When it comes to body-horror stories, their are few directors who can out-weird David Cronenberg. Turning Peter Weller’s typewriter into a giant talking bug, James Spader having sex with a girl’s leg wound, turning Jeff Goldblum into a fly, embedding a TV in James Woods’ torso. The list of nightmare fuel that Cronenberg has provided just goes on and on.
But now that he’s mellowed down a bit with his movies, it’s time to pass the torch. Well, it’s a good thing that his son Brandon seems to be just as willing to creep the crap out of us, as this highly unnerving trailer for his debut film Antiviral clearly shows.
Featuring a world in which deranged fans can buy and be infected by the same diseases as the celebrities that they’re obsessed with, it starts Caleb Landry Jones (who played the young Banshee in X-Men: First Class) as one of the techies at the company that provides these diseases, who gets infected by the same mysterious virus as a mega-celebrity and now has to solve the puzzle of her death to save himself.
Yep, vintage Cronenberg creepiness right there.
“Long live the new flesh!”
And if you’re one of those crazy fans who would like to get whatever it is that Kim Kardashian has that’s made her lower extremities swell up so badly, then you’re in luck, as a website for the film’s Lucas Clinic has just gone live, where you can read all about how you can get whooping cough injected into your face. Cool!
The film received pretty positive reviews when it debuted at Cannes earlier in the year, and has been given an October 12 release date for the US. There’s no international release date set yet.
Last Updated: August 10, 2012
Erwin Kempff
August 14, 2012 at 14:54
I’m too scared to click on the video link…
Kervyn Cloete
August 14, 2012 at 15:15
While there’s nothing really too graphic in the trailer, the way it’s edited, especially the sound design of the trailer, is sure to unnerve you a bit.