[[quoteright:214:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/antiviral_9660.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:214:[[Music/JanisJoplin Take another little piece of my heart, now baby...]]]]

A 2012 science fiction/BodyHorror film; the feature debut of director Brandon Cronenberg -- and yeah, he's Creator/DavidCronenberg's kid.

Not surprisingly, {{Squick}} ensues.

In an AlternateUniverse set in the present, celebrity worship has reached its logical end: clinics now harvest diseases from the famous, dilute their infectiousness, and sell them to their fans. The success of the Lucas clinic hinges on their exclusive contract with starlet Hannah Geist (Creator/SarahGadon) -- who is also the [[StalkerWithACrush object of obsession]] of Lucas sales rep Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones). Unknown to anyone else, March has not only been shooting himself up with celebrity germs on the sly, he's also been sneaking said germs out of the lab and passing them on to bootleggers. His scheme begins to unravel when, after illicitly sampling Hannah's latest disease, March suffers an extreme, hallucination-fueled reaction, and finds himself the pawn of rival clinic owners and back-alley genetic scientists.

He followed it with ''Film/{{Possessor}}''.
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!! This film provides examples of:

* AffablyEvil: Dorian, Mira Tesser, and Steiner.
* ArtificialCannibalism: Aside from paying for strains of their diseases, fans are willing to shell out serious cash to eat the cloned tissue of big stars from licensed, mainstream "meat markets." The company "Astral Bodies" is one such provider, selling items like sausages, bacon bits, and "1st Grade Stem Cell Meat" taken from celebrities.
* AsceticAesthetic: Exaggerated. Every single scene, with the possible exception of the scenes in Hannah's hotel, show the white starkness and minimalism, in addition to Syd's paleness as he succumbs to various illnesses.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. As Hannah's disease progresses, she begins bleeding from the mouth.
* BeautifulDreamer: Hannah -- when Syd first encounters her in RealLife, she is asleep in a pricey hotel suite's bed, with a stylish sleep mask on. [[WakeupMakeup Her hair and makeup are perfect.]]
* CharacterCatchphrase: Syd's CreepyMonotone speech that he gives to each of his customers. It has slight variations, but he always declares that he "understands" how the obsessive fan feels.
* CelebCrush: It's insinuated that much of the world has one on Hannah Geist.
* CopyProtection: Lucas brags that his clinic's method of coding each customer's DNA into the celebrity disease prevents it from infecting others, either accidentally or deliberately. Subverted by Syd, whose home DNA sequencer lets him crack the copy protection and sell the diseases to black marketeers.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler:Dorian Lucas and Mira Tesser, and probably Vole too, though he or she never appears onscreen.]]
* CreepyMonotone: Syd.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Of the "Limited Palette" variety. Most of the sets (the Lucas Clinic, Syd's apartment) are all white, and Syd and the other sales reps wear black suits and ties with white shirts. Only in the "real world" -- e.g. Hannah's hotel, Dr. Abendroth's country mansion -- is a full (if subdued) color palette utilized.
* {{Determinator}}: Syd, who ends up with a flu modified to cause hemorrhagic fever symptoms and hallucinations, keeps going no matter how many times he is beaten or collapses.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Syd's sanity and health have deteriorated significantly and he now works at the rival company Vole & Tasser, where Hannah's dying body is preserved to harvest more cells and sicknesses.]]
* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: An extreme version. Syd endangers his own health (to the point of near death) with celebrity illnesses - specifically Hannah Geist's - because of his own obsession. He's shown shooting up Hannah's virus into his arm in the bathroom after collecting it from her.
* HemoErotic: [[spoiler:The film ends with an extreme close-up of Syd slicing Hannah's arm with a scalpel and lovingly drinking her blood.]]
* HighClassCannibal: In a literal version of EatTheRich, it's popular to eat the cells of celebrities, and it's an expensive practice even if it's experienced by a lot of people.
* FamousForBeingFamous: Exaggerated in that nobody ever discusses why Hannah or any of the celebrities in the movie are wildly famous. They simply are. It's left unclear if they are literally supposed to be this, or if it's part of the movie's commentary on celebrity culture.
* KubrickStare: Syd does this on the cover and throughout most of the film.
* LargeHam: Averted -- by Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, of all people...
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Also TruthInTelevision. Like his father, Brandon started out as a "book nerd" and aspiring writer before catching the filmmaking bug.
%%* MadScientist
* MeaningfulName: Hannah ''Geist'' who [[spoiler:attains an afterlife of sorts.]]
* MessyHair: Syd's hair as he gets more and more ill.
* MustacheVandalism: Syd defaces a wall-sized blowup of Hannah's face -- [[VomitIndiscretionShot with blood he just puked up.]]
* NightmareSequence: Syd hallucinates that he has fused with his stolen DNA sequencer. [[http://l7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Antiviral.jpg Eww.]]
* NippleAndDimed: Several of the starlets appear as virtual nudes on computer monitors -- including Hannah, who discretely covers her naughty bits.
* {{Paparazzi}}: In keeping with the movie's themes, they now breathlessly report on celebs' health issues ("ARIA NOBLE's ANAL ANGUISH!").
* PlayingWithSyringes: Reportedly, all the close-ups of hypodermics puncturing skin were real. Syd escapes from Levine's lab by [[spoiler: stabbing him with a hypo. ''In the mouth.'']]
* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: Separate corporations own the whole bodies and genetic code of the famous, around who their {{Dystopia}} exclusively resolves.
* ScienceIsBad: With a side helping of CapitalismIsBad: capitalistic science takes illness and disease from the rich and famous, and people then pay to get infected with it en masse.
* ToServeMan: A side effect of the celebrity-disease craze: butchers who sell steaks lab-grown from the stars' cells. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Syd:
-->''"I don’t understand how this is not considered cannibalism."''
* SyntheticPlague: [[spoiler:The disease that infected Hannah was a genetically modified strain of an illness that had infected her before.]]
%%* TragicHero
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The setting.
* VomitIndiscretionShot: Both Syd and Hannah vomit blood on more than one occasion.
* WorkingThroughTheCold: Syd keeps up his official and illicit activities, even as the multiple diseases course through his body. Various co-workers (both legitimate and criminal) comment on how sick he looks; Syd [[ObviouslyNotFine passively insists he's okay]].
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