Antiviral (2013)

Honestly, don't bother unless you enjoy constantly seeing shots of needles inserted, blood, and sickly looking people. That is all the movie will deliver; the only emotional response it will invoke is disdain. No matter how interesting the concept may seem, this movie doesn't do it justice.Things going for it: A novel concept. A few artistic scenesOn the other hand, it fails to fully exploit the concept, and the aforementioned scenes seem randomly inserted into the film with no real connection to the plot. With no background history provided, it is impossible to understand the world view of the characters, and thus impossible to form an emotional connection/emphasize with them. The sickly and gross scenes make you feel ill, but without any titillation, they literally just make you feel yuck. On top of it all, the movie often feels slow, and you wonder why you are watching it. How that can possibly happen with such a novel concept I don't know.Really, I can't recommend it. It doesn't do the concept justice. It doesn't do cinema justice. It is a struggle to keep watching it - reading the Wikipedia entry is more rewarding; writing this review was more enjoyable. The director obviously has a creative mind, and some technical ability, but he has utterly failed to combine them in production.Just. Don't. Bother.

Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) works for Lucas Clinic which buys viruses from celebrities to be injected into obsessed fans who are willing to pay. They have exclusive rights to celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) which is very popular. Then he harvests and injects the Geist sample into himself. Others like celebrity butcher Arvid replicates celebrity cells and sells them as meat. Hannah Geist dies and Syd starts to get sicker.This is a great idea for an original indie. The script needs a few more passes to elevate the tension and add some thrills. The idea seems to be all there is in this movie. It's not particularly exciting. It also needs a section at the beginning to do an exposition on what the products are about, the science behind it and the legal ramifications. Brandon Cronenberg should have made a fake TV ad for the product. It's also probably important to bring in the law early to explain the legal world these products exist in. I love the machine that he gets hooked up to. It's definitely has the Cronenberg style. However the movie lacks any energy. It's creepy but not much more than that. I like the weird creepiness. I'm just waiting for Brandon to take it to the next level.

Back in the eighties, writer/director David Cronenberg delighted (and disgusted!) audiences with his weird and horrific visions of technology merging with human flesh. Now, some years later, his son, Brandon Cronenberg, is doing much the same thing.Antiviral is about a world where (believe it or not) the population can buy illnesses that have once infected the celebrity of their choosing, so they can be ill like their idol! It's certainly a different type of film when you compare it to those other 'horror' movies of today, however, it's probably more at home with Cronenberg Senior's work back in the eighties. At first it took me a while to get into. I, a horror fan, didn't realise quite how much I'm used to 'horror' simply being a man in a mask slicing up overly-attractive teenagers. Therefore, I found this a little slow at first. However, I'm glad I persisted.It certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea. It's very slow-moving and the characters do tend to mumble a lot (I have to admit I was turning the volume up on many an occasion). Yet it has its own sick charm, helped in the most part by the lead character. He's certainly not your average hero. In fact, he's horrible and you won't have that much sympathy for him at the best of times as he steals and infects himself with celebrities' viruses. The lead actor is truly creepy in himself. Once you've seen him walk through a door, you'll know what I mean. He just has a way of doing it that spells out 'weirdo.' There are a few - not many, but a few - horrific moments that are not for the squeamish, but Antiviral's strong-points are not its gore, but its atmosphere. It is truly a dystopian world we're witnessing and there's more than a few social digs at our culture's obsession with celebrities.I find it hard to recommend to people in general. I would only say that if you've seen David Cronenberg's work and enjoyed it, then you should like this. However, I can see plenty of people finding this slow and boring (I did find it slow in parts).A good film...if you know what you're getting.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans.Syd also supplies illegal samples of these viruses to piracy groups, smuggling them from the clinic in his own body. When he becomes infected with the disease that kills celebrity Hannah Geist, Syd becomes a target for collectors and rabid fans. He must unravel the mystery surrounding her death before he suffers the same fate....Coming from a Cronenberg, it's pretty certain that this film is going to involve some disturbing imagery, and bizarre content, and this doesn't fail on any level regarding this.It takes body horror not literal, but it does have that element of body image in the narrative. What the film does deal is the obsession of celebrity, and the lengths people will do to be like their favourite celebrity.Even eating the celebrity...The film is very sanitised, and Jones is wonderful, as the man who is literally carrying a disease and his physical transformation throughout the movie is quite spectacular.All in all, it does owe a lot to Cronenberg Sr., especially his early works, but it's a wonderfully bonkers concept, and it works...