Screenrush Spotlight... Disease In Cinema

Antiviral (2012)

Director:  Brandon Cronenberg

Starring: Caleb Landry Jones,Sarah Gadon, Malcolm McDowell,Douglas Smith, Joe Pingue, Nicholas Campbell, Matt Watts

Syd March, an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. Syd also supplies illegal samples of these viruses by smuggling them from the clinic in his own body. When he is infected with the disease that kills celebrity Hannah Geist, Syd becomes a target for collectors and mad fans. He must get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her death before he suffers the same fate.

Where does the infection come from?

The virus originates from a blood-sample taken from the beautiful superstar Hannah Geist.

What does it do?

Fever, confusion, hallucination, oral bleeding, vomiting blood, ultimate death.

How does it spread?

It is spread through an injection when its effects are underestimated.

How is it stopped?

It’s not.

Antiviral is an all too real almost mirror-like image of today’s society, our obsession with celebrities and our strive to be more and more like them on a daily basis. Whether it be routine visits to the gym, extreme “health” dieting, or plastic surgery, it has become clear that contemporary society has an unnatural fixation on the ideal image of perfectionism.