Antiviral

2012

Action / Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller

28
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 40% · 95 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 40% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.7/10 10 16708 16.7K

future satire celebrity injection metamorphosis tech noir

Plot summary

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.

Director

Brandon Cronenberg Photo
Brandon Cronenberg

Top cast

Joe Pingue Photo
Joe Pingue as Arvid
Sheila McCarthy Photo
Sheila McCarthy as Dev Harvey
Salvatore Antonio Photo
Salvatore Antonio as Topp
Nicholas Campbell Photo
Nicholas Campbell as Dorian
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
847.24 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 4
1.60 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 20

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by fharrington-beatty 7 / 10

Body horror meets Black Mirror

Great body horror, very effective at treading the fine line that keeps you watching out of morbid curiosity but not turning off. SFX etc all practically flawless.Caleb LJ is a very good actor to, a standard above everyone here so you can see why he did bigger things.Script okay, plot also okay but swapping more character background/plot texture for some of the longer cinematic chaff wouldn't have hurt the movie.
Reviewed by Hey_Sweden 7 / 10

A creditable debut for the young Cronenberg.

For those who fret that Canadian filmmaking legend David Cronenberg left his "body horror" phase behind long ago, rest assured that Davids' son Brandon keeps that tradition alive here. Caleb Landry Jones stars in this slightly futuristic tale (written by Brandon as well) as Syd March, an employee for the Lucas company. Lucas has built a thriving business selling viruses to devoted fans eager to experience the same things as their idols. Pretty "sick", huh? Syd also smuggles the viruses out of the lab, using his own body, to later sell them to pirates. His trouble arises when he carries the disease recently acquired by starlet Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon); it ends up killing her, and he must find out how to avoid the same fate, while becoming a hot commodity in his hideous line of work.Some horror fans are sure to get a kick out of this. Although it's too quiet and too slowly paced for some tastes, anybody who's ever complained that a film wasn't gory enough won't be quick to gripe watching this one. Brandon does stay true to his dark and nasty mandate, delivering an ultra-creepy tale that really gets under the skin. (Most of the shots of needles penetrating skin are for real, so maybe avoid this one if you can't stand stuff like that.) The premise is preposterous enough to make for a good satire about the nature of celebrity worship. There's even a subplot about butchers making cuts of meat taken from the cells of celebrities. If nothing else, Brandon is always good at going for the gross-out.He employs a striking visual aesthetic, as there are lots of stark white backgrounds, and not much variety in terms of colours - excepting, of course, usage of the red stuff.Jones is an intense actor with a bright future; he definitely reminds this viewer of a young Brad Dourif. The supporting cast includes a number of familiar Canadian faces. Among them is Nicholas Campbell, who'd actually worked with Brandon's dad a few times, as Syds' boss. Malcolm McDowell does "special guest star" / "token name actor" duty, and does a typically solid job.Brandon hasn't done another feature-length movie for a while now, but perhaps he has been waiting for inspiration to strike. If his next film is anything like this one, it will also be something to remember.Seven out of 10.
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