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For those who fret that Canadian filmmaking legend David Cronenberg left his "body horror" phase behind long ago, rest assured that Davids' son Brandon keeps that tradition alive here. Caleb Landry Jones stars in this slightly futuristic tale (written by Brandon as well) as Syd March, an employee for the Lucas company. Lucas has built a thriving business selling viruses to devoted fans eager to experience the same things as their idols. Pretty "sick", huh? Syd also smuggles the viruses out of the lab, using his own body, to later sell them to pirates. His trouble arises when he carries the disease recently acquired by starlet Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon); it ends up killing her, and he must find out how to avoid the same fate, while becoming a hot commodity in his hideous line of work.

Some horror fans are sure to get a kick out of this. Although it's too quiet and too slowly paced for some tastes, anybody who's ever complained that a film wasn't gory enough won't be quick to gripe watching this one. Brandon does stay true to his dark and nasty mandate, delivering an ultra-creepy tale that really gets under the skin. (Most of the shots of needles penetrating skin are for real, so maybe avoid this one if you can't stand stuff like that.) The premise is preposterous enough to make for a good satire about the nature of celebrity worship. There's even a subplot about butchers making cuts of meat taken from the cells of celebrities. If nothing else, Brandon is always good at going for the gross-out.

He employs a striking visual aesthetic, as there are lots of stark white backgrounds, and not much variety in terms of colours - excepting, of course, usage of the red stuff.

Jones is an intense actor with a bright future; he definitely reminds this viewer of a young Brad Dourif. The supporting cast includes a number of familiar Canadian faces. Among them is Nicholas Campbell, who'd actually worked with Brandon's dad a few times, as Syds' boss. Malcolm McDowell does "special guest star" / "token name actor" duty, and does a typically solid job.

Brandon hasn't done another feature-length movie for a while now, but perhaps he has been waiting for inspiration to strike. If his next film is anything like this one, it will also be something to remember.

Seven out of 10.

Antiviral is a sci-fi/horror film from the mind of Brandon Cronenberg, David Cronenberg's son. This is a beautifully shot film, with a great premise but it just didn't click with me totally. The film follows Syd March, a man who works for a company that harvests diseases from celebrities and then injects them into paying clients. Sounds pretty messed up right? To put it in real world context, you'd go to this company and willfully get injected with Britney Spears cold sore. It gets even weirder when they get into celebrity cell regeneration that is made into steaks. Yeah, you read that right. There's a "butcher shop" that specializes in growing celebrities cells and selling them to you so you can eat them. This is an incredibly original story that plays on societies star obsessed culture and turns it on its ear. I love the idea of this movie but it moves at too slow of a pace. There's a few minor twists and basically no action, which makes a slow film feel even slower. Antiviral is not a fun film (no humor,no action, no scares) and is definitely not for everyone. It is a beautifully shot film, even though it is meandering, it is always great to look at. Every shot is framed well and done with purpose. The use of white gives it a very clean and sanitary look that is extremely effective. Cronenberg gets an A+ for the look of this film, it really is that nice to look at. The limited amount of gore is also expertly done, I just wish there had been more of it.

Caleb Landry Jones (Banshee in X-Men First Class) is the star, this is basically a restrictive narrative, and he is in pretty much every scene. He does a good job and has a bright future. Malcolm McDowell also has an extended cameo and he's as good as always. He seems to have settled into this role as a name actor, lending that name to help a small picture.

Antiviral is an incredibly original story, and beautiful to watch but it is just a tad dull. Instead of an A its a solid B, just because of the story and visuals. I repeat it is not for everyone, it reminds of Excision a bit (just without the snappy humor), so if you liked that movie then check out Antiviral. Brandon Cronenberg is the future of horror, and as a horror fan, I couldn't be happier.

Great body horror, very effective at treading the fine line that keeps you watching out of morbid curiosity but not turning off. SFX etc all practically flawless.

Caleb LJ is a very good actor to, a standard above everyone here so you can see why he did bigger things.

Script okay, plot also okay but swapping more character background/plot texture for some of the longer cinematic chaff wouldn't have hurt the movie.

I really liked this film. It's not without its flaws, but I give it major points for a unique, interesting concept and its sterile visual style.

