Antiviral

2013 "What If You Could Feel Like They Do... We Can Help."
5.7| 1h50m| NR| en
Details

Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. When he becomes infected with the disease that kills super sensation 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.

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Reviews

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
SnoopyStyle 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.
TheBlueHairedLawyer Syd March is a scientist whose job is to sell viruses taken from sick celebrities to sell to obsessed fans. He lives in a society of the future where the famous faces of celebrities are everything, all the time. It is also a disturbing world; Syd is disgusted to see cells taken from celebrities grown into human body parts and sold for eating. One day he is injected with a highly dangerous virus from the most famous celebrity, Hannah Geist, who has mysteriously died. Unknown to him he is suddenly very valuable amongst the Black Market system. This movie has elements of celebrity obsession gone too far and the disregard for human life. Syd is just another face in the crowd until he has Hannah's virus. The movie was filmed in the steel city of Ontario, Hamilton. It's a very shocking movie, at times a little hard to believe, but the acting was great and the cast members were a great choice. Syd also gets to meet Hannah, and sees that despite her fame she is trapped within it and very unhappy with her life. For an independent film is was very well-made. It's really worth watching.
bowmanblue 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/
FlashCallahan 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...