Antiviral
IFC Films | Release Date: April 12, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterMegan LehmannApr 5, 2013
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, David Cronenberg should be feeling pretty chuffed with son Brandon’s big-screen debut, a petri dish of high-concept perversity and cultural commentary teeming with lo-fi ickiness. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 25, 2013
There's a certain bravery in Brandon's full embrace of the themes of Cronenberg père, who may be returning the favor with his next film, the Hollywood satire "Maps to the Stars." Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBill StametsApr 25, 2013
Panic about pop culture is not new. Yet Antiviral finds a novel angle of attack. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 10, 2013
For all its preoccupation with disease, Antiviral isn’t especially visceral. The movie can be repulsive at times, but Cronenberg is more interested in ideas than in blood and guts. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinApr 18, 2013
Antiviral is often fascinating to watch. If Cronenberg's not yet a dead ringer for his iconic dad, he's taken an intriguing first step. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 11, 2013
Brandon Cronenberg clearly understands that he has to deal with the legacy of his last name, and Antiviral feels to me like a perverse act of exorcism, half tribute and half cleansing ritual. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChuck WilsonApr 10, 2013
Papa Cronenberg must be proud, but be advised: If there's a blood test in your future, book it before seeing this movie. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthApr 6, 2013
It's exactly the oddball and crooked tale you'd want and expect from a Cronenberg with all the gratuitous blood, pus, bone and multiple closeups of needles piercing skin you could ask for. Dad would be proud. Read full review
67
Film.comWilliam GossApr 5, 2013
From the concept on down, Cronenberg’s film inevitably resembles the ‘80s body horror with which father David made his name, but Brandon brings his own antiseptic eye to this queasy noir mutation, like “D.O.A.” for a self-serving near-future. Read full review
65
NPRStephanie ZacharekApr 11, 2013
With his debut picture, Antiviral, Brandon Cronenberg, son of David, has made a movie that's decidedly, resolutely unjunky — and more's the pity. This is a sleek, willfully elegant exercise, high on style even if it's conspicuously low on ideas. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanApr 5, 2013
A smart, subversive but rather cold debut from Brandon Cronenberg that's short of the dark wit that lit up his father's early work. Then again, comparisons are hardly fair, especially when Cronenberg Jr. clearly has plenty of ideas of his own. Read full review
50
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeApr 11, 2013
The debut film of Brandon Cronenberg deals out shivers and flinches in little hypodermic jabs. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenApr 7, 2013
A one-joke movie--a good joke, yes, but Brandon Cronenberg's agenda clouds the clarity that's needed to fully deliver the punchline. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Geoff PevereApr 5, 2013
For his feature film debut, Brandon Cronenberg has taken the decidedly uneasy route in more ways than one. First of all, Antiviral is a virtual panoply of high wooziness, replete with sweating, shakes, vomiting, rot-infected food and more needles piercing skin than rush hour at a free flu clinic. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen HoldenApr 11, 2013
At a certain point, Antiviral doesn’t know where to go or how to break out of its vacuum-sealed sepulcher, and Syd, even when vomiting blood, remains as incorporeal and creepy as a ghost. This is a movie that drinks its own tainted blood. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 9, 2013
The whole movie feels like a case of the sweats, putting you in desperate need of the chicken soup of recognizable human behavior. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangApr 6, 2013
Icky though it is, Antiviral never builds the sort of character investment or narrative momentum that would allow its visceral horrors to seriously disturb, rather than seeming like choice gross-out moments lovingly designed for maximum viewer recoil. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 5, 2013
Brandon Cronenberg's movie is made with some technical skill and focus, but it is agonisingly self-regarding and tiresome. Read full review
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