Antidote, movie (2021)
image © Souvenir Films
The Antidote (2021) is a contemporary fantasy thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Antidote, movie (2021)
Original title: Antidote
Series: -
Setting: contemporary fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: contemporary fantasy thriller, Features: sci-fi, thriller, contemporary fantasy, fantasy, Style: ?
Release: 2021.05.11
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2021.12), first time
Rating: Good (2+ out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Good (2+ out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Antidote, a contemporary fantasy thriller movie from 2021. It's about a woman waking up from an operation in a strange hospital, closed off from the outside world. The Antidote film is interesting, I recommend it.
If you'd like to be surprised by the Antidote film, I don't recommend you to watch the trailer beyond 0:31, because it gives away too much of the plot. It basically provides a summary of the film, it's only the end twist we are not shown.
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Review (spoiler-free) - Antidote, movie (2021)
I know I’ve heard about this movie before, because I checked a review, considered it uninteresting, and went to watch something else. But then I’ve run into it again, looked interesting, so I sat down to watch it. I probably watched the trailer when I first heard about it, but I can’t remember anything out of that.
The Antidote movie is about a woman waking up from an operation in a strange hospital, closed off from the outside world.
The story is good, it has interesting twists. The pacing is consistent. There are some character arcs. I didn’t find major logical problems.
The cinematography is good enough. The scenes are not very interesting visually, but that’s what you get for filming in an enclosed set. Some special effects are not very convincing, but they are okay if you can suspend your disbelief.
The characters are good, we get to know enough about them during the movie. The actors are also fine. The woman (Ashlynn Yennie) was a perfect choice, it’s good to watch her, and she acts believably.
The music (by Ryan Harrison, Kohld Wintertide, Joshus Seigel, David Valdovinos) is not noticeable, but also not distracting.
Antidote is an interesting contemporary fantasy thriller, I think fans of the genre will enjoy it.
My experience
I was satisfied with Antidote (2021). I like stories with an interesting setting, and twists in the plot, and Antidote delivered just that.
Rating: Good (2+ out of 3 points). Antidote is a well-made film.
Enjoyment: Good (2+ out of 3 points). Antidote is interesting, I liked it.
Rewatchability: I'm not sure. I think it's mostly the surprise of the story that makes you feel interested. But I can see how people could connect to the themes, so they might want to watch it multiple times.
Chance of watching it again: Unlikely. Now that I know the story, there's probably no need to watch it again.
Chance of watching a sequel: High. I'd sure watch it, although I have no clue how could they make a relevant sequel.
Antidote, movie (2021)
image © Souvenir Films
Will you enjoy this?
If you like mystery or thriller movies, you might like Antidote.
If you prefer horror or action thriller movies (Alien, Life, Splice), the film is probably not for you, as there are very few action scenes or scary scenes in the Antidote movie.
If you like medical horror stories (Anatomy, Coma (1978)), you might like Antidote.
If you like twists of expectations, you might enjoy this movie.
If you prefer visuals over story, Antidote would probably bore you, as there are not much to see here.
Watching for plot points
If you are interested in medical horror stories, I think it's worth watching the Antidote movie for the plot points.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
I’m sure you’ll get a similar experience.
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Antidote, movie (2021)
image © Souvenir Films
Review with spoilers - Antidote, movie (2021)
I liked the Antidote movie.
The story is based on the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, specifically, the Inferno part. However, you don't need any knowledge of that story to understand what is happening in this film.
I’m not entirely sure we needed to see the boobs of the woman at the end, but I’d be the last one to complain about it.
Cover
The cover of the movie is okay, it doesn't say much, but it doesn't spoil the movie.
The trailer
The trailer is basically a substitute for watching the movie. It's only the final twist that is not shown.
If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the Antidote film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will ruin the movie for you.
Promise of the first scene
We see a hanging man. I assume we’ll get to know why he hanged himself, or if he was hanged, who did it and why. Maybe the culprits even get captured.
Execution: Wow, indeed we got all of that. We even met the hanged man before and after his death.
Plot summary / Synopsis
We see a hanged man.
A family get waken up by the woman (Ashlynn Yennie as Sharyn), who has an appendicitis. The husband and their daughter get her to the hospital.
The woman gets sleeping gas for the operation, and when she wakes up, she finds herself restrained. A doctor (Louis Mandylor as Dr. Aaron Hellenbach) greets her. Seeing that her operation scar is healed, she realises that it must have been some time ago, so she tries to leave, but she gets stopped. The doctor tells her that nobody will come looking for her.
A man from the neighbouring cell slips a paper to her, telling her that this is not a hospital.
The doctor arrives and asks the woman if she has any regrets she would like to erase from her past. As she refuses to answer, she is called to a group therapy. She meets other patients. A bald woman (Augie Duke as Cassandra Franklin), a man (Christos Vasilopoulos as Rizzo), a paralysed old woman (Betty McCormick as Marjorie), a criminally insane man (Alexi Stavrou as Lester), and a bald man (Ravi Naidu as Everett). When the doctor leaves, they tell her that this is an experimental facility, they dismember and torture them, then they get healed. There’s an alarm, and everyone gets back to their own cells.
