It took Canada a long time to start trying to support a film industry but in the late 1960s the Canadian government started the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) which would later become Telefilm Canada. The vast majority of Canadian movies made since then have been with the help of Telefilm. Most of the films I have talked about so far have had some help from Telefilm.
In 1975 David Cronenberg finally got funding from CFDC aka Telefilm to finance his first feature film. Originally titled Orgy of the Blood Parasites, the title was soon changed to Shivers. In the U.S. it was changed to They Came from Within.
Primarily set in an apartment complex, the movie has Dr. Emil Hobbes (Fred Doederlein) creating a new parasite and infecting his mistress with it. The parasite is a combination of aphrodisiac and venereal disease that makes the hosts have an uncontrollable sexual desire and also spread and create new parasites to infect other people.
The parasite is usually transferred through the mouth although any opening in the body will do. The parasites quickly start to infect the residents of the complex. Physician Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton) uncovers Hobbes’ work and tries to stop the infection from spreading.
This is decent and nasty little film from Cronenberg which gained notoriety when an article was written about the film complaining that Canadian tax payers money was used to create the film. The outrage moved to the point that the movie was actually debated in Parliament of Canada.
