Hellfire Video Club: Viral Pix
Riffing on the topical virus theme for this month’s selections. Three choices from decades past. Imaginary diseases from the venereal, to the mycelial, to the plain old mad.
Matango: Fungus Of Terror
Ishirō Honda, Japan. 1963.
In which a bunch of shipwreck survivors on a deserted island begin to literally turn into the mushrooms they are consuming, then attack one another. An ace Japanese classic from the Godzilla era of allegorical monster movies. A whole heap of diseased fun for mushroom heads everywhere.
Shivers
David Cronenberg, Canada. 1975.
A sexy virus! What could have been the synopsis for a million and one porn knock-offs quickly veers into madder territory, after said virus mutates. First physically manifesting as a crawling turd-like, diseased organ which transfers via lustful contact, before turning its carriers into gibbering sex-crazed psychotics with a primal, murderous bent. Alternately funny, disturbing, smart AND daft, here’s a prime pick from the very start of Cronenberg’s legendary run of ‘body-horrors’.
The Carrier
Nathan J. White, USA. 1988.
As far as infection movies go, this is pretty strange: Dude contracts mystery disease that causes any object he touches to devour people… this leads to people getting eaten by books, lamps etc. The obvious next step is armed gangs dressed in bin bags hoarding cats (!?). Oddly this film manages to be both highly daft and a bit of a downer. Worth seeking out.
