.

The resident doctor at the apartment complex Dr. Roger St Luc, Paul Hampton, gets the lowdown to what exactly is going on there from his colleague Dr. Rollo Linsky, Joe Silver. Rollo had been working with the late Dr. Hobbs before he completely cracked up and killed, along with Annabelle, himself. It's later that Rollo himself falls victim to the deadly parasite when he's attacked by Nicholas Tudor, Allan Kolman, a resident at the apartment complex. Tudor had been infected by the parasite when, cheating behind his wife' Janine's (Susan Petie) back, he had a sexual tryst with Annabelle.

Trapped in the complex with its sex-crazed residents trying to both rape as well has induct Roger into their ranks has him make an desperate attempt to escape the fate that awaits him there. Roger tries to cross the causeway, connecting Starliner Island to the mainland, making a wild dash to both freedom safety.

*****SPOILERS****** It's then that Roger realizes just how helpless his both escape attempt and him warning the general public is! The cat, or parasite, is out of the bag, or plumbing system! And with it being able to greatly intensify man's most darkest and suppressed, through laws and religion, thoughts and taboos there's nothing on God's green earth, military medically or psychologically, that can stop it!

Man, what better response to George Romero's newly created zombie archetype could be better? Cronenberg's debut feature, though a little worn around the edges, is a spectacular funhouse, a dire warning, a potent sexualized anxiety creation, and best of all, a whole lotta fun.

The feature starts with an advertisement for a nice, secluded Yuppie apartment complex, sensually (and homoerotically) appealing to live in some paradise high rise removed from the greater degradation of Canadian society. Class, sexuality, fear, and setting are all established in one swift stroke. It's not long before the carnage begins.

See, it seems some mad scientist was using the inhabitants of this virtual Eden to test out some replacement for organ transplants: a parasite that is also "a stimulant and an aphrodisiac". Basically, a person loses a kidney and replaces it with a penis-shaped worm that makes he or she attack and have sex with almost everything in sight... such automatized lust is very zombie-like, but with the added bonus of maintaining language and critical thinking (at least enough critical thinking to not be stopped by doors, for instance). Yesss, it's not long before these worms have burst from the interior of some hapless young man to destroy the entire community into an orgiastic apocalypse.

And seriously, if terms like "orgiastic apocalypse" excite, intrigue, or compel you, this movie is right for your tastes. Cronenberg begins his body horror mentality by mixing sex, death, violence, disease, medicine, and technology at manic levels, something he has continued to do for over thirty years now. The movie is a little different from his usual work in that as an early feature, he used some of the more regular tropes of horror film-making such as monster cam and chiaroscuro (later, he would find he didn't even need these devices as the plots and concepts of his ideas were enough, and most of the horror he'd show would be in a much more direct exposition with much more open and regular spaces). The movie at one point literally becomes a sex/horror fun-house as each door is opened to reveal another act found by the mainstream to be sordid and degraded, from pedophilia to incest to homosexuality and everything in between, the underlying erotic impulses of the community is abjectly revealed.

What's fascinating about this movie is that it's kind of hard, from modern eyes, to see the end result as being too bad of a deal. The troubling part is the sexual violence and the attacks, but once it's all done, it's hard to discern the difference between consensual and exploitative. Do the characters in this movie, upon getting invaded by the worms, start doing things against their will, or do the worms merely excite a repressed desire that they finally act out? "Everything is a sexual act", a nurse says at one point, describing a dream she had to her impotent lover/hero figure. Such a theme will continue through almost everything Cronenberg would later film, as he would become the master of body horror.

--PolarisDiB

This film needed a little more time to bake. Some of the dialogue is weak. Case in point: Rollo Lynsky: "How about that pickle?" (Dr. St. Luc tosses him half-eaten pickle.) Rollo Lynsky: "It's used!" Some characters simply vanish, like the couple at the beginning of the movie (the Svibens); I thought they might return at the end, but after being introduced and appearing to be major characters, they just disappear. The acting also ranges from very good (Susan Petrie) to barely adequate (Paul Hampton, who resembles the love child of David Duchovny and Owen Wilson). Despite the imperfections, I found the film certainly watchable and even enjoyable at times. I'm not a big fan of Cronenberg's body horror, but any movie that features Lynn Lowry in various stages of undress is okay by me.

