Directed
by Cody Calahan, Starring: Michelle Mylett, Cody Ray Thompson, Adam Christie.
Horror, Canada, 2013, 92mins, cert 18.
Released in the UK on DVD and Bluray by Monster Pictures on 14th April 2014.
It’s
New Year’s Eve. Forced to attend a university lecture as she didn’t do very
well on her criminology finals, Sam’s day goes from bad to worse when her (cheating)
boyfriend Dan breaks up with her via a Skype-like conversation conducted
through The Social Redroom, a Facebook-like social media forum. Closing her
laptop down, she takes out her mobile and deletes the Social Redroom app (not
before catching an alert informing her that Dan’s status has already been
changed from “taken” to “single” – ouch!) Given the reason she really wanted to
talk to him, this was not what she was hoping for...But then there’s long-time
best friend Mark’s New Year’s Eve party to go to, and even though she’s clearly
not in the mood to party, and prone to bouts of nausea, she reluctantly shows
up. And just when Sam thinks her 31st December can’t get any worse;
it appears there’s a highly contagious global infection breaking out which
turns the affected victims into violent hallucinating zombies.
Given its European premiere at FrightFest 2013, Cody Calahan’s Facebook meets VIDEODROME via NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD premise isn’t outstandingly original, yet once you get past the generic teen tosh it manages to crank up a gear or two and the final third pulls off some pleasingly effective tongue-in-cheek moments of gore before the memorable final sequence concludes proceedings nicely.
Given its European premiere at FrightFest 2013, Cody Calahan’s Facebook meets VIDEODROME via NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD premise isn’t outstandingly original, yet once you get past the generic teen tosh it manages to crank up a gear or two and the final third pulls off some pleasingly effective tongue-in-cheek moments of gore before the memorable final sequence concludes proceedings nicely.
As
with most films that feature social media-reliant scenarios, I always marvel at
how quick and reliable the protagonist’s wireless signals are. Even whilst
fleeing up a staircase in a block of flats, a character can conduct a
near-perfect Skype video conversation (Why you’d want to do this at such a time
of clear and present danger is another matter). Of course the whole premise is
a not-so-subtle dig at how social media is controlling our lives, turning us
into zombie-like addicts constantly seeking on-line validation and recognition
and all the while losing our grip on reality and, paradoxically, our ability to
really communicate with each other.
The
story would have benefited from a less teen-angst-centred approach; I’m
thinking perhaps a more coldly analytical Cronenberg-like scalpel to the
material. However, director Calahan, along with his co-writer Chad Archibald
certainly provide some nice hallucinatory moments of body-horror – not to
mention quite literally a scalpel (and power-drill) for those hard to reach
brain infections.
Of the
cast, Michelle Mylett as Sam is the best of a fairly generic bunch, infusing
her character with a plausible layer of sympathy and vulnerability before
ratcheting up her self-sufficiency and survival instincts. Ana Alic’s blonde
nymphet Kaitlin rises above the standard nubile-for-hire guise when trussed in
Xmas tree lights and crawling feral-like on all fours in the film’s singularly
most memorable sequence.Ironically, I deactivated my Facebook account (temporarily) a week before watching this film. I felt I was actually becoming more and more (forgive the unintentional pun) antisocial with every posting. Putting this in context, Cody Calahan’s ANTISOCIAL is more than worthy of a few ‘likes’, even if the teen’s early postings induce initial buffering before connection is achieved.
Extras:
Audio commentary, behind the scenes feature, trailer.
*** (out of 5*)
Paul Worts
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