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Released by: Severin Films
Released on: March 25th, 2025.
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Lisa Berry, Sarah Gad
Year: 2012
Purchase From Severin Films
Antiviral – Movie Review:
The directorial debut of Brandon Cronenberg, 2021’s Antiviral takes place in a world where mankind's obsession with celebrity has been taken to absurdist extremes. For those who can't get enough of their favorite stars, television and tabloids no longer cut it, but, for those who can accord it, the Lucas Clinic has a solution. For a considerable fee, the clinic will inject interested parties with an illness taken from their favorite star, allowing them to share a part of their lives, so to speak. See, in this world, autographs and selfies aren't what the star-obsessed public wants anymore - they want to share their favorite star's illness, thus allowing them to be closer to their obsession than ever before and share something personal with them.
Enter Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones), the rock star technician/virus harvester at the Lucas Clinic. He makes a very good living for himself matching potential clients to specific diseases or illnesses but, unbeknownst to his employers, Syd has a side hustle. With access to all that the clinic has to offer, Syd is able to help himself to everything he needs to run his own bootleg operation out of his apartment, and he does this by smuggling the diseases out of the clinic in his own body. Essentially, he injects himself with whatever he needs and, once it's in his blood, he's able to recreate it as often as necessary using the clinic's technology.
Of course, this eventually proves to be a bad idea when he injects some of the illness that the clinic's celebrity spokesperson, the gorgeous Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon), has in her bloodstream and it turns out to be far more dangerous than he could have possibly expected. Soon, Syd is quite sick and in need of serious medical attention. Without much time left, Syd has to find out how to cure himself all while trying to stay one step ahead of his competition, Levine (James Cade), and Dr. Abendroth (Malcolm McDowell), Hannah's doctor.
Cleary influenced by his father David Cronenberg’s output, Brandon Cronenberg’s script for Antiviral is whip smart and creative and manages to set up a startling work of science fiction before taking things into the body horror territory that you halfway expect him to, given his lineage. If it feels like he’s taking a little too much from his father’s output than maybe he needed to, the end result is a really strong feature debut for a filmmaker that has gone on to craft some seriously interesting films since (those being Possessor and Infinity Pool). Still, if his father’s influence is all over this, the younger Cronenberg does manage to hold our attention throughout the feature without any trouble. Antiviral gets genuinely gross as times, and the effects work for the film are excellent, but on top of that there’s a lot of biting black comedy and satire worked into the movie (which isn’t something you typically see in his father’s filmography) and that goes a long way towards making this movie as good as it is. The film clearly has a lot to say about celebrity worship and consumerism, taking things to an insane, but not impossible, extreme.
The performances here are very strong. Sarah Gadon, who also appeared in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis in 2012, is great as the clinic’s knockout blonde spokesperson, a celebrity famous for being famous in the same vein as the Kardashian of your choice and McDowell excellent as her rather unorthodox doctor. James Cade does a nice job as Syd’s main competition on the bootleg celebrity virus market but it’s Caleb Landry Jones who really steals the show. At times reminiscent of a young Brad Dourif, his portrayal of Syd is genuinely impressive, handling the drama, horror and yes, the humor, that the story offers up in equal measure with ease.
Production values are really good across the board as well. The effects work, as noted, is excellent and appropriately disgusting at times, while the score from E.C. Woodley and the cinematography from Karim Hussain, which gives the scenes in the clinic an effectively sanitized look that works nicely, really enhance things quite a bit. The production team also did a great job selecting some appropriately skuzzy locations for a few key scenes (including what was an actual porno viewing both establishment that used to exist on King Street in good old downtown Hamilton, Ontario).
Antiviral – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
The UHD offers up an HVEC encoded 2160p transfer taken from a “4k scan of the 35mm protection internegative supervised by Brandon Cronenberg and cinematographer Karim Hussain.” Framed in the film’s original aspect ratio of 1.78.1 widescreen, picture quality is excellent, offering up a load of impressive detail and fantastic color reproduction. Black levels and skin tones are on point and there’s loads of depth and texture to the image. The picture is pristine, showing no problems with dirt, damage or debris and the image is free of compression artifacts and noise reduction.
English language options are provided in 24-bit DTS-HD in 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo options with removable subtitles available in English only. Like the picture quality, the audio is excellent. Dialogue is always crisp and easy to understand, the levels are properly balanced and there are no problems to note with even a trace of hiss, distortion or sibilance.