As a horror and sci-fi fan, I wish there were more films like Antiviral. Ones, that either on their own or by effectively combining the two genres, bring new ideas to the table and use thoughtful art direction. Sadly nowadays, most just regurgitate the same old concepts and then throw gratuitous amounts of special affects on top to make them feel "new". Antiviral seems to step out of that box.

As mentioned, it isn't perfect, but a really great film for sci-fi/horror fans looking for something less cliché and more unique, something that can be hard to find within these genres today.

It's a pretty low-budget film, so don't expect a ton of crazy sci-fi special effects. But this is exactly one of the things that works for it. It feels futuristic, but only just enough so that it feels like the not TOO distant future. This fits perfectly with the idea of people being so obsessed with celebrities they pay to be infected with their diseases. Since our society is already relatively obsessed with celebrity culture, Antiviral's world feels distant, but not too far off.

One issue is that the plot can feel a bit unfocused here and there. Viewers won't feel lost, but this flaw does prevent Antiviral from being a really solid film. Also, the acting and dialogue feel contrived at times. But I did enjoy Caleb Landry Jones's portrayal of Syd.

Syd March works for a cosmetic company that sells you a way to share the viruses and diseases your favourite celebrities have. It's a very intimate experience knowing you have been infected with herpes by the same blood of your celebrity crush. Syd is also involved in dealing with the black market over these samples of viruses and finds himself in over his head when his celebrity crush dies.

This is not a comedy. This is a gritty, blood-gushing, stomach-churning, grotesque sci-fi thriller from Brandon Cronenberg. However exciting that above sentence may have sounded, Antiviral is a slower-paced horror art piece. It is hard on the eyes and stomach, as such a story should be.

This is the film all of the original David Cronenberg fans have been waiting for. It's come a decade too late and not through him but through his son. Unlike Sofia Coppola or Jennifer Lynch, Brandon Cronenberg doesn't seem to be trying to find his own voice. With this film, he seems content filling the shoes his father had left unfilled over the last decade, making more audience-friendly dramatic thrillers. Antiviral very much could be a lost 2003 film David Cronenberg shot right after Spider. Like father like son.

Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) works for Lucas Clinic which buys viruses from celebrities to be injected into obsessed fans who are willing to pay. They have exclusive rights to celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) which is very popular. Then he harvests and injects the Geist sample into himself. Others like celebrity butcher Arvid replicates celebrity cells and sells them as meat. Hannah Geist dies and Syd starts to get sicker.

This is a great idea for an original indie. The script needs a few more passes to elevate the tension and add some thrills. The idea seems to be all there is in this movie. It's not particularly exciting. It also needs a section at the beginning to do an exposition on what the products are about, the science behind it and the legal ramifications. Brandon Cronenberg should have made a fake TV ad for the product. It's also probably important to bring in the law early to explain the legal world these products exist in. I love the machine that he gets hooked up to. It's definitely has the Cronenberg style. However the movie lacks any energy. It's creepy but not much more than that. I like the weird creepiness. I'm just waiting for Brandon to take it to the next level.

Corporate salesman makes himself sick with the product he's selling, and tries to take control.

Cronenberg. Lynch. Gilliam. They're all in there, but it's treacle slow and I didn't get a note of humour. The lead actor is frustratingly dull, and should be discouraged from these roles in future - he's obviously talented and could be much more interesting.

The pace is poor, I kept looking at the time. Music didn't bring me in. Editing good, but too many longeurs. Damn you, Quebec.

I'm on board with the satire, but it did not give me a warm feeling. Sadly, the pessimism is probably spot on. The final note was restrained Cronenberg.

Overall, interesting but dull-making.

Is Cronenberg finally back to the body-horror genre? Yep, in a re-birth through his son, Brandon. What David hasn't done in the last 10 years is done here by Brandon. Dad's influence is obvious from the very first shot up to the last shot of the film. I found connections, clues, winks and homages to David's old films throughout the entire movie - I'm not sure whether they were intentional or just my intuition, but I recalled Videodrome, Shivers, The Fly, eXistenZ, Naked Lunch and Crash. If you were missing the old Cronenberg style, you're gonna love this movie.

