Antiviral

Synopsis: Son of David, Brandon Cronenberg, emulates his father's career examining horror and flesh with this sleek sci-fi horror about a biologist who infects himself with a dangerous pathogen sourced from an injected celebrity.

Aroview: Brandon Cronenberg has made an object lesson in intelligent low budget horror. In the near future, our obsession with celebrity will have become so grotesque that fans will be injecting themselves with viruses harvested from their favourite screen stars, in order to get even closer to them. A licensed market for these wee bugs is being undermined by piracy and counterfeiting and thus ANTIVIRAL manages to bring the entire zeitgeist rather nicely to the boil. Although the film drifts a little in the final third, the premise — and the clever construction of a future world out of today’s everyday items — makes the film a worthwhile watch and Cronenberg a name to keep an eye on. ~ Dan Slevin