Infected by Celebrity Culture: Antiviral (2012)
Outside of being David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon Cronenberg has carved his niche within horror. Best known for 2020’s Possessor, his earliest film, Antiviral (2012), deserves another look. Although it might not be as polished or fully developed as his later work, you can see the ideas and topics that will become prevalent. Also, the work still feels exceptionally commonplace due to the current wave of celebrity culture and marketing of celebrities with the parasocial relationships that arrive from it.
In the future, people can buy viruses and similar diseases from sick celebrities and be infected with them to feel close to them. Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones), an employee at the Lucas Clinic, sells viruses to customers, including an exclusive disease from celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon). March steals from his job outside of work by injecting himself with the disease and then selling them on the black market. Yet, he’s asked one day to harvest the pathogen directly from Geist and injects himself with her blood, making him gravely ill. March soon discovers that he cannot remove the copy protection from the disease and must find a way to fix the situation.
Although we do not inject ourselves with diseases from celebrities (hopefully not), we still experience that type of parasocial relationship with stars on social media. Look at Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms where people can access celebrities regardless of the time and date. Even twenty years ago, that level of access would have been considered a dream. But now, it allows people to consume celebrities’ lives without any boundaries. As a result, you have people who feel a level of investment and connection without ever meeting them. Regardless of it being movie and tv stars, musicians, politicians, social media stars, and similar figures, that line becomes a lot more blurred as fans believe they have a sense of ownership. This is not to say every fan is like this, but some take it to the extreme. On a darker level in the film, fans can buy meat grown from the cells of celebrities at a specialty meat market. The film is heavily interested in how people consume celebrity culture.
Celebrity marketing is nothing new, but Antiviral takes it to the next level. You can replace celebrity marketing and selling their diseases with various commodities. Recently, notable celebrities promoted and endorsed NFTs for fans to buy. Even though some of them might not know the ramification and gross details about NFTs or feel pressured to sell them, others willingly ignore the danger to consumers by advertising them and profiting from the parasocial relationship. Much like in the film, the celebrities do not care about the ill effects on the consumer, only that they are being sold and marketed. While NFTs are currently going under, the celebrity promoters have not said anything. The fans are left high and dry as they profit off it and wait for the next thing to promote.
Outside of the illnesses and diseases, the most horrific aspect of the movie lies in the character of Hannah Geist. It’s eventually revealed that Geist is near death due to the illness, and her team and other people still harvest and sell her pathogens. Even as she slowly passes away, her team and other businesses profit from her. Her humanity is not as crucial as her marketability. The events quickly call to mind past events with the exploitation of celebrities by managers and businesses without regarding their bodies and lives. After Geist dies, they manage to regrow her body parties through her cells and market it as her “Afterlife” with a VR ad of her. The downbeat ending perfectly wraps up the movie’s themes and shows how even in one celebrity’s death, everyone can profit off it and easily make a buck.
Thanks again for reading. You can keep with the blog and get updates by following it on Instagram @thebloginthewoods or by following/subscribing to The Blog in the Woods via Medium.
Feel free to check out more of my work and other projects while also supporting the blog by clicking on the link.
My articles about Titane for Fangoria and Horror and Independent Film for Dread Central are now live.
My reviews of are Night’s End and Doom Eternal live on Slay Away. I also wrote a piece about Al Ewing’s Guardians of the Galaxy for Comics Bookcase.
I’ll be seeing Alex Garland’s Men this weekend and will try to have my review up by Tuesday.
