Connect with us
Inject some celebrity into your life.

Film

‘Antiviral’ will Give You a Good Scare

Inject some celebrity into your life.

31 Days of Horror

When looking at horror films, there’s something about Canadian horror that helps it stand out and apart from its American counterpart. While most of the blockbusters out today depend on cheap thrills and scares alone, Canadian horror aims to make you think while trying to scare the pants off you. Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral (2012) is one such film that doesn’t try to scare you by having monsters jump out at you at every turn, but lets the audience’s imagination do all the work.

The film is set in a world where celebrity obsession is at an all time high. Stars are more than pop-culture icons, but gods. Entertainment news covers everything from their personal lives to their medical history, and people will pay and do just about anything to be closer to their idols. And what better way to get close and personal with your celebrity icon than sharing their disease?

In this not too distant future, people can pay to be infected with strains carried by celebrities with everything from the common cold to herpes simplex. Stars can sell their diseases to labs who then clone it and sell it, bringing the every-man closer to their pop-culture icons. Antiviral follows the journey of Syd March, played by the talented Caleb Landry Jones, and his work in the celebrity disease industry. His life takes an unexpected, and deadly turn when he’s infected with icon Hannah Geist’s (played by Sarah Gadon) mysterious illness.

The movie wows audiences and captures their attention despite the notable fast-paced action and bloodshed one normally seems in a horror film. The film almost mimics the course of a disease itself, with the slow onset of paranoia and fear, temperatures rising dangerously high towards the middle, with everything coming to a head by the end and leaving audiences wondering if the protagonist will ever recover from his ordeal or be doomed to relapse.

The aesthetic that Antiviral takes on is an oddly, and uncomfortably, clinical one. The young Cronenberg’s choice to have Jones’ character as whitewashed as the walls, and the harsh contrast of blacks, reds, and whites make this disease-riddled world more believable. Even when Syd is taken out of the lab, audiences are still made to feel like he’s under a microscope.

Antiviral is a contagiously good movie

What perhaps is most striking about this film is how Cronenberg escalates the idea that in this pop-culture obsessed society, celebrities don’t belong to themselves but to the public. Their bodies, their thoughts, their private moments are all commodities for public consumption. Celebrity itself has been turned into a disease that inflicts the public, and for which there is no known cure. It leaves viewers paranoid, contemplative, and worried about the future of our Hollywood-centric society.

If you’re looking for a good scare that will leave you on edge for weeks and make you want to move a thousand miles away from society but don’t want to sit through an hour and a half of monsters jumping out at you, then make sure to watch Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral.

  • Caitlin Marceau
Written By

Caitlin Marceau is an author and lecturer living and working in Montreal. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing, is a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and spends most of her time writing horror and experimental fiction. Her collections, "A Blackness Absolute" and "Palimpsest", are slated for publication by D&T Publishing LLC and Ghost Orchid Press respectively in 2022. When she’s not covered in ink or wading through stacks of paper, you can find her ranting about issues in pop culture or nerding out over a good book. For more, visit CaitlinMarceau.ca.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

2001: A Space Odyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: Clarke and Kubrick’s Odyssey of Discovery

Culture

Deep Impact was a serious look at the end of the world Deep Impact was a serious look at the end of the world

25 Years Later: Deep Impact was a Serious Look at the End of the World 

Film

The Best Movies of 1973 The Best Movies of 1973

The Golden Year of Movies: 1973

Culture

The Zone of Interest The Zone of Interest

Cannes 2023: Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a Manicured Vision of Hell

Culture

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE review SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE review

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Is a Dazzling Web of Unbridled Creativity

Film

Jeanne Du Barry review Jeanne Du Barry review

Cannes 2023: Maïwenn’s Great Hair Goes to Great Lengths in Jeanne Du Barry

Culture

Asteroid City: A Gimmicky Vanity Project Asteroid City: A Gimmicky Vanity Project

Cannes 2023: Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is a Gimmicky Vanity Project

Culture

Black Flies Gripping Black Flies Gripping

Cannes 2023: Black Flies— Gripping Descent into the Underbelly of New York’s Urban Misery 

Culture

Four Daughters Four Daughters

Cannes 2023: Four Daughters: A Family’s Journey From Goth to Niqab

Culture

La Passion de Dodin Bouffant: La Passion de Dodin Bouffant:

La Passion de Dodin Bouffant: Surfeit Cooking Drama Most Inane Film at Cannes

Culture

BlackBerry movie review BlackBerry movie review

BlackBerry Is a Wonderfully Canadian Account of a Dying Tech Dream

Film

The Mother Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez The Mother Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez

Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother is Eerily Similar to Enough, But That’s Not a Bad Thing

Film

Godzilla 1998 Godzilla 1998

Godzilla at 25: When Hollywood Made a Manhattan Monster Movie, with Disastrous Results

Film

The Matrix Reloaded The Matrix Reloaded

20 Years Later: The Matrix Reloaded was Underwhelming, but Still Underrated

Film

Discovery channel Discovery channel

The Head-Scratching Moves Discovery Has Been Making

Culture

Sean Connery Sean Connery

60 Years Later, Dr. No Remains the Paragon of Bond

Film

Connect