The script is very original and contains some interesting ideas. The lead actor does a pretty decent job in his role; I wouldn't go as far as saying it's Oscar material, but it's good enough for this part. The production design is pretty good and interesting, although minimalist. So is the cinematography, which is "minimalist" in the sense of being static (or close to that) almost the entire film, with very few exceptions here and there; I guess it worked okay for the film, yet it was enough for me to be distracted by it more than once - I myself would have preferred to see a more dynamic camera-work.

The movie is not perfect. It gave me the feeling of "something is missing here" at times - including in its ending - but all in all it was pretty impressive as a first feature-film for Brandon, both as a writer and a director (although if I compare it to Duncan Jones' Moon, the latter wins big time). I'll definitely look forward to his next film - much more than to David's next film, sadly.

Long live the new flesh! The new flesh here being David Cronenberg's son Brandon, who seems to have inherited his father's body-horror fixation and has used it to direct his feature-length debut Antiviral, an unnerving yet very entertaining piece of science fiction.

Antiviral offers a disturbing new meaning to our culture of celebrity obsession. Televisions everywhere show round-the-clock footage of their lives and newspapers are full of the tiniest stories and scandals. But that's just the beginning. Syd Marsh (Caleb Landry Jones) works for a company that specialises in injecting members of the public with diseases that have been taken from specific celebrities; you could be walking around with Madonna's chest cold if you wanted to. Part of Syd's job is to 'copyright' these infections: to remove all possibilities of contagion so that once they're injected they cannot be passed on. His desire to make a bit of extra money on the side however, coupled with his own addictions, leads him to be injected with a disease so incurable, it becomes a matter of life and death.

More a criticism of celebrity culture than an accurate vision of the future, there are moments in this film that are frankly alarming, even when compared to our present day society of Big Brother, X-Factor and Heat magazine, a world in which attaining celebrity status is the only worthwhile ambition. In Antiviral, for instance, there are companies that have developed 'cell stakes', slabs of grey meat grown from the muscle cells of the rich and famous that people actually queue up to buy and subsequently eat for lunch, their excuse being that it makes them feel closer to those they admire. It's moments like these that make it a hard concept to imagine, yet it's a credit to Cronenberg's direction, his cold, very clinical approach to every scene, that makes it somehow believable.

What makes Antiviral worth watching though, is Caleb Landry Jones, whose on-screen presence is beyond sinister. You might recognise him from X Men: First Class, The Last Exorcism and a couple of Breaking Bad episodes, but Antiviral is very much his breakthrough role; he won't be forgotten in a hurry. Very pale, very freckled and with a ponytail of ginger hair, he has this contemptuous expression on his face as if trying to keep from shouting at every client who comes into his office, yet each line of dialogue is considered and slow, sometimes menacing and other times devoid of any emotion at all, and he has such a mesmerising way of walking through doors that it becomes hard to take your eyes off him. Yet Jones' talent really comes into effect as the virus starts to take control of his body, developing a contorted, demonic stagger as he attempts to go about his life as though nothing is wrong.

Now it wouldn't be right to compare the films of father and son. There are certainly elements that share similarities: the hospital settings of Dead Ringers, the exploration of media and addiction in Videodrome, but Antiviral needs to be viewed as a completely separate piece of cinema, one that is refreshingly unique in its approach to a topic dealt with many times before, portraying a not-so-distant future with a strange, yet very absorbing bleakness. It's a well-directed film with an extraordinary performance at its centre that serves as a perfect showcase for the brilliance of both Brandon Cronenberg and Caleb Landry Jones; let's hope their collaborations continue.

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In the future, companies make bank by injecting people with the viruses contracted by their most revered super-celebrities, in a twisted effort to become closer to their idols. A tech at one of these companies also smuggles the fresh virii out of his building by injecting himself; trouble arises when the celebrity unexpectedly dies, leaving the staffer little time to learn what went wrong before he suffers the same fate.

Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) is that tech, Syd. He's got a pretty sweet gig, selling the virii he harvests to pirates who then alternately inject people with the virus (for a nice price) and grow the equivalent of steaks - really! - with the pathogens for their customers' dining pleasure. How does he do this? Volume! No, actually, what the company does is inject the virus into a machine that essentially copy protects the virus, making the virus proprietary. His company, the Lucas Clinic, is contracted to take blood from dying celeb Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon), and Syd injects himself and quickly becomes disoriented, weak, and feverish. When Syd attempts to remove the copy protection by using his own machine, the console is destroyed.

It is a story that shines a bright, infected light on society's devotion to all things celebrity. How far would a superfan go to be a part of a famous person's life? Would they infect themselves with noncontagious herpes? Chew on a regrown kidney? You know something...I think they would, at least the more deranged and sociopathic fans. Such a connection is exponentially stronger than a simple autographed photo. You've not just been recognized by them; you are part of them.

The director is one Brandon Cronenberg, son of David, and the son has the same predilection for the macabre as the father. The obsession with celebrities, all too apparent in real life, is shown to be pretty normal in the film's fictional universe, and yet the horror of playing with the fire of fast-spreading pathogens undercuts this seeming normalcy with an almost Jones' Syd pretends to be just another hustler, but he's really as demented as his customers (and clients). Jones plays Syd perfectly as a shady, somewhat-sullen man of little distinction; also noteworthy are Joe Pingue as Arvid (employee of the celebrity meat market), Wendy Crewson as the head of a rival pathogen company, and Malcolm McDowell, playing yet another doctor, this time with skin grafts from his favorite celebrity.

Antiviral is a horror mystery, with buckets of blood and oodles of intrigue. It's a creepy allegory of man's lust for fame of any kind, viewed through a prism of late-1980s Canadian horror. It's a fine, engrossing film.

Honestly, don't bother unless you enjoy constantly seeing shots of needles inserted, blood, and sickly looking people. That is all the movie will deliver; the only emotional response it will invoke is disdain. No matter how interesting the concept may seem, this movie doesn't do it justice.

Things going for it: A novel concept. A few artistic scenes

On the other hand, it fails to fully exploit the concept, and the aforementioned scenes seem randomly inserted into the film with no real connection to the plot. With no background history provided, it is impossible to understand the world view of the characters, and thus impossible to form an emotional connection/emphasize with them. The sickly and gross scenes make you feel ill, but without any titillation, they literally just make you feel yuck. On top of it all, the movie often feels slow, and you wonder why you are watching it. How that can possibly happen with such a novel concept I don't know.

Really, I can't recommend it. It doesn't do the concept justice. It doesn't do cinema justice. It is a struggle to keep watching it - reading the Wikipedia entry is more rewarding; writing this review was more enjoyable.

The director obviously has a creative mind, and some technical ability, but he has utterly failed to combine them in production.

Just. Don't. Bother.

Back in the eighties, writer/director David Cronenberg delighted (and disgusted!) audiences with his weird and horrific visions of technology merging with human flesh. Now, some years later, his son, Brandon Cronenberg, is doing much the same thing.

Antiviral is about a world where (believe it or not) the population can buy illnesses that have once infected the celebrity of their choosing, so they can be ill like their idol! It's certainly a different type of film when you compare it to those other 'horror' movies of today, however, it's probably more at home with Cronenberg Senior's work back in the eighties. At first it took me a while to get into. I, a horror fan, didn't realise quite how much I'm used to 'horror' simply being a man in a mask slicing up overly-attractive teenagers. Therefore, I found this a little slow at first. However, I'm glad I persisted.

It certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea. It's very slow-moving and the characters do tend to mumble a lot (I have to admit I was turning the volume up on many an occasion). Yet it has its own sick charm, helped in the most part by the lead character. He's certainly not your average hero. In fact, he's horrible and you won't have that much sympathy for him at the best of times as he steals and infects himself with celebrities' viruses. The lead actor is truly creepy in himself. Once you've seen him walk through a door, you'll know what I mean. He just has a way of doing it that spells out 'weirdo.' There are a few - not many, but a few - horrific moments that are not for the squeamish, but Antiviral's strong-points are not its gore, but its atmosphere. It is truly a dystopian world we're witnessing and there's more than a few social digs at our culture's obsession with celebrities.

