Antiviral (2013)

Thanks for the memories!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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.

In the future, companies make bank by injecting people with the viruses contracted by their most revered super-celebrities, in a twisted effort to become closer to their idols. A tech at one of these companies also smuggles the fresh virii out of his building by injecting himself; trouble arises when the celebrity unexpectedly dies, leaving the staffer little time to learn what went wrong before he suffers the same fate.Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) is that tech, Syd. He's got a pretty sweet gig, selling the virii he harvests to pirates who then alternately inject people with the virus (for a nice price) and grow the equivalent of steaks - really! - with the pathogens for their customers' dining pleasure. How does he do this? Volume! No, actually, what the company does is inject the virus into a machine that essentially copy protects the virus, making the virus proprietary. His company, the Lucas Clinic, is contracted to take blood from dying celeb Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon), and Syd injects himself and quickly becomes disoriented, weak, and feverish. When Syd attempts to remove the copy protection by using his own machine, the console is destroyed.It is a story that shines a bright, infected light on society's devotion to all things celebrity. How far would a superfan go to be a part of a famous person's life? Would they infect themselves with noncontagious herpes? Chew on a regrown kidney? You know something...I think they would, at least the more deranged and sociopathic fans. Such a connection is exponentially stronger than a simple autographed photo. You've not just been recognized by them; you are part of them.The director is one Brandon Cronenberg, son of David, and the son has the same predilection for the macabre as the father. The obsession with celebrities, all too apparent in real life, is shown to be pretty normal in the film's fictional universe, and yet the horror of playing with the fire of fast-spreading pathogens undercuts this seeming normalcy with an almost Jones' Syd pretends to be just another hustler, but he's really as demented as his customers (and clients). Jones plays Syd perfectly as a shady, somewhat-sullen man of little distinction; also noteworthy are Joe Pingue as Arvid (employee of the celebrity meat market), Wendy Crewson as the head of a rival pathogen company, and Malcolm McDowell, playing yet another doctor, this time with skin grafts from his favorite celebrity.Antiviral is a horror mystery, with buckets of blood and oodles of intrigue. It's a creepy allegory of man's lust for fame of any kind, viewed through a prism of late-1980s Canadian horror. It's a fine, engrossing film.

If you are willing to believe that any kind of dystopian future could produce a society of celebrity fans so enthralled with their idols that they are willing to pay dearly to contract even the fatal diseases of said celebrities, this movie could be worth your while. Unfortunately, I am neither willing nor able to swallow this premise, which is utterly ludicrous. Lots of crazy things constitute the real phenomena of mass idol worship, but none of them come close, or are ever likely to approach, worship in the form this movie bases its story on. Eating steaks produced by the cloning of a star's genetic material? COME ON!Therefore, this very commendable effort, utilizing some state of the art magic and talent, has a fatal flaw, which none of that magic or talent can overcome. I could not escape the feeling of utter ridiculousness and disbelief, and I don't believe the movie-going public is likely to either.In short, Antivirus says nothing to us of any value to us, either as we are, or as we are ever likely to be.

If you have not seen this movie; you missed out on the future of adult themed movies. This is a legacy of a great director. David Cronenberg has been one of my favorite directors; and now his son is too.Is this the future of fans or just a nightmare? Or both? Disgusting at times. Isn't all idol worship disgusting? A fine line for mentally challenged people; for sure.I love the David Cronenberg type effects through out the movie. Sometimes the fake effect beats out the computer effect. This movie is a great example of that.I am looking forward to seeing more movies from this great director.