This is the second deeply upsetting Canadian body horror film this month. The first, the Soska sisters' American Mary, is much influenced by early David Cronenberg. This one is the feature debut of Cronenberg's 28-year-old son Brandon. Set in the near future, Antiviral is an accomplished piece of work starring the pale, freckled redhead Caleb Landry Jones as Syd March, the employee of a gleaming all-white clinic specialising in providing viruses obtained from national celebrities for starstruck admirers who'd like to share their diseases. Syd, however, makes the mistake of sneaking out with the clinic's specially protected product in his veins and selling it to rivals. This leads to him getting into seriously bad company and courting terminal ill health. It's darkly comic, confused, authentically nasty, and ultimately fails to create its own future world. But as David Cronenberg would be the first to say: "That's my boy!"
Antiviral – review
David Cronenberg's son Brandon proves himself a chip off the old block with this slice of body horror, writes Philip French