eXistenZ (1999)

 

It would be fair to say that films by director David Cronenberg are always special and usually an acquired taste. Not everyone has a penchant for bodyhorror, let alone the often surreal atmosphere he loves to evoke. Heck, I would say that his remake of 'The Fly' is probably his most accessible, mostly because that storyline is pretty straightforward. 

This, however, is anything but straightforward. 

It is rather fascinating, though.

It all kicks off with an exclusive presentation about a new game called eXistenZ, developed by Allegra Geller, probably the leading game designer in the world. This new game will revolutionise the entire concept of virtual gaming and in a rare occurrence, miss Geller is present to share the game with a few lucky people. Thinks take a turn for the worse when a young terrorist gets in and shoots her, forcing her to flee alongside intern Ted Pikul. 

You will also note that the game consoles resemble living organs, get plugged in with a hole in people's spines through something that is more than akin to an umbilical cord and the console pulsates when activated.

Yep, pretty vintage Cronenberg so far. 

Allegra needs to know whether or not her game has been compromised and wants to play alongside Ted, who does not yet have such a port installed. So they do, in not the best of circumstances. And then things get even freakier, as there is now a game within a game and a plot within a plot to either find out how the game works and why people seem hell bent on killing Allegra.

See, there is this rebellion of sorts that adhere to realism and don't want humanity to lose itself in a virtual world, but exactly who is working for whom or why isn't always clear. Couple that with some vintage Cronenberg ickiness (guns made of bodyparts of mutated animals that shoot teeth, assembling gamepods with entrails etc etc) and soon the lines between reality and fiction are so blurry it's tough to keep up.

Which is undoubtedly one of the points Cronenberg wanted to make, so well done there. 

'eXistenZ' sincerely asks some questions about how we as people can deal with the ever thinning division between reality and gaming/online reality, a subject that has only become more poignant with the evergrowing world of videogames and virtual reality. The leap to what is presented here isn't in fact that far fetched for the future and one can only see some completely losing themselves in their online world (which has already happened, though fortunately not on the scale as the pessimistic outlook here). 

So yes, once again some thought-provoking stuff from Cronenberg. 

Is it his best? Maybe not. The worlds-within-worlds get a little muddled and even though that might have been planned, it doesn't make this easy to follow. For some reason, the acting also does feel a little off at times. Maybe it's the dialogue or the set-up that makes it feel quaint, but it's a little strange that someone like Jennifer Jason Leigh comes across as pretty wooden most of the time. And the constant switching of allegiances of pretty much everyone also feels a bit off. 

Nevertheless, still a solid watch and pretty much mandatory if Cronenberg is your jam. If not, then you might be better off with one of his more 'accessible' works.