David Cronenberg’s first “important” horror film may now look a little crude, but the obsessions that would colour his later works are already apparent.
The story is centred around a vaguely futuristic high-rise apartment complex where a sex-starved parasite invented by a mad scientist is implanted in a girl’s stomach and gradually works its way through the occupants of the building, transforming them into sex-obsessed zombies.
It’s not exactly subtle, but Cronenberg delights in some stomach-churning imagery and the stark, chilling design would later be revisited in films such as The Fly (1986) and Dead Ringers (1988).
There are no big names in the cast, although horror aficionados will be pleased to see the presence of Hammer stalwart Barbara Steele.
Released in some markets as They Came From Within.
Roger St Luc
Paul Hampton
Rollo Linsky
Joe Silver
Forsythe
Lynn Lowry
Nicholas Tudor
Allan Migicovsky
Janine Tudor
Susan Petrie
Betts
Barbara Steele
Merrick
Ronald Mlodzik
Director
David Cronenberg
