Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral

[Ian Jane]

This looks slick, sick and interesting:



If David Cronenberg has moved away from the trademark body horror of his early pictures it looks like his son is mining that vein.

"Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. Biological communion - for a price. Syd also supplies illegal samples of these viruses to piracy groups, smuggling them from the clinic in his own body. 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."

Variety says:

"Possibly setting a record for most images of needles piercing human skin in a motion picture, Brandon Cronenberg's syringe-tastic "Antiviral" suggests the fledgling filmmaker has some corporeal-horror preoccupations in common with famous dad David. Set in an icy near-future where celebrities' diseases are sold like crack vials, this creepy speculative satire tends to hit the same notes in its dissection of seriously unhealthy celebrity obsession, but exerts a queasy fascination regardless. Overlong Canadian production may prove too clinically distanced for gorehounds and too yucky for specialty auds, though the Cronenberg imprimatur is sure to stir theatrical interest."

As a needlephobic wimp, this could potentially mess me up.

Dig the banner that they put up for the Cannes premiere...

[Alex K.]

It got some pretty dismissive reviews but I look forward to it all the same. Critics have never been kind to experimental/horror films.

[sukebanboy]

Guess he has a fetish about needles piercing flesh!!!

Hope he suceeds more than Lynch's daughter did....

[Alex K.]

Lynch's daughter is a complete hack.

[Apronikoff]

Lynch's daughter is a complete hack.

The only thing I know about his daughter is that she wrote the "Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" Twin Peaks tie-in books. I loved that book when it came out...but then I was 12, and it was the dirtiest thing I'd ever seen, so...

[Randy G]

Certainly seems odd that his son would mine a theme so similar to his father's early work, you'd think you'd want to get out from under the old man's shadow the way Duncan Jones and Jean Renoir were able to.

[Ian Jane]

The only thing I know about his daughter is that she wrote the "Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" Twin Peaks tie-in books. I loved that book when it came out...but then I was 12, and it was the dirtiest thing I'd ever seen, so...

Heh, I remember that book too. Good stuff.

[Ian Jane]

So IFC picked this up, it'll hit theaters on April 12, VOD the same day, no word of DVD or Blu-ray yet.

[Ian Jane]

So I noticed over the weekend that this is out on Blu-ray already in Canada. Meant to pick it up, got distracted, forgot. Has anyone seen it yet? Worth a blind buy?

[Dom D]

Might be out on Blu Ray in Canada but it's only just hit the cinemas here in Oz. I tempted my girlfriend out to a screening with the promise that it was "Cronenberg's kid's movie". Which surprisingly was a major draw for her. Only realised later that she heard "Cronenberg's kids movie" and so went in with completely unrealistic expectations.

Anyway.... This was near the top of my to see list because I've always been a massive fan of Boxing Helena and there's obviously some parrallels here. Suffice to say this is nowhere near as fun as Boxing Helena was but it has that same wierd feel of someone with a fraction of the talent trying to mine the same vein of phsycosis that their father did. The influence is so embedded in the film that it's hard to look on Brandon as his own filmmaker. Characters here launch into monlogues about their bodies, or other peoples bodies, that are so David Cronenberg that you wonder if his son has any voice of his own at all.

But Antiviral definitely doesn't have the quality of a David Cronenberg film. It has a wierd student film feel to it. You know when you're watching student films and everything just feels stagey. The sets look like sets, actors look like they're acting, the ideas feel obvious and get rammed down your throat.

Certainly it's ugly as hell. Cronenberg decided on an all white aesthetic, it contributes to the clinical atmos I guess. I get the thinking but watching a film set in white rooms full of white furniture and white light gets pretty wearying after a while. The lack of subtlety here with the look is kind of indicative of the film as a whole.

It's certainly a distasteful experience which is right for body horror but there's no feeling of drama at all. I'm moderately sickened by it but overall much more bored.