Rabid (2019)
Rabid lasts too long and the excessive running time means it goes on a couple of unnecessary tangents. You certainly can’t fault it for being ambitious, however. It expands on the ideas introduced in David Cronenburg's original film in a way that makes it unpredictable even if you think you know the story.
Hideously disfigured after a road accident, fashion designer Rose (Laura Vandervoort) undergoes an experimental procedure at the Burroughs Clinic. Her doctor (Ted Atherton) warns the medication may cause violent hallucinations and strange cravings. When Rose begins dreaming of feasting on human flesh, is she losing her mind or did her recovery come at an even greater cost than expected?
If you like gore, Rabid has it in spades. Post-accident, Rose’s mangled visage will have you clutching your stomach. You believe she’d take any kind of procedure, no matter how experimental to get back to looking normal. Want body horror? It’s got that too. Rose’s dreams include everything from phallic tentacles to extra rows of teeth. It's hard to tell where reality ends and her nightmares begin, particularly when the Soska Sisters bring on the picture's striking visuals. The color red is particularly well utilized in the Burroughs Clinic's operating room where the doctors start looking more like cultists than medical professionals. You wonder how much of this is real… or you would in theory anyway. Too many scenes where Rose is absent make it clear she's tied to the mysterious, newly-emerged rabies-like epidemic. Those all tell you without a doubt that what’s happening isn’t just a figment of her imagination, which is a missed opportunity.
Despite realizing early on that (like the original) Rabid is a cross between zombie- and body-horror, most of the dream/hallucination stuff works. The fashion world’s bizarre outfits, the dramatic cinematography, and Laura Vanderboort’s transformation from mousey to blonde bombshell all blend together well. There comes a point, however, where the directors do take things a little too far into the realm of weird. Some of what we see feels as though it’s here just because it was in the original Cronenburg film, not because it actually belongs. On the other end of the spectrum, the ending is too complicated and "out there". A straightforward final note would've worked better, even if it might've felt out of place.
With a plot that sometimes feels unfocused, a couple of broadly painted characters, and a little too much crazy sauce, Rabid has plenty of rough patches but overall the end results are appealing in that "yuck!" kinda way. You keep watching - if only to see just how far things will go. For fans of horror, it’s a nice way to mix things up. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 1, 2020)
