Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 9.0 | 21/34 | David Cronenberg
Starliner Towers, a luxury high-rise modernist apartment a la Mies van der Rohe.
A new couple tours the place, noticing the gun in the guard’s holster.
In unit 1511, Dr. Hobbes strangles Annabelle to death. He takes off her clothes and cuts her open with a scalpel. Smoke bellows from her as he spreads open her abdomen and pours acid into it. He then uses the scalpel to slit his own throat.
Nick grunts in pain as his stomach convulses. His partner checks on him, and he denies any issues. He goes down to 1511 to find Annabelle on the table. He leaves disgusted, alerting no one.
Nick bleeds from the mouth, going into shock. He goes home for the day but vomits blood and something that crawls into the drain.
It’s a parasite. One that Dr. Hobbes gave to Annabelle as an experiment for a parasite replacing a human organ.
Through sexual intercourse, Annabelle gave it to Nick, as well as several other men in the building.
The parasite that Nick vomited into the drain jumps out of a washing machine, burrowing itself into a screaming woman.
She develops an insatiable craving for sex — a sex-crazed zombie.
Despite JG Ballard’s influence on Cronenberg, this has no relationship to High-Rise. It is body horror with sexual overtones, so it fits well within Cronenberg’s prevue.
It isn’t a brilliant horror movie, but the concept is wild and deeply uncomfortable to watch unfold.