Sharyn (Ashlynn Yennie) is admitted to hospital with a ruptured appendix, but when she wakes up she’s in a sparse room that looks like a prison cell and is hooked up via a drip to a strange liquid. The doctor (Louis Mandylor) won’t tell her what’s happening and there appears to be no way out of the corridors that all look alike. She finds out from the other patients that it is an experimental lab where they are horrifically mutilated then ‘cured’ by the mystery antidote. Severed limbs and tongues are just a couple of things that grow back thanks to a potion. But why is she there and what has it got to do with her past?
Ashlynn Yennie doesn’t have much luck when it comes to doctors, does she? The Human Centipede star excels in this (she also co-produced), even though she’s the best thing in it. As she has numerous attempts at escape, we see some of the atrocities that are taking place there. It’s not too hard to work out what’s going on (the conclusion is completely foreseeable to anyone with even a modicum of genre knowledge), but the occasional gory moment keeps the interest. The physical effects are impressive enough, but the woeful CGI in the climax squanders any goodwill the bloodletting might have given it.
The biggest problem with the film is that it’s rather repetitive. Endless shots of Yennie walking the otherwise deserted corridors (or the one, just dressed slightly differently) don’t add anything to the tension that some more conflict would have. Comparisons to Saw and Hostel are unfair since they delivered the goods at some point. Antidote doesn’t even leave a ‘sorry we missed you’ note. It’s not a complete waste of time, but predictability doesn’t do it any favours.