After seeing a man getting parts chopped off, the woman decides that she wants to leave. She gets caught, and brought to questioning. She is shown a picture of a hanged man (from the beginning of the movie). She is promised that she can phone her family if she tells about this man. She tells him that he had a relationship with that man (Scott Alin as Nico Cash), who was a piano tuner, but it didn’t work out, and he committed suicide by hanging. The doctor asks about his drug deals, but the woman denies knowing about those. She gets the phone, but that doesn’t work.
As she walks the halls, he sees a man, that looks like her ex-boyfriend, then runs into a piano and a rope. Then she gets taken, and the doctors cut of her right leg, then stitch it back. Not long after that, she is able to move the leg. The doctor tells her it’s because of the special serum (DMS).
She tells the bald man that she’d seen her ex-boyfriend who has been dead for 10 years. He asks if she had seen the body, but she realises that it was a closed casket funeral. The bald man storms to the doctor, and asks when will they be released, but they get his tongue cut out.
She goes back to the piano room, when her hanged ex-boyfriend suddenly drops down. She backs out from the room, and when she is escorted inside by the doctor, the room is totally empty.
The woman steals the keys of the doctor, and convinces the bald woman to escape with her. They find a map in the doctor’s room. They are caught, but the bald woman cuts her neck. As the doctors scramble to keep her alive, the woman is able to escape. A man joins him, and they hide together in a room, when the man starts to grope her. She doesn’t dare making a sound, so she won’t get caught. When the doctors leave, the woman stabs him in the groin and leaves him.
She find the exit (labelled Exitus), and she gets out to a wooded area. She arrives in an empty house, and starts to search it when she is suddenly back in the facility.
She gets hanged, then gets treatment for it. The doctor compels her to talk about her past. She tells him that she was a drug addict.
She confides to the bald man that she got something very bad ten years ago. The bald woman tells her that she deserves burning alive, as she wanted to free some animals about to be butchered, and burnt the farm house, with the family still inside, because she thought that they deserved it for hurting those animals. The woman tells her that she thinks they are dead, and they are in hell. Ten years ago she got so high she killed her ex-boyfriend.
The woman goes to the doctor, who confirms this. They are in that part of Hell, where they are tortured then healed. The doctor himself is not the overlord, he is one of the patients, just like the woman, and he gets overdosed with bile every day. After the first three month, they have to start torture others. If they refuse, they get tortured for it. The doctor has been there since 1969.
Her ex-boyfriend arrives, and wants to hang her to avenge himself, but she allows this to happen, as she feels that she deserves this. The ex-boyfriend calls her out. The doctor tries to stop them, but the ex-boyfriend pushes him away. They get out to a hellish place, where a bridge is being built.
We see flashes of doctors trying to resuscitate her on an operating table.
The bridge begins to collapse, but she still gets through.
She awakens to find her husband and daughter waiting for her.
She does online searches, and finds some news about people she met in Hell.
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In flashback we see that she had some good times with her ex-boyfriend, and knew about his drug deals.
After his suicide, she met a detective, and they got together. To ease the pain of their losses, they visited a church.
When she got pregnant, she told the detective she killed her ex-boyfriend in accident.
She still visited the grave of her ex-boyfriend from time to time.
The setting
The story is set on contemporary Earth, and on a parallel dimension, Hell, that looks like Earth, but it has better medicine.
Antidote, movie (2021)
image © Souvenir Films
Hell
In this part of Hell, the new arrivals are tortured by others. If they do something wrong, they get punished accordingly. Then they get healed by their special healing serum.
After three months spent in this part, the patient needs to start taking part in the torturing of others. They have to do cruel things, otherwise they’ll get tortured. Being cruel will make them stay here, so it’s a self sustaining system. Even the torturers are being tortured by others, according to things they had done in their lives.
One can prevent the torture of someone, if they are willing to take that torture instead.
Also, they need to confess the most evil things they’ve done in their lives.
It’s not entirely clear if the woman started to hallucinate about the piano, or it was projected to her mind by the doctors.
If the patients are able to leave while their body is still able to receive their souls, than they can return to life. The woman spent 15 seconds here, that felt like at least a week.
The DMS serum
The DMS serum is used in this part of Hell to torment the people.
It is able to help re-attach a cut appendage. In a couple of days, it gets totally healed.
It also allows growing cut tongues during one night.
One patient was burnt alive, and the serum helped them recover, although without body hair.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one.
The structure of the story
The scenes of the Antidote film are mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline. There are some flashbacks to previous times.
There’s no single viewpoint character.
It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - introduction, action, resolution.
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Things I liked
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
I haven't seen any other works of the writers (Peter Daskaloff & Matthew Toronto) or the director (Peter Daskaloff). After watching Antidote, I’m interested in them.
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Antidote, movie (2021)
image © Souvenir Films
Analysis of the story - Antidote, movie (2021)
I liked the story, I didn't find problems that would have prevented me from enjoying Antidote.