I find it hard to recommend to people in general. I would only say that if you've seen David Cronenberg's work and enjoyed it, then you should like this. However, I can see plenty of people finding this slow and boring (I did find it slow in parts).

A good film...if you know what you're getting.

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I think what worked well in the film was the rhythm and the pacing of the film. We are moved from scene to scene in a timely manner and each scene reveals a piece of the plot which draws us into the story. I think this is very commendable for a first time director. The film never lets up for a minute and I would hardly call it slow as another reviewer has done.

I would also disagree with others here that Caleb Landry Jones carried the film very well. To begin with he is too young and baby-faced for the circles he moves in within the film. I found it hardly plausible that he would have the underground connections as he did. Even more grating for me was that I found him entirely one dimensional in his approach - scowling, hunched over, drooling, coughing, raspy voice, the cane. ad infinitum - and this during the whole film as he is in pretty much each scene. I think a more subtle approach to the role at times would have been appropriate and more interesting for the audience. It did feel at times repetitive.

Despite Caleb's exorbitant display I had trouble seeing the person underneath. I wondered if say a young James Woods were given the role what heights the film could have reached.

Final point - The slightly indie American austere sets/costumes made the film feel a little demonstrative for me. I think this was an easy way out so to speak for the director. Cold bare white apartment (sandwiches/orange juice), cold ultra modern office with guys in suits, and the hotel with flowers. This all felt a bit manipulative but on the other hand the outdoor shots of the city Hamiliton were interesting.

This one is pretty rough. Antiviral is a slow paced, very serious and very bizarre type of horror film. The subject matter is very interesting because we are all guilty of obsession over celebrities, but the idea of being the level of obsessed in this film is nauseating. I was actually gagging through the whole 2 hours of film. The lead actor, Caleb Laudry Jones, was brilliant. So much so, that you forget what's going on because you're mesmerized by his performance. Overall, its a pretty good sci-fi/horror type of film, the horror coming mainly from the theme of society and our worshiping of celebrities.

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This film fails to be entertaining as you have no sympathy for anyone in it, the premise is ridiculous. I usually find these semi-futuristic social commentary science fiction films entertaining, even when mediocre. But the premise here is overliteralised and brought to a level of unreal-ism that makes empathizing with anyone impossible. Why would anyone do what they do? Infecting yourself with celebrity HIV's? its a bit of a stretch. The storyline forced the actors into a single track behavior pattern, that does not fail to make you feel sick, but is simply frustrating as they have done it to themselves and with no real benefit or psychological study behind their motives. Its like watching trainspotting and knowing the heroin provides them with no effects of euphoria. Suddenly the addiction becomes all the more ridiculous than it already is. The directing style was cool, and the acting was OK, but just based on originality and concept i believe it could have done a lot better.

I think it's good. Syd March is a great interesting character played by Caleb Landry Jones who is the best fit for the role. Brandon Cronenberg has made a very impressive debut with his first feature film. At my time of writing this, the film has a 5.6 score, which I think is a little under rated.

Antiviral is a about a world where people do the cruelest things to each other, motivated only by money. They even apologise for the pain they cause. They are also obsessed with celebrity.

The film is quite confusing. People pay for injections somehow associated with celebrities. There is a strange machine that projects images of deformed fetuses. What is supposed to happen?

You come to look like the celebrity?

You have a dream where the celebrity enters your life?

You became a celebrity and hence can socialise?

It gradually becomes most likely that you get to share a disease with your selected celebrity though I never understood the purpose of the machine or why people wanted this form of souvenir.

On the black market, you can buy meat, cultured from the cells of celebrities. How customers can tell this from ordinary meat I have no idea.

Nothing is spelled out. You are never sure why anyone is doing anything. You are never sure who can be trusted.

I just hated the villains. They remind me of corporate spokespeople the way they are so insincere and so callous.

Caleb Landry Jones spends rather too much of the movie staggering about, coughing up blood and looking about to die.

Even he goes a bit nuts and sucks blood from a zombified corpse. It is quite disturbing, partly because everyone in the cast treats the most ghastly things so matter of factly, like the introduction of some new breakfast food.

