“It has no metaphysics, no philosophy”: The iconic sci-fi horror movie David Cronenberg hates with a passion
Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg has made many transgressive yet beautiful pieces of work, and whether you prefer the twisted eroticism of Crash or his Kafkaesque The Fly, he stands as a master of making audiences uncomfortable by bringing us face-to-face with our own mortality and corporeality.
Body horror aims to unnerve us, to make us feel wholly uncomfortable in our own skin, and it’s this sub-genre, equally loved by many as it is avoided by others, that he pioneered in the 1970s, which coincided with horror’s increasingly popular turn. Horror was getting gorier, but it was also getting more mainstream, and Cronenberg has since come to occupy a curious space within the genre over the years, with few directors who have earned such consistent acclaim and success by making such graphic and controversial films as him.
Two of his greatest achievements in the ‘70s were Rabid and Shivers, which helped to cement him as a horror icon. Praised for his ability to use the genre to explore social issues and themes, from the sexual revolution to the increasing threat of technology, Cronenberg ensured that his movies weren’t just schlocky shock fests designed to make audiences feel sick. He wanted people to walk away feeling equally repulsed in terms of the film’s wider commentary as well as its gory scenes.
The 1970s were a big decade for horror, with the likes of The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween emerging and sparking a phenomenon, and then came Alien in 1979, the directorial debut of Ridley Scott, a sci-fi spin on the genre, with even Scott claiming he essentially wanted it to be a slasher set in space.
Cronenberg did not like Alien, even if it has since become a stone-cold classic, standing as one of the most influential movies ever made. In the years since it was released, and many sequels and prequels later, fans have analysed the movie in every way possible, seeing it as an allegory for themes such as sexual violence, pregnancy, and capitalist control, but to Cronenberg, there was nothing “philosophical” about the movie whatsoever.
In a 1979 interview with Fangoria, he said, “It has no metaphysics, no philosophy. The creature winds up as a man in a crocodile suit who chases a bunch of people around a room. I think that my own films do a lot more in touching a deep-seated nerve, more than the simple reaction that you don’t want a crocodile to eat you. Alien was just a $300,000 B-movie with a $10million budget.”
Of course, many fans would disagree with this sentiment, as Alien is arguably much more than a terrifying Xenomorph picking off crew members one by one until it finally reaches the indomitable Ellen Ripley, and yet, back then, Cronenberg just wasn’t convinced.
“The parasite device isn’t used in a metaphorical way; it wasn’t used to evoke anything. In Alien, John Hurt has the parasite in him, he goes about his business as usual. In Shivers, the parasite stays inside the people and changes their behaviour and their motives. It’s used for something more than simple shock value,” he rallied.
It seems like Cronenberg was suspicious of Alien writer Dan O’Bannon stealing the idea of a parasite from Shivers, which is perhaps why he was so staunchly opposed to Scott’s film. Even in 2015, the filmmaker still had his gripes with O’Bannon and Alien, telling Collider, “The writer of the script, Dan O’Bannon, had seen Shivers, we know that he had seen my movie and, shall we say, appropriated it”.
I don’t think he’s ready to let his personal vendetta slide anytime soon.
