Antisocial (2013) Review

This may come as a surprise considering I run a website and therefore run social media connections for the site, but I really hate our current state of communications do to the popularity of social media, accessibility on cell phones, and an almost redefinition of the very term “friend”. But that’s a rant for another time and place. As a huge fan of Pontypool and the original, if confusing and non-scientific, zombie outbreak that it poses, I just had to check out Antisocial after reading a bit about the premise. Then my personal distaste for social media added even more of an incentive to check it out. But be forewarned, just as I said about Pontypool, it will be difficult to discuss this film without a small amount of spoilers, but I will do my best to keep it in check.

On New Year’s Eve, a group of friends gather for a small party, and outside the world begins to devolve into chaos. From the get-go, there’s an emphasis on a social network called The Social Redroom, including introducing the main characters using their social profiles. Some fairly standard zombie outbreak news reports begin to show up on television, but they’re combined with talk of social networking sites and cyber-bullying, indicating a link between the strange behavior and the internet. In this age of over-exposure and instant access to just about anything, a good chunk of the movie unfolds with the group of friends watching various reports on TV and the internet. And here’s the spoiler (that will be spoiled basically anywhere you read anything about this film): it’s a virus spread through the computer, particularly through subliminal messaging in The Social Redroom. Nonsensical? Sure. Unique? Definitely. However, when we see those subliminal messages, they’re quite ridiculous, so the unique plot point isn’t executed very well.

At a quick glance it may seem like Antisocial is ‘attacking’ social networks, or pointing at them as evil entities like some sheltered person with a fear of anything post-1990 would do. If that was the direction this film took, then I’d probably have to say what a wise man (Brandon of Movies at Dog Farm) once said to me, “pick a moving target”. But that’s really not the case here. The very title points to what we’ve become as social networking becomes more and more prevalent in everyday life, and it seems like that is more the social commentary here. We have become antisocial. And, at least in my opinion, we need to address that problem before it gets worse. We need to re-personalize with our true friends, and remember the fact that “internet life” is not a substitute for reality. But again, that’s another rant for another time and place (this is the Blood Sucking Geek after all, not the Jonny’s Views On Social Decay Blog). However, do not take my tendency to rant as an indication that this film does a great job at seriously addressing the issue it attempts to tackle. It’s a good point to be made, but Antisocial makes a rather half-hearted jab at it, and more-so slides into the comfortable zombie zone of the group of survivors barricading themselves in with the impending inevitability of their doom.

The acting is middle of the road, with mostly decent performances, but the apocalyptic situation is downplayed by the fact that most of the main characters seem to shed their concern with each new development in a matter of minutes. In other words, they’re way too calm about cannibalistic behavior and unexplained nosebleeds. Most emotions come across as insincere, so the dramatic elements don’t have much of an impact.

There’s a decent amount of blood and gore, but a lack of the gut-munching and throat-ripping zombie standards. So I guess it’s what you would call a “tasteful” use of gore. Maybe. But I certainly don’t seek out tasteful gore, and most gorehounds are in the same arena. For those of you keeping score, that means it tends to fall short as a smart social parody, misses the mark of an intensely emotional apocalyptic drama, and is far too ‘safe’ for the average gorehound, and really doesn’t ever come close to a frightening atmospheric horror. Chances are, picking one direction and focusing most efforts on that would have made for a better film. Go big or go home. And other such turns of phrase.

So in the end, Antisocial aspires to be more than it is, but it’s still a decently entertaining watch. It’s littered with clichés, from the parodied social site drama, to the predictable ‘pulled out the window by zombies’ thing. What starts as a unique approach to a zombie virus, really eventually just turns into a derivative zombie film, with only a few small, and kind of absurd, variations. It’s not a bad film, but it’s nowhere near the haunting, isolated genius of Pontypool or the smart social parody of the original Dawn of the Dead. In a word: Meh. If you’re looking for mindless zombie entertainment, give it a watch, but certainly don’t expect anything revolutionary.