Antisocial

New Canadian flick Antisocial is tough to rate in some respects. It’s certainly not amazing; but when it comes to bloody horror flicks, that can be good, because it ends up funnier than it could ever be scary. The audience vote was clear on this one: roaring laughter dominated the theatre during the session I attended.

Why was it terrible? In a word, predictable. Antisocial is the tired story of a group of college kids barricading themselves in a house, while an apocalyptic, mysteriously infected America rages outside. Add to this a pretty bad script, and you’ve got something you can only enjoy by laughing at. In one hideous scene, a violently crazed, infected teen is thrown off a balcony, landing with a sickening thump followed by a huge pool of crimson blood. ‘Oh my God, is he dead?’ shrieks an air-headed protagonist, Jed (Adam Christie).

Throw in for good measure some romantic tension between a couple of cookie-cutter, sexy teens – Sam (Michelle Mylett), and the seemingly only intelligent male, Mark (Cody Thompson). The only intelligent white male teen, that is. The black teen, of course, Steve (Romaine Waite) is buff, heroic, and smart, but – sorry to spoil it for anyone – becomes infected and dies fairly early on. The black guy always dies, doesn’t he? Most of them do anyhow, and since formula dictates, this one does too.

Though Cody Calahan is one of the guilty-as-charged scriptwriters, he’s also the director, and he deserves some big ticks in that department. The film is shot beautifully, in muted green tones which give the whole picture a melancholic Polaroid-transfer look.

What is most surprising is that Antisocial takes a sudden turn for the better three quarters of the way through. The cause of the virus is unknown at the beginning, but when the reason for it finally starts to emerge, the film actually explores some very new ideas which overcome the predictability problem. This rendered it instantly more engaging and therefore thoroughly more frightening. The main problem with this is that it took far too long to happen. Surely some people would have walked out by that point? Just goes to show that good things come to those who wait.

Not everyone has the patience for slow or stupid movies, but those who do will receive an unexpected reward in this unusual case.

Put bluntly, Antisocial is three quarters 2-star movie, followed by one quarter 4-star movie. Worth seeing just for the end bit, plus the blood, if that stuff turns you on too.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Antisocial
Dir. Cody Calahan
Canada, 2013, 90 min