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[TIFF Review] ‘The Antenna’ is an Ambitious Dystopian Propaganda Nightmare

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Technology remains one of the most influential sources of horror, particularly as it continues to alter our everyday life. In Turkish director Orcun Behram’s dystopian horror film The Antenna, technology becomes a source of fear and tension as an apartment block is slowly consumed by the poisonous influence of the titular object.

The film opens with Mehmet (Ihsan Önal), a security guard/handyman as he readies for work, listening to radio reports about a government broadcast that is intended to reach millions of citizens. In the anonymous town in which the film is set, the landscape is a mix of undeveloped rocks and white uniform apartment complexes as far as the eye can see – a visual hint at the financial disparity of the region, as well as a contrast between landscape (the past) and progress (the modern world).

Mehmet is late to work, drawing the ire of his “by the book” boss, who has a literal direct line to the government and is obsessed with their midnight broadcast. In order to ensure that all of the citizens of the crumbling apartment complex can access the government-sponsored message, the antenna must be set up on the roof immediately.

Problems arise right from the start: the serviceman setting up the antenna suspiciously “slips” off the roof to his death in front of the building. It’s the first of many ominous signs that something is very wrong with the instrument and the forthcoming transmission; the danger is personified by a seemingly sentient thick black oil-like substance that leaks down the walls and into the apartment units. Contact with the goo results in madness, mutation or death.

Not unlike other apartment building horror (Shivers, High Rise), a substantial portion of the film’s run time is dedicated to the residents whose mundane lives are about to be turned upside down. They are a mix of stock character types: Firat (Enis Yildiz), a domineering father who lives with his meek, submissive wife and their adult daughter, Yasemin (Gül Arici) whom Mehmet offers to help escape, and a family with a young child under financial strain because the husband is unemployed, but too proud to ask for help. There’s also Cemile (Elif Cakman) a single attractive woman fretting about losing her looks, and Mehmet’s boss, who resolutely refuses to hear about building problems, even as the sludge ravages the air conditioning, locks doors and begins to cause mental and physical transformations that would make David Lynch and David Cronenberg proud.

While the impact of the antenna and its transmission provide much of the film’s nightmarish imagery, The Antenna’s visual aesthetic exists in service of a political message about the dangers of governmental control, propaganda, the monopolization of news, as well as the isolation of urban life in cookie-cutter cubes where everyone feels alone and invisible to neighbors. In a high rise, people may hear you scream, but they likely won’t care enough to investigate.

There is a lot going on in The Antenna – evident in both its ideas and its visual aesthetic. Alas, this is a case of a first-time feature director biting off more than he can chew; the nearly two-hour film is both too long and overstuffed. The budgetary constraints also mean that some of the more ambitious FX (thankfully all practical) mostly looks ok, but isn’t always great.

The low budget effects are perfectly serviceable compared to the film’s inability to make its point and end on a high. Behram is addressing an admirably complex and timely subject matter (particularly given Turkey’s history of charging journalists with terrorism offenses and jailing them – 175 in 2018 alone), but as the film drags on, his argument, unfortunately, becomes increasingly lost amidst the endless deluge of mind-numbing hallucinatory imagery. After a certain point, watching The Antenna starts to feel a bit like being beaten into submission.

It’s a shame because a tighter edit would have helped to make the fatalistic ending – with all of its horrific implications – that much more impactful. By the time the midnight transmission begins and all time stops, however, the audience may feel trapped in the same hypnotic loop as the characters…and not in a good way.

Joe is a TV addict with a background in Film Studies. He co-created TV/Film Fest blog QueerHorrorMovies and writes for Bloody Disgusting, Anatomy of a Scream, That Shelf, The Spool and Grim Magazine. He enjoys graphic novels, dark beer and plays multiple sports (adequately, never exceptionally). While he loves all horror, if given a choice, Joe always opts for slashers and creature features.

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‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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