Problematic elements
Tag line: The "Immortality comes with pain" is intentionally misleading. Although not part of the movie, but the marketing campaign, I do not like this.
Unanswered questions
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Possibilities of improvement
- Creating a better CGI hell for the ending scene.
How it could have been better?
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
On IMDB, it’s said that it’s a mistake that the ex-boyfriend had a cut throat, before he was hanged, yet they didn’t find signs of foul play. However, it might be that the police officer already fancied the girl, so he arranged to have things smoothed.
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Antidote, movie (2021)
image © Souvenir Films
Uses for the film - Antidote, movie (2021)
Plot
- People are abducted from hospitals.
- People are abducted for medical experiments.
- Abducted people are forced to do cruel things, so they would remain there to torture the new arrivals.
Scenes
- The scenes where they show the experiments can be used as footage found in the lair of modern / near future villains.
Designs
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Getting out (Solo play): The player sets up a labyrinthine playing area, with many corridors and rooms. There are multiple exits on the edge of the playing area. The player is a patient, wanting to get out, set up in one of the rooms in the middle.
When the patient enters a corridor, the player has to roll a d6: 1: another patient, whom the player may ask to join, 2: a doctor, 3-6: nothing happens. When the player gets in base contact with another patient, roll a d6: 1-3: the patient joins the player, and goes wherever the patient goes, 4-6: the patient stays. One patient can only be tested once.
If the player enters a corridor with a doctor, roll a d6: 1: the doctor stops the player for a round, 2: the doctor stops and wants to lead the patient back to its room, 3-6: nothing. If the patient doesn’t comply, the doctor calls for alert (put an alert marker on it), and tries to defeat the patient in close combat. If there are other doctors who see an alert doctor, they get alerted (put an alert marker on them), and start to move toward the patient. If they defeat the patient in close combat, the patient gets taken back to its room. If the player has other patients in the team, they are the ones who first get taken out of combat.
When the patient gets into its room, the whole playing area is reset, and the doctors and other patients are removed from the playing area.
When the patient enters a room, roll a d6: 1: another patient, whom the player may ask to join, 2: doctors experimenting on a patient, 3-6: nothing. If the player defeats the doctors who experiment on the patient, the patient will join the player, but it will be in a weakened state.
When the player reaches an exit, roll a d6: 1: it’s the real exit, and the player wins, 2-6: it’s a fake exit. If it’s the last untested exit, you don’t have to roll, it’s the real exit.
The doctor’s room (easier for the player): Assign the doctor’s room in the beginning of the game. When the player spends an action there, the map of the facility is found, with the location of the exit. When you find the map, roll for each exit, until you find the real exit. You have to reach that exit to win the game.
Experimenting doctors (harder for the player): There’s another kind of doctor, indicate them with a different model. When the playing area is reset, deploy some of them. These experimenting doctors wander around the table. When they see a patient, or an alert doctor, they will move towards them. When they reach the patient, they will attack them. If they take the patient down, remove the patient and the experimenting doctor from the playing area, they spend their time with fun experiments. If this happens to the player, than the player gets back to their room, and the playing area is reset.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Patients: Human-sized human civilians in patient clothing.
Doctors: Human-sized human civilians in doctor clothing.
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Similar stories - Antidote, movie (2021)
Movies
Fractured (2019): A father searches for his daughter and wife, who both disappeared from hospital after a routine medical examination. It has a similarly story to Antidote, with some twists.
New Mutants (2020): There are people brought to a place that is closed off. They are being experimented on, by evil people. Antidote is a better movie, but New Mutants have better action scenes.
Sensation (2021): There are people brought to a place that is closed off. They are being experimented on, by evil people. Antidote is a better movie in every respect.
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Frequently asked questions - Antidote, movie (2021)
Is the Antidote film based on a book or comics?
No, Antidote is not based on either books or comics. Although the story is based on the Inferno parts of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Is the Antidote film a remake or reboot?
No, the Antidote film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in Antidote? Does Antidote have end credit scenes?
No, there's no post credit scene in Antidote.
Where can I see Antidote? Where can I watch Antidote online? Is Antidote available on Netflix? Is Antidote on Amazon?
As of 2021.12.30, Antidote is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft Movies, Vudu, YouTube.
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Resources - Antidote, movie (2021)
Information
IMDB: Antidote (I) (2021): Database article.
Letterboxd: Antidote 2021: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Antidote 2021: Database article.
Creation
: Concept art article.¤
Reviews with no spoilers - Antidote film (2021)
: Review video about the Antidote film with no spoilers.¤
Reviews with spoilers - Antidote film (2021)
: Review article of the Antidote movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤
Analysis - Antidote movie (2021)
: Analysis video, explaining the finale of Antidote.¤
https://jumpcutonline.co.uk/2021/09/20/review-antidote-frightfest-2021/
https://moviesandmania.com/2021/04/21/antidote-movie-film-body-horror-hospital-2021-overview/
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Buying the product - Antidote, movie (2021)
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