Sunday, April 21, 2013

REVIEW - Antiviral

A slow, ugly but great-looking film about a clinic that deals in viral infections from famous stars and celebrities which are then sold to their fans.

The notion is ugly enough, and the way the film shows in excruciating detail the extraction and transfer of the much-prized viruses, and the effects on the central character - who works at the clinic and injects himself in order to harvest and sell some of those viruses on the black market - makes it uglier still.

Directed by Brandon, son of David Cronenberg, who directed such vivid horror classics as Scanners, Videodrome, and The Fly, Antiviral has that Cronenberg air, that sense that something's off, or something horrible's always about to happen.

While being low budget, it still manages to look classy, in a mostly white, antiseptic way that gives that underlying horror a stark, vivid feel.

But its lethargic pace stops Antiviral from truly breaking out.

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