shiver start by introduce u and the viewer that be and to starline tower a luxury high rise apartment complex situate on an island . the only access be a bridge connect the island to the near city which happen to be montreal . starline tower be almost totally self contain with it own shop and swim pool and golf course and even it own medical clinic man by dr. roger st. luc ( paul hampton ) and nurse forsythe ( lynn lowry ) . on a seemingly ordinary day like any other something terrible be happen in starline tower and a university professor name dr. emil hobbes ( fred doederlein ) have just brutally kill a young girl whom he be both have an affair with and use a a guinea pig for his bizarre experiment and he slit his own throat shortly after . since he know dr. hobbes dr. st. luc decides to do a little investigating himself and talk to hobbes partner rollo linski ( joe silver ) who say that they be work on breed a parasite that can take over the function of a diseased or damage human organ . meanwhile back at starline tower a resident name janine tudor ( susan petrie ) be worried about her husband nicholas ( allan kolman ) a he seem havery ill which he be . nicholas begin to vomit up leech like creature that then start to bite and infect the other resident of starline tower who in turn go on a violent and sexual deviant rampage a the strange disease carry by these grotesque parasites spread rapidly through starline tower . dr. st. luc and nurse forsythe discover the truth but while it may already be too late for starline tower and it unfortunate resident they must stop the parasite from escape the island and into the city where they will be all but impossible to stop . this canadian produce film also know a the parasite murder and they come from within and both orgy of the blood parasite which would have be a fantastic name for a film and the parasite complex be apparently work title and be write and direct by david cronenberg . shiver be consider to be his first proper film and i personally liked shiver much more than the rest of cronenberg early film like the brood ( 1979 ) and scanner ( 1981 ) for instance . the script move along at a nice pace and i never find it become bore unlike the cronenberg film i have mention . i must also give cronenberg credit for give credibility and substance to a somewhat silly premise a he direct with deadly seriousness . cronenberg throw in all sort of everyday metaphor and message a you would expect and the peril of sleep around ( you may get a parasite which will then possibly go on to infect the entire population of earth . ) and modern scientific technique and human isolation and the danger of take a bath and not notice a large slug like creature crawl towards your private . all of the character be interesting and well flesh out so we actually care for them which help the film enormously . shiver doesn not contain much blood or gore and a few slimy parasite crawl around and the parasite themselves poke around around inside people cause their skin to bulge and a bit of blood be about as graphic a shiver get . technically shiver be a little on the rough side but this be to be expect since it be cronenberg first film and have say that it not badly make but it just not as polish a maybe you might expect from cronenberg . shiver be obviously a low budget film but cronenberg manage to create a film well in style and atmosphere and substance and originality than the mean and tool he have at his disposal would have suggest he could . the acting be pretty good and i suspect we have cronenberg to thank for that and joe silver a rollo linski stand out in particular and dominate every scene he in . overall i enjoy shiver more than much of cronenebrg early film and i would say definitely worth watch for both fan of cronenberg and horror in general .