Existenz (1999), dir. David Cronenburg, The Movie Channel/Natural Nylon/Telefilm Canda/Serendipity Point Films
Nearing the end, so let's take a trip into body horror land with the Candian master, Cronenburg.
The future that is coming, video games have evolved. No longer played on consoles, the typical gamer uses a game pod which is surgically inserted into them. Two companies reign over the lot-Antenna Research and Cortical Systems.
While the two companies do everything possible to capture people's attention and money, a group calling themselves 'Realists' set out to bring all the companies down.
Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a game designer. While showcasing her latest product, a Realist shoots her. Publicist Ted Pikul (Jude Law) hustles her out of the building. She isn't concerned with her wound, rather her game pod. It has the only copy of her latest game, Existenz, and she isn't sure if the game was damaged or not.
Desperate to know and wishing to avoid any official channels, Geller takes Pikul to a black marketeer, Gas (William Dafoe). Gas double crosses them though, forcing Pikul to kill him, but not before he inserted a faulty game pod in Pikul's spine.
Geller takes him to her old mentor, Vinokur (Ian Holm) who hooks Pikul