Rabid (1977 film)

Rabid is a 1977 body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, and starring Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver, and Howard Ryshpan. The film follows Rose Miller, a woman who, after being injured in a motorcycle accident and undergoing a surgical operation, develops an orifice under one of her arms that hides a phallic/clitoral stinger she uses to feed on human blood, spreading a disease from the Quebec countryside into urban Montreal.

A co-production between Canada and the United States, Rabid was filmed on location in Montreal in the late fall of 1976. Released in Canada in the spring of 1977, the film was a major box-office success, particularly in the United States; the film grossed over $7 million internationally.

Rabid has developed a cult following in the years since its release, and been noted by film critics and scholars for its political themes of societal dissolution in the wake of martial law, echoing the October Crisis of 1970 in Montreal. A remake of the same name, directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska, was released in 2019.