Extras are spread across the two discs in this set as follows:
Disc One (UHD):
Extras on the UHD disc include an audio commentary with Writer/Director Brandon Cronenberg and Director Of Photography Karim Hussain that goes into plenty of detail about coming up with the concept for the movie and the visuals (wanting it to be a mix between going to the doctor and a fashion shoot), where CGI was used in the picture, using a painting for the title card, some of the locations that were used (including the porn theater - Show World - which was in really rough shape and "smelled very strongly of semen and bleach"), the importance of having specific imagery on set on the TV's in the movie for the actors to interact with, color grading that we needed for the movie, the use of needle fetish imagery in the movie and fetish culture in general, elements of satire that are worked into the storyline, working with the cast and crew, how the movie tackles the concept of celebrity status, specific lighting techniques employed in the film, what went into the editing and post-production process, the use of music in the film, specifically trying to bring out the texture of skin in the movie, trying to make the machines specific characters in certain scenes, how Malcolm McDowell seems to enjoy working with younger directors, how much work the art department put into the production and plenty more.
A trailer for the feature is also provided.
Disc Two (Blu-ray):
In addition to that same commentary and trailer for the feature, the second disc contains a host of featurettes, starting with Broken Tulips, a short film written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg in 2008. In this eight-minute piece, a young man walks down a very sterile, white hallway and speaks to a receptionist before sitting in a waiting room and conversing with a middle-aged woman about infamy versus fame. When he's called in to meet with a consultant to discuss his fascination with a beautiful female model, he's given the option of injecting the herpes simplex virus that the model was afflicted with to be closer to his obsession. Clearly a precursor to the themes, ideas and visuals that Cronenberg would explore in more detail in Antiviral, this is a pretty interesting inclusion on this release as it shows an early take on the story.
Anatomy Of A Virus is a making-of featurette that clocks in at a half an hour. Here, we get interviews with Cronenberg, Associate producer Kevin Krikst, Producer Niv Fichman, Actor Caleb Landry Jones, Actor Malcolm McDowell, 1st Assistant Director Rob Cotterill, Production Designer Arvinder Grewal, Cinematographer Karim Hussain, Actor Sarah Gadon, Actor Matt Watts, Makeup Artist Cathie Irvine and Actor Douglas Smith. This covers how the Broken Tulips short was turned into the feature length Antiviral, how everyone came to collaborate on the feature, what went into writing the screenplay, casting decisions, the themes and ideas that the film explores, working with the cast and crew on the movie, what Brandon Cronenberg is like as a director, what drew the various participants to the project, coming up with the visuals for the movie, what went into shooting key scenes, effects and makeup work, what it was like on set and more. We also, in addition to the interviews, get a lot of behind-the-scenes footage included here.
In Reviving A Dead Cell, Brandon Cronenberg and Karim Hussain talk about restoring the film for this release. Over nine-minutes, they discuss what went into shooting the film during the bridge between traditional film ending and digital cinema taking over, shooting the film digitally (specifically for get the whites the way they wanted them) and then posted for a film finish, the pros and cons of each format, why they chose from the 35mm protection internegative, avoiding the use of AI in the restoration, why they have a lot of affection for the movie, how the global pandemic made the movie more relevant years after it was made, and how the movie turned out to be accidently prophetic in a lot of ways.
Brandon Cronenberg: A First-Time Director's Vision is a three-minute archival featurette where Cronenberg and a few of his collaborators talk about the anticipation for the movie, how Cronenberg proved to be a natural despite this being his first feature film and how making the film was therapeutic for him. There’s more behind-the-scenes footage included here as well.
Severin has also provided a selection of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Brandon Cronenberg and Karim Hussain. There's five minutes of content here, some of which was included when the film was shown at Cannes, with the commentary explaining why the material was cut out of the final version, the context behind this material and why Cronenberg opted to excise the material of his own free will.
First Meeting is an archival featurette with Actors Caleb Landry Jones and Sarah Gadon that runs just over two-minutes and sees the two of them discuss the relationship dynamics of their characters, their decision not to meet her co-star before the production started so as not to taint their perceptions of their characters, how interesting it was to act this way and what it was like for them to meet in person the first time.
The Design Of Antiviral is an archival interview with Production Designer Arvinder Greywal and some of his collaborators that runs two minutes and covers how the look of the film was established early on, using a white palette for almost the entire film, trying to make the scenes without Sarah Gadon's character as black and white as possible and keeping the set deceptively simple.
Manufacturing Celebrity is an EPK with the cast and crew that lets them speak for two-minutes about the idea of celebrity and how this is used throughout the movie, taking the concept of celebrity to the extreme, what went into creating the Hannah Geist celebrity character and the imagery that went along with that in the feature and how everyone is guilty of following different celebrities.
Antiviral – The Final Word:
Antiviral is an auspicious debut from a director who has gone on to prove himself a talent well-worth watching. Highlighted by some great effects and excellent performances, it’s a twisted blend of sci-fi, horror and pitch-black comedy that works quite well and Severin’s two-disc edition presents the film in an excellent presentation and with a host of impressive extra features as well. Recommended!
Click on images below for full sized Antiviral screen caps taken from the Blu-ray disc and intended only to illustrate the film and not the quality of the UHD transfer.
