Antiviral (2012)

Have you ever wanted to have an incredibly close bond with a celebrity? What if that bond was sharing an illness? Well, for this week’s Mubi Monday review, we’ll get to see just how that plays out with… Antiviral (2012).

Title: Antiviral

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Released: May 19, 2012 (Cannes Film Festival)

Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes

Available to stream on: Mubi (here’s a month for free!)

Syd (Caleb Landry Jones) works for the Lucas Clinic. This clinic is in an odd, yet interesting, line of business. They purchase viruses and illnesses from celebrities then turn around and inject those very viruses and illnesses into clients who wish for a close connection with celebrities. The clinics top celebrity is Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon), in fact, if it wasn’t for her, Lucas Clinic would more than likely go under.

However, just because the clients pay top dollar for this doesn’t mean that Syd is also collecting a high salary. To make a little extra on the side, Syd sells the viruses and illnesses on the black market and uses his own body as the incubator for them. The place he sells them to is a literal celebrity meat market. The meat is sold with these celebrity pathogens injected into it.

When Syd’s co-worker is arrested, he steps in and is now the one responsible for collecting Hannah’s pathogens. As soon as Syd was able to get his hands on a blood sample from her, he injects himself with it. Unfortunately for him, after experiencing symptoms from the injection, he is unable to analyze the virus.

The next day, Syd wakes up to learn that Hannah has died. Being that he now has a connection to Hannah, his blood is now just as valuable on the black market.

Will Syd survive both the virus that killed Hannah and those hunting him for his blood?

Well, when you see the name “Cronenberg” you know you’re in for a weird time. And fear not, for Brandon Cronenberg brought the weird in his feature directorial debut.

The premise of Antiviral (2012) is morbidly fascinating. Paying to share a sickness with a celebrity makes for great science fiction while also poking fun at the obsession with celebrities. These things combined serve up the perfect ingredients for a fun body horror flick. After all, if there isn’t any body horror, is it even a Cronenberg film?

However, for as fascinating as the premise is, you really feel the 1-hour and 48-minute runtime here. After about the halfway mark, things begin to drag up until the last 15 minutes or so. Caleb Landy Jones does his best to keep you engaged throughout, succeeding more often than not. But this could have easily been edited down to a 90-minute movie.

I am a fan of Infinity Pool and enjoyed Possessor more on a rewatch than I did originally. While I would rank Antiviral (2012) behind both of those, it was still fun to see where it all began for Brandon Cronenberg.

Well, what about you? Have you seen Antiviral (2012)?

If so, let me know your thoughts on it in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

As always, follow me over on Letterboxd to keep up with everything else I’ve been watching.