EEEEW. i admit. i'm 49 years old and afraid of sex. don't ask. it's so sad. this movie scared and nauseated me when i first saw it as a kid back in the 70's. i mean it really freaked me out so bad i sometimes wonder if this film had a hand in making me suspicious of sex. i don't even know why they let me and my brother into the theater in the first place. we didn't have a guardian with us. we saw it on a double bill with 'Rabid' starring Marilyn Chambers. i think we had our dad's permission. or maybe it was just the 70's and nobody really cared.

i remember the first time i saw a porno movie when i was fifteen (it was on an old home movie projector),the first thing that came to mind was this frick'in flick. and i remember getting kind of freaked out. the first time i made out i thought about this movie. man. stuff like this can mess you up if you let it.

when i first started to realize who David Cronenberg was i remembered this weirdo film and was immediately suspicious of him. it took me a while to warm up to him, but now i love Cronenberg films and 'Dead Zone' is one of the best no doubt.

early Cronenberg films explored the subject and nature of sex. 'Within', the memorable 'VideoDrome', and 'The Brood', were all very sexual in nature, if not almost down right dirty. 'It Came From Within' is a film that is about the rational mind at war with the out of control sexual libido.

a lot of people have called me a repressed prude. maybe so. but i know psychology, and i try to keep a open mind. a certain amount of repression is only civilized, but too much repression can drive you to an polar extreme so you should be careful. but sex is a hot potato. this movie is a testament to that.

and after seeing it you may never french kiss anyone ever again.EEEEW.

A virulent strain of ugly and lethal parasites turn the residents of a swanky deluxe apartment complex into depraved sex-crazed fiends. Doctor Roger St. Luc (the hopelessly bland Paul Hampton) and his amiable colleague Rollo Linsky (a wonderfully engaging portrayal by Joe Silver) try to figure out what's going on before it's too late. Writer/director David Cronenberg concocts an unsparingly bleak meditation on the horrors of mankind being reduced to sheer psychotic libido impulses (check out the scene with a homely fat middle-aged woman jumping a younger man while exclaiming "I'm hungry for love!") and does a sound job of creating and maintaining a cold, icky tone which becomes more increasingly creepy and unnerving as the grim narrative progresses towards a wild pull-out-all-the-stops climax which plays like a perverted version of "Night of the Living Dead." The acting is rather hit or miss: Hampton barely registers as the insipid would-be hero, the ever-alluring Lynn Lowry contributes a memorably sexy turn as the enticing Nurse Forsythe, Barbara Steele projects her usual sense of class and commanding presence as poised lesbian Betts, Allan Kolman does well as the infected Nicholas Tudor, and pretty Susan Petrie likewise impresses as Tudor's sweet, distraught wife Janine. Moreover, this picture comes through with several effectively nasty moments: the jolting opening with a deranged old scientist murdering his teenage mistress, cutting opening her abdomen, and pouring acid in her stomach prior to slitting his own throat; Betts being violated by a parasite while taking a bath, a parasite attacking Linsky by attaching itself to his face, and a brief, yet startling shot of two little kids on leashes walking on all fours and barking like dogs. Robert Saad's plain cinematography presents a credible evocation of everyday pedestrian reality while the spare, chilling score does the shuddery trick. Joe Blasco's hideously ghastly and gruesome make-up f/x deliver the disgusting goods. Plus there's a wickedly twisted sense of blithely morbid black humor at work throughout. Not peak Cronenberg, but still worthwhile and engrossing all the same.

Satire on the sexual seventies? Parable on man's growing devotion to science? Simple horror film? It just might be all three. You could also put this in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Living Dead mold, a group that never stops, you either become one or die. However you look at this movie, it is real fun. There are plenty of gore scenes, most featuring strange growths on people. Then, there is also a heaping helping of bare breasts. My favorite scene is where one of the hotel staff tricks a couple into a large room where a parasite orgy is going on. He undresses while sticking out his tongue. Now, that is scary. The sole weakness of the film is that it is seriously dated, some scenes are funny now simply because of people's clothing. But the best joke of the movie is intentional; when sex is the sickness, who doesn't want it?

P.S. They Came From Within is the the best of titles, but It Comes From Within would have been better.