Antiviral (2012)
Sooo... Brandon Cronenberg, son of the renowned director David Cronenberg, has made a sci-fi movie. Brandon's movie is quite clearly apeing a lot of what David Cronenberg used to do in his earlier movies and, you know what? Brandon Cronenberg's "Antiviral" easily holds up against David Cronenberg's old classics like "Videodrome" or "Scanners".
Basically "Antiviral" feels like what David Cronenberg WOULD be making if he was still doing nightmarish sci-fi body horror movies. There's the same twisted visual tone, the same sort of twisted body horror themes and the same twisted charm.
I could very easily have been saying things in my review like "well, it's unfair to Brandon that his film is inevitably going to compared to his father's superior work", but actually I think "Antiviral" is a clear sign that David needs to stop making cute little costume dramas with Keira Knightley and get back to making films which are properly sinister and bizarre.
"Antiviral" explores the modern cult of celebrity, taking it as far as it will go in a future setting. Now people who are obsessed with celebrities can feel even closer to them by sharing their diseases (with sexual diseases costing even more because of a greater demand from fans). These specially neutered diseases (since the companies don't want to give anyone something that might kill them) are even copyrighted so that people cannot 'share' their virus with another potential customer without using special technology to remove the copyright protection first.
And it's not like sharing celebrities' diseases is even the most extreme thing in the movie. There are all sorts of ways that people are experiencing celebrities. One thing I love about "Antiviral" is the level of creativity involved. And even as the film explores all the twisted ways that celebrities are shown devotion in this bizarre future where all the buildings seem to have pale white walls, we never actually find out what these celebrities are famous for. They could be fashion models, singers, actors, but none of that is ever revealed. They are just a focus for obsession more than anything else.
It's also a very intelligent film. It was quite unexpected when the film referenced a real person, Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells were taken and used in experiements without her permission. Because her cancer cells were able to be replicated and grown, her cells live on still, being used in scientific research all over the world. The relevance of this reference to the subject matter of the film is made very clear.
Celeb Landry Jones plays a very withdrawn figure, but not one with much of a personality. However, this is a figure who is supposed to be constantly ill and we certainly get to feel rather than just see how unwell Landry Jones' character is.
Celeb Landry Jones works in a company which sells celebrity diseases, but he's also secretly bootlegging those diseases to the black market. However, when he goes to collect a sample from their main superstar disease-donator Hannah Geist, he makes some hasty decisions with major consequences.
Another element I should mention is the humour. I wouldn't say that "Antiviral" was a comedy, but I do feel like there's a deep-set mirth below the surface. When you've finished watching this you will no doubt feel shell shocked by the experience. However, you should then imagine describing the final scene to someone who has not watched the movie. (Just imagine, of course. Naturally I don't want you to spoil it.) I think anyone who has seen this will agree, the final scene, described in abstraction from the rest of the film, is bizzare in a twistedly humourous way.
Both "Excision" and "Antiviral" have endings that are pretty bizarre and twisted. But I think if you told someone the ending to "Excision" they'd say "that's really sad", but if you told someone the ending to "Antiviral" they might well burst out laughing. The ending is almost like a punchline and the joke is the cult of celebrity.
Brandon Cronenberg's movie is visually impressive, creative in a way that supports its central themes, highly atmospheric and has a strong grasp of what made David Cronenberg's body horror so effective in the past.
This isn't just a great film. It's my new favourite film of 2012. This is a superb film that pressed all the right buttons for me, combining my love of horror and sci-fi in a way that is so twisted it borders on ridiculous. I cannot wait to see what Brandon Cronenberg does next.
A+
cross-posted to Halloween Candy