Before becoming well known for his "mature" movies, David Cronenberg was the king of the body horror genre; The Fly, Scanners, eXistenZ, Crash, the list goes on. Nobody could turn your stomach quite like he could. Taking up the mantle now is his son Brandon Cronenberg, with his debut feature 'Antiviral'. Brandon proves to be a chip off the old block as this movie turns your stomach and flips your brain at the same time.
Syd (Caleb Landry Jones) is an employee at The Lucas Clinic, a medical facility that harvest any illnesses contracted by celebrities, and then infects their most avid fans with that illness, provided the fan can afford it. However, Syd infects himself with a virus acquired from global superstar Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon), and when Hannah dies, Syd has to find out exactly what it is that killed her before it kills him, too.
Set in a world of pristine, clinical white rooms, with a blaring soundtrack, Antiviral does everything it can do to get under your skin. The idea of celebrity worship gone mad is a fantastic one, and the movie makes the entire surrealist nature of the plot feel all too real. Caleb Landry Jones - who already looks ill and mentally unhinged before the movie gets going proper - is certainly put through the ringer, both mentally and physically. He carries the entire movie all by himself, but can at times be guilty of over-acting.
Despite being completely warped with a high ick-factor and a good dose of pitch black humour, Antiviral never fully becomes the out-and-out horror it should have, falling more into the category of psychological thriller. The message of "Celebrity obsession is creepy" is kind of already a given, and Antiviral is content to hold up a fun-house mirror to the audience and let them see what they want to see. This is not a scary movie to scream along to, but more likely to stay in your thoughts as you go to sleep that night. Also, if you have even the tiniest fear of needles, avoid at all costs!
Showing as part of IFI Horrorthon 2012 (October 25th - 29th).
