a virulent strain of ugly and lethal parasite turn the resident of a swanky deluxe apartment complex into deprave sex craze fiend . doctor roger st. luc ( the hopelessly bland paul hampton ) and his amiable colleague rollo linsky ( a wonderfully engage portrayal by joe silver ) try to figure out what go on before it too late . writer or director david cronenberg concoct an unsparingly bleak meditation on the horror of mankind be reduce to sheer psychotic libido impulse ( check out the scene with a homely fat middle age woman jump a young man while exclaim i be hungry for love . ) and do a sound job of create and maintain a cold and icky tone which become more increasingly creepy and unnerving a the grim narrative progress towards a wild pull out all the stop climax which play like a perverted version of night of the living dead . the acting be rather hit or miss represent hampton barely register a the insipid would be hero and the ever allure lynn lowry contribute a memorably sexy turn a the entice nurse forsythe and barbara steele project her usual sense of class and command presence a poised lesbian betts and allan kolman do well a the infected nicholas tudor and and pretty susan petrie likewise impress a tudor sweet and distraught wife janine . moreover and this picture come through with several effectively nasty moment represent the jolting opening with a deranged old scientist murder his teenage mistress and cut open her abdomen and and pour acid in her stomach prior to slit his own throat while betts be violate by a parasite while take a bath and a parasite attacking linsky by attach itself to his face and and a brief and yet startle shot of two little kid on leash walk on all four and bark like dog . robert saad plain cinematography present a credible evocation of everyday pedestrian reality while the spare and chill score do the shuddery trick . joe blasco hideously ghastly and gruesome make up f or x deliver the disgust good . plus there a wickedly twisted sense of blithely morbid black humor at work throughout . not peak cronenberg and but still worthwhile and engross all the same .