FILM GUTTER REVIEWS: ANTIVIRAL (2012)
27/5/2021
 It's time to draw Cronenberg month to a close, and I thought a suitable way to wrap things up would be to take a look at the debut feature from Cronenberg Junior. Yes, I know Brandon Cronenberg has a newer film out in Possessor, but there'll be a time and a place for that later on. For now, let's look at where it all began for Brandon with 2012's Antiviral. Antiviral takes place in an unspecified near future and follows Syd March, who works at a clinic that specialises in diseases. More specifically, they take bugs and infections that celebrities have had and sell them on to their most ardent fans at a premium price. It's a fascinating concept – especially looking back at the movie from a viewpoint in the 2020s – and if anything this vision of the future feels far closer now than it did on the movie's release. However Syd gets himself into rather more than he bargained for when he gets involved with Hannah Geist, one of the clinic's biggest seller who is now rather severely ill. Having collected a sample from her for the company, Syd decides to inject himself with it – inadvertently making himself a pawn in a bizarre game of industrial intrigue much larger than he could have imagined... Antiviral is a pretty striking offering on a number of fronts, certainly visually, where its colour palette is often fascinatingly pared down. The world of Antiviral has a clinical, almost medicinal look for long periods. The performances are generally strong, with some fine cameo turns and a solid central turn from the bleak, nihilistic Syd as depicted by Caleb Landry Jones. But the real strength of this movie for me lies in its core concept – it's mighty Cronenbergian, and sure shows that the apple did not fall far from the tree. It may not go in your face body horror – although that element is doubtless there – but the backdrop of paranoia and doubt and obsession is all there in droves, as are the soft science-fiction flourishes. In short, I loved this movie, for all these reasons and one more – and not one I wave around lightly. Watching this one back on the back of a JG Ballard kick, this one literally feels like a Ballard story brought to life – although of course it's not based on one. But the deep obsession with celebrity and the twisted need to feel close to them conveniently marries up elements of Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition, and even the somewhat gentler Vermillion Sands, to absolutely great effect. This one almost invites a larger world, although I'm not aware of any plans to return to the setting – that's not to say it's at all unsatisfying in its current form, but a few shorts or a limited TV series would certainly pique my interest. There were some small quibbles – the dialogue was sometimes a bit too quiet to really hear without cranking the volume up to the max, and the endeavours of some of the smaller side characters felt a bit unclear – I'd have liked more detail on some of those, as I'm sure at one point there was a guy selling celebrity meat (or presumably meat bred from celebrities) and that feels kind of big to glaze over. But those aside, there's a lot here is you're a fan of Cronenberg Sr, or even JG Ballard, or just strange dystopian sci-fi full stop. RATING: 9/10. Just my type of film really, and feels like a really fitting modernisation of so many of the concepts that David Cronenberg used. While you can spot that family flourish, Brandon does manage to do something different here, indeed something unique that I've not seen before. As an exploration of an excellent core idea, this one really does its job well – it's stylish, it's pacy, it's well-acted and leaves you wanting more without leaving you feeling frustrated, which is certainly no easy feat to achieve! You could say my enthusiasm for this one was infectious (I know, I know) and I'm delighted to award this one 9/10. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITETILL WE BECOME MONSTERS BY AMANDA HEADLEE (BOOK REVIEW) THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR MOVIE REVIEW WEBSITES |
Archives
February 2022
|
RSS Feed
|
|