Shivers
High Rise was such a potent book for me. I think my Ballard interest (and my Burroughs interest) definitely inform why Cronenberg has a deep resonance with me. This is a mutation of High Rise. Sure, it’s 50s sci-fi and exploitation cinema inserting themselves and Ballard’s structural classism is jettisoned. Whatever your job, you live in the building where the parasite research is happening just like you live near the nukes and the infectious disease labs and the military bases and the AI data centers and so on.
Did the Leo snap seeing David crash through the bamboo hall.
I don’t think any other movie has done the “just succumb” ending - including Together and Midsommar and The Witch - in quite the same indelible way. Like I don’t think there’s a movie that makes me feel like this. It’s just one of my favorites. And they just drive away like it was a swingers retreat and not the end of The Thing. JAZZ,
An important part of the movie is the joy of a pastrami sandwich in one hand and a great pickle in the other. One bite of each. Don’t need brains slugs for that. How about the pickle? It’s huge!
They wanted Demme to direct this. Insane.