With this film, Cronenberg began a process of streamlining that
culminated in Dead Ringers. Here porn star Marilyn Chambers is a road
accident victim who undergoes an experimental skin graft procedure
which turns her into a proboscis wielding neo-vampire who leaves her
victims infected with a virus that renders them zombified. Everything
you need to know is there. What happens isn’t half as revealing as how and
why it happens, with Cronenberg typically detached enough to let his
tropes quietly unsettle and unnerve without diminishing the trashy
tone. It is the last film to maintain this balance so perfectly.
