Antiviral (2012) Caleb Landry Jones, Sarah Gadon, Lisa Berry, Douglas Smith Movie Review

Antiviral (2012)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Caleb Landry Jones in Antiviral (2012)

Not Going Viral here

In a world obsessed with celebrities Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) works for an agency where you can go and become infected with a sample of the disease which your favourite celebrity has. But Syd also has a little sideline going by injecting himself with celebrity viruses and transporting them to piracy groups operating on the down low. Things go dangerously wrong when Syd injects himself with the virus which ended up killing a celebrity and now he is not only in a race against time to try and uncover a cure but he also has to deal with virus collectors and fans who come after him.

As "Antiviral" was about to start it was announced with someone describing a scene as a metaphor for fans wanting to consume celebrity. The last part didn't bother me but when you band around words like "metaphor" to describe a horror movie it makes me want to get up and leave. Look, it is a personal thing, I watch horror movies to be entertained not to have to think too hard about what the writer and director were trying to say beneath their style heavy movie, because most movies which are metaphors seem to have very distinct styles. As such I can't say that "Antiviral" did a lot to entertain me.

Now despite the fact that I like my horror easy to digest rather than thought provoking the basic idea of a guy stealing something from a company and then having obsessed fans of a celebrity coming is entertaining. And in truth some of Brandon Cronenberg's thought provoking ideas such as eating cloned human meat certainly has quite an impact. But for me "Antiviral" was a movie which found itself over powered by an incessant need to try and be bleak but stylish giving us white almost clinical living environments.

What this all boils down to is that "Antiviral" was not for me for the simple reason I prefer my horrors more straight forwards. But whilst it was not for me I can see how those who seek thought provoking entertainment with a clear style might find it much more interesting and maybe even entertaining.


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