Shivers was the first David Cronenberg movie to put him on the map as the master of ‘body horror’.

It has a lot of his tropes in place – a chilly Canadian setting, weirdly named mysterious doctors, and a fair selection of truly gross-out moments (see his later Rabid, Scanners etc).

The movie was also known as The Parasite Murders, given the plot involves parasites (which look a lot like turds) invading the bodies of residents at an upmarket apartment block, from where they are spread by sex. There’s a gruesome scene involving 60s horror icon Barbara Steele being penetrated in a bath-tub and suitably nihilistic ending. All in all, not one for the kids – it remains a hard watch – both disturbing and deeply unpleasant. 

This is the great French original release ‘moyenne’ poster, which I sold recently. The title there directly translated to “Frissons”.