(2013) Antiviral SCIENCE-FICTION HORROR/ DRAMA

Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg who's trying to duplicate the same atmosphere of his dad's often confusing films from the likes of "Videorome", "Scanners" and "eXistenZ" to name a few. It's one of those films where one has to read the synopsis beforehand as it assumes viewers are just going to accept it's environment without any explanation. And because I initially had no clue what this film was about upon my first viewing, I'm just going to copy and paste the thesis from imdb. Since I had to like, read other people's interpretation before I was able to finish it. "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" from imdb.

Brandon Cronenberg's auspicious debut feature is a visually stunning, compelling science fiction story that asks the question, "How far would you go to own a piece of your celebrity crush?" Directing from his own script, the young Canadian takes a decidedly cynical view of the cult of personality in this sci-fi paradigm shift -- "Antiviral" isn't necessarily showing us what will be in the future but what could be now as it appears to be set more in the present day.

The film opens in a pristine medical facility where a desperate young man, Edward Porris (Douglas Smith in a too-brief but important establishing role), is about to be injected with a live virus taken from his favorite superstar. Being bedridden with the same illness infecting the woman of his desire is the ultimate autograph. The shot is administered by Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones), a strictly professional, unemotional clinician who knows not to take his job home with him. Of course, everything is not as it seems and March becomes embroiled in a mystery that pulls in the viewer like a syringe drawing blood.

The cast is focused on a small handful of characters. 22-year-old Caleb Landry Jones (Sean Cassidy/Banshee of "X-Men: First Class") is in virtually every shot, undergoing a total physical and emotional transformation that's almost painful to watch, reminiscent of the award-winning performance turned in by Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia." His masterful characterization of Syd's downward spiral is breathtaking and central to the picture's potency. The iconic Malcolm McDowell is satisfyingly engaging as Dr. Abendroth, in a role that stands proudly with anything he's done. As Hannah Geist, the gorgeous object of men's desires, Sarah Gadon is a heartbreaker. Naive diva one minute, vulnerable victim the next, Gadon provides much of the heart and soul of "Antiviral" in a film otherwise devoid of color, literally. Joe Pingue and Nicholas Campbell are notable in support.

"Antiviral's" narrative is curiously fascinating, to be sure, but this is a film to examine more on the surface the way an old-fashioned family doctor can tell what ails you by looking at your skin. The highly stylized production is best appreciated by those enriched by a leisurely walk through an art museum. Every frame is like a painting, with lush cinematography and score that can only be effective when director, DP, composer, editor, and the entire visual team work in lockstep, resulting in a brilliant vision executed with highly disciplined precision.

Much of March's day is set in the clinic and his home, which mirrors his workplace in its cold sterility. The color palette is nothing but black and white. Lighting is oversaturated with characters bathed in bright white, giving the outward appearance of good health that belies the reality of what literally lurks beneath the skin. The outside world is like a parallel universe, where dirt and grime cover a worn out, used landscape as if diseased itself.

Cinematographer Karim Hussain ("Hobo with a Shotgun," one of my 2011 Sundance Film Festival Top 4) goes against the hand-held trend with stationary camera throughout much of the movie. These tripod shots often feature perfectly centered props and sets following the rule of 3s -- left, center, and right objects perfectly balanced with the action in the middle of the field of view. Many frame-within-a-frame shots continue this classic visual style as the viewer peers through doors and windows, with straight lines and rectangular shapes filling the screen. It's a refreshing break with tradition although, ironically, it's a look established long ago in sci-fi classics like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis." Much is owed to editor Matthew Hannam for the patient pace of the picture. E.C. Woodley's haunting electronica score is filled with biologically-inspired rhythms that reflect the throbbing hearts and mechanical drone of a scientific setting.

Viewers are cautioned not to underestimate the profound importance of the camera-work and visual effects. The look of "Antiviral" is as much, or more, responsible for the film's impact than the script, a notion which may be lost on those simply trying to figure out the plot and following the dialogue. This is a feast for the eyes and ears, not just the mind.

Brandon Cronenberg proves himself a welcome and worthy addition to the cinematic stage with "Antiviral," a delicious visual showcase and emotionally satisfying, albeit scathing look at one of the perils of modern society.