The Shivers (1998)

The Shivers
Title Card for the film The Shivers
Directed by	Todd Sheets
Produced by	Brian Eklund Todd Sheets
Written by	Todd Sheets
Starring	Rico Love Antwoine Steele Nick Stodden
Running time	117 Minutes
Country	USA
Language	English

For other uses of the word Succubus, or movies involving Succubi, see Succubus (disambiguation).

The Shivers is a 1998 American independent horror movie. The film is directed and written by Todd Sheets. In this movie, one character credited as a Succubus appears, as well as a pair of Devil girls.

Overview

• Title: The Shivers
• Director: Todd Sheets
• Writer: Todd Sheets
• Runtime: 117 Minutes
• MPAA Rating: R - Sexual Situations, Horror and Violence
• Release Date: 1998
• Genre: Horror

Cast

Actor / Actress	Role
Rico Love	Rudy
Antwoine Steele	Montel
Nick Stodden	Jesse
Jenni Geigel	Phoenix
Ruth Adams	Sarah
Jolene Durrill	Beth
Abe Dyer	Kenny
Lyla Johnson	Ronnie
Byron Nichodemus	Mr. Carpenter
Rod Will	Joe
Becky Stodden	Colleen
Brenna O'Brien	Skylar
Pat Stodden	Ebon Dread
Rachel Wintermeyer	Jodie
Jerry Norris	Pappy the Bum
Blake Washer	Shadow King
Steve Williams	Evil Dentist
Robert Greenwood	Cart Pusher Ghost
Mary Beth Slowinski	Succubus
Sam Bliss	Evil Alley Kid
Nicole Murray	Demon Girl #1
Sasha Bowick	Demon Girl #2

Critical Review

The following review is taken from the iMDb link in the external links below

• Too ambitious for a micro-budget film
• Reviewed On:21 March 2000
• Reviewed By: JHC3

A group of young adults decides to gather in the abandoned home of Ebon Dread, a man with a very dark reputation. The house itself is rumored to be haunted. Soon, through paranormal means, the house becomes sealed and the would-be partiers find themselves fighting for their lives against the horrors from beyond. The Shivers features lots of fairly competent gore effects, protracted scenes of torture, the expected horror film violence, almost universally poor acting, and grating dialogue. The computer animation effects are at best primitive.

Okay, so its easy to trash a micro-budget film and that is not my intent here. Unlike some, I don't watch films of this type in order to pick them apart and gripe about them. Though I wasn't particularly thrilled with this one, I believe that it may be worth the time of die-hard fans of this genre. The cast and crew certainly appear to be having a good time making this and I always find that to be a plus, even when the final result is less than entertaining. An additional plus is that some of the flashback sequences look reasonably good (considering the budget) and are done in black and white. Even better, the VHS tape I saw was in widescreen format.

One gripe must be expressed, however. Extensive dedications were given in the closing credits, paying homage to such names as Fred Olen Ray, Lucio Fulci, and H. G. Lewis, all prominent names in the gore genre. However, the centerpiece of the horror of this film appears to be Cthulhu and the related extradimensional horrors that were the creation of American writer H. P. Lovecraft. As far as I could tell, no dedication or credit was provided to him despite the blatant use of and reference to his creations.

If I had to point to one basic flaw with this film as a whole, it is that the filmmakers were too ambitious. They invested a lot of time and effort (and probably funds) in unconvincing computerized special effects that were more a distraction than anything else. The storyline itself is rather sweeping and should (IMHO) have been more concise and streamlined.

External Links

• The Shivers at the IMDb