In a society dominated by celebrity worship, Lucas Clinic employee Syd March does for human beings what was once thought of as impossible: he brings them closer to their "gods" by injecting them with the diseases, faults, and weaknesses of their idols, in hopes of bringing them happiness, be it at the risk of their own health. However, after injecting himself with the new virus that befell famous star (and Lucas Clinic standout) Hannah Geist, Syd must race to find a cure.
It must be difficult to be the son of a horror director, at least if you yourself are hoping to get into the realm of directing yourself. The possibility of turning into a David Flair is abnormally high (that reference may be lost on those who don't watch professional wrestling), and when your own father gave us such twisted and bizarre classics like The Fly, Videodrome, and Scanners, you certainly have your work cut out for you. All of this being said, I do have to apologize to those of you reading this blog: Antiviral may not really be a horror film after all. True, there are elements of one scattered throughout, but like his father David, director Brandon Cronenberg doesn't really seem dead set on making a flat out "scary movie" it seems. Does this stop it from being good? Well...
In the science fiction field, this is a fairly unique concept. We've seen films that dealt with celebrity obsession before (Misery), but never to this extent. Famous people are treated as deities and near-gods in this world of the future, better than you and I, and it would be an honor for some people to even have the same debilitating disease that the fashion models exiting limos have. It feels fairly uncomfortable at times, and the casual attitude some people seem to have about their knowledge of these facts or the fact that they could die from these transfusions is a little bizarre. But hey, the word bizarre runs in the Cronenberg DNA.
My knowledge of lead actor Caleb Landry Jones was fairly poor prior to this, but despite the occasional moments where he seemed asleep, he reminded me of Kieran Culkin meets a better version of Edward Furlong. Well, Edward Furlong if he hadn't gone insane and wasn't desperate for work. Jones just seemed to have an "it" factor for this character, a bad obsession of his own that he couldn't quite shake, even when he becomes infected himself and begins to slowly decay. Speaking of decaying, like his father, director Brandon has an obsession with watching the body slowly deteriorate, be it via mind or whether it is via its own flesh. The infatuation with blood is also noticeable, eerily realistic-looking and darkly morbid when the time comes for it to be used.
However, just like his father has had a tendency to do in the past, Antiviral will divide quite a few people with its very unique pacing. I believe the very slow build of Antiviral is exactly what will make or break it for a LOT of folks, and a patient individual like myself even checked my watch (okay, cell phone clock) a couple of times here and there not necessarily out of boredom, but just out of frustration. That frustration mostly came around the middle/second act, which I believe meandered quite a bit too much, and even caused me to quit jotting down notes for the remainder of the evening. Brandon's debut isn't exactly the most enticing film for people to sit through, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of my own personal friends come back saying that they didn't like this one, couldn't finish it, or flat out hated it. But I think that for a first time effort, this is rather commendable, and I imagine that Brandon Cronenberg can go nowhere but up from here. Plus, I'd rather see original concepts like this be rewarded than remakes and sequels be continuously greenlit.
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