Antiviral – The TL;DR Review
Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral takes us into a near-future where celebrity obsession becomes a literal disease. Fans don’t just idolize, they inject viral samples from their favorite stars and devour lab-grown celebrity meat. It’s sterile, disturbing, and plausible enough to be terrifying.
Caleb Landry Jones is perfect as the sickly Syd March, an employee at a clinic peddling famous infections. When he contracts something deadly from a mega-star client, things spiral into biotechnical madness.
Visually, it’s clean and clinical. Emotionally, it’s cold and punishing. The pacing? Glacial. But if you’ve got the patience, the payoff is an unnerving critique of fame culture and our willingness to suffer for proximity to it.
Fans of Black Mirror, Possessor, and high-concept body horror, this one’s for you. Everyone else? Bring caffeine.
Extended Review
Antiviral (2012) is the first feature film from Brandon Cronenberg, the aspiring young director that is extending his families legacy in the body horror genre. Brandon is also responsible for the Possessor (2020) and Infinity Pool (2023); both of which are fantastic in their own way. In his debut, a just slightly futuristic world creeps towards dystopia as celebrity worship reaches an all time high; one where celebrity is injected, ingested and suffered.
A World Obsessed With Fame
In Cronenberg’s world, celebrity worship has reached such an all-consuming rage that fans are no longer satisfied worshiping their images, they must be one with the flesh. In this world mega-corporations have created a industry by harvesting the disease of celebrities so that it can be replicated and sold to a ravenous consumer. Why hang about in the latest scuttlebutt about you favorite celebrities herpes blisters when you can wear them yourself – permanently. The premise seems utterly insane to a germaphobe, but 15 minutes on Twitter reveals that this potential future may not be so far fetched.
Where to Watch Antiviral (2012)
Not to be undone, other companies reproduce the flesh of celebrities for a variety of reason, the most disgusting of all being for human consumption.
Unsurprisingly, when the corporations are unable to fulfill the crazy lust of the people, a black market happily steps in to fill the void.
Caleb Landry Jones plays the character of Syd March, an employee of the Lucas Clinic, a leading purveyor of the celebrity pathogen market. The Lucas Clinic has an exclusive deal with Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) to be the only company able to sell her illnesses. Their competition, Vole and Tesser, seeks upend this exclusive deal at all costs.
A World That Only A Breath Away
Undoubtedly, Brandon Cronenberg creates a fascinating world with Antiviral. Inside the walls of the Lucas Clinic, the whitewashed interior exudes the aura of advanced technology. It’s flat, sterile and completely futuristic. This lies in stark contrast with the outside world which intriguingly looks just like the world that we live in. The brilliant part of this approach is that Cronenberg is able to convey exactly how close this technology is… because it is technically already here. When it comes to injecting others pathogens, that technology has been around since the dawn of man. Possibly the only thing that is keeping it from becoming an industry is the inability to monetize it. Croneberg deals with this by imagining a hyper-advanced copy protection mechanism.
The ability to grow flesh in a lab… it’s already coming to your store shelves. If we can make from beef cells, it seems just a matter of time before Justin Bieber burgers.
A Bit of a Slog
While the premise of this film is fascinating, I must admit that it took me at least 3 times to get through the film. To do so requires a bit of a commitment to attention. The film plods along at such an agonizing pace that sometimes seems like time has stopped altogether. The first time I tried, I fell asleep. The second time, I got distracted and realized that I could not follow what was going on. Finally, with all of the grit and determination that I muster, I made a commitment put my headphones on and follow every frame of the film. This is as good a place as any to mention that the headphones really accentuated the oppressive sounds of E.C. Woodley’s haunting score.
It was worth the struggle, but I wonder it felt like a cinematic misstep on Brandon Cronenberg’s part. The film play more like a slowly moving art installation at the most haughty of museums. The desire to make an audience marinate in a world of horrors is a worthwhile pursuit, but a successful film must at least cater to the average attention span. An shining example of perfection in this approach is Denis Villeneuve and his science fiction masterpiece Blade Runner 2049. Despite the sloe and methodical pace, he manages to slow turn the screw, increasing the tension throughout.
A Single Shining Performance
While the film has several admirable supporting performances, Caleb Landry Jones literally haunts this film. Far be it from me to be critical of an individuals physical attributes, but my god does that man look sickly. By the graces of God and all that is holy, that was exactly what the role needed. His pale complexion blurs into the white background of the Lucas Clinic. When he is purging blood, it’s all the more vibrant, visceral and shocking against his ghostly skin tone. It’s just a fact, but I digress.
Moreso is the constant look of pain, anguish and suffering as his character, Syd, is constantly plods along with a thermometer as he descends into yet another celebrity illness. When his affliction takes his ability to walk upright, he sells his disabled state like no other as tries to push his cane to the center of the earth to simply amble across the floor. When attacked by the bio-hacker underground, the way he crumbles to the ground like amorphous blob of flesh. If nothing else, the casting eye of Croneneberg and the performance of Jones is worth the run runtime.
In an honorable mention, any horror film can be made better with a Malcom McDowell performance. This is no exception.
Give Me The Cure
Watching Possessor and Infinity Pool provides a pair of rose colored glasses for Antiviral because the lineage of genius has been established. I suspect that had I not known the legacy of the director and had been thrust into this film with no other information, it might have felt like hyper-stylized IV dripping ever so slowly while I wasted away on my couch. In its defense, it is beautifully shot. In its defense, it offers a cerebral journey into extreme discomfort. In it defense, it makes a damning statement on societies worship of fame.
Antiviral will likely resonate with fans of the show Black Mirror. It also crosses over with themes in the recently release film The Substance (2024). Just don’t expect to be spoon fed by a buxom nurse, this one is going to feel like high-fashion sci-fi catheter.
Antiviral (2012) - Stunning Visuals, Fantastic Plot, Comatose Execution - Malevolentdark
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Date Created: 1970-01-01 00:33
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