In Antidote, after being admitted to hospital for minor surgery, Sharyn (Ashlynn Yennie) wakes up in a strange hospital ward where the patients are experimented on by a nefarious doctor by the name of Dr. Aaron Hellenbach (Louis Mandylor). It’s not the most original of premises, which is a common theme for Antidote. Almost everything in it feels standard and generic.
It’s clear that the project was made on a modest budget with limited resources, both being likely reasons for the single location setting. It’s common practice for independent filmmakers to keep set changes to a minimum and fashion an idea around the one place to keep costs down. This means that there have already been a multitude of other films set within the walls of a hospital, and as such Antidote feels old before it has even begun. In terms of design, the set is just a couple of rooms and corridors. It doesn’t present much scope for imaginative camerawork and we are left with a never ending sequence of walks up and down the same corridor. This tedium could be an intentional move from Daskaloff to tie into some aspects of his story, but that feels unlikely.
The acting however, is fine, Ashlynn Yennie does a great job at shouldering the role, and Louis Mandylor clearly relishes playing the baddie. In case the surname didn’t make it obvious, Louis is the brother of Saw series actor Costas Mandylor, and with some of the scenes of torture on display, it feels very much that this was his own attempt at Saw, but once again, it doesn’t quite work. In Saw, when we first met Hoffman, there was something that felt off about him, but his status as a detective threw a red herring at us and it wasn’t until the end that we realised how awful he was. Here, Hellenbach is an obvious villain from the first meeting.
Antidote tries hard to inject something different into the proceedings, offering what it believes is a great twist. Unfortunately the reveal isn’t particularly unique and is easy to see coming very early on. This becomes the final nail in the coffin with Antidote trapped in the purgatory of mediocrity, desperately trying to rise above it, but sadly failing.
Antidote
Summary
A disappointing film that we’ve seen a thousand times before, Antidote is a standard and generic affair.
Antidote was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021.
