Antisocial (2013) Review: They’re Fuckin’ With Me Subliminally

Antisocial is a pretty damn sharp flick that satirizes society’s addiction to social media. The message being that we’re all turning into zombies. The flick also has a brief but backhanded thing to say about Mark Zuckerberg and how things are run over at Facebook, although in the film Facebook is known as “Social RedRoom.”

You wouldn’t be wrong to label Antisocial as a zombie movie, especially with the direct homage to Night of the Living Dead when our cast board up the windows and doors to their frat house, but the movie is a weak example of the genre. It almost might be better described as a possession movie.

To give you a bit of the plot, victims become infected via a nefarious code embedded in Social RedBook that was originally designed to cause users to become more addicted to the network. The danger of the outbreak outside of the house is far less pressing than the danger that lurks within the house for our five characters. They have to deal with their isolation, and then the fact that they’re not entirely immune.

Being a Canadian film, the pacing might be a little different from what American audiences are used to. It’s a little bit more leisurely, taking its time to develop the story, and, whether its because it’s Canadian or because it’s taking indie liberties, Antisocial could have ended in a number of other spots. But nope, the story perpetuates, and it’s not until we near the film’s end that it gets really white-knuckled.

Yes, after some good but scarce special effects, we finally get to some self-mutilation. Well, it’s more like self-surgery because there’s a treatment available to beat the virus. It’s kind of awesome, but totally unbelievable because the plausibility of successfully completing this task is highly unlikely and our character (I’m deliberately being evasive about who it is) hardly flinches appropriately. Aside from this scene, the acting exceeds expectations for an indie horror film, tropes aside.

Speaking of tropes, it was pretty lame the way the characters were introduced, which was by way of their profile pages on Social RedRoom. Yes, it makes sense given the social media context of the film, but it’s lazy and someone should have raised a red flag on the option.

Oh, I couldn’t help myself with the Suicidal Tendencies reference in the title!

The Verdict:

Antisocial is a decent film that merits a second viewing and it might even be thought-provoking if you’re a teen or young adult. In terms of scares, there aren’t any, but there are some tremendously classic horror scenes. Because the film doesn’t shy away from featuring technology, it’ll likely date poorly, so you should see it as soon as possible. In addition to that last point, Antisocial 2 is expected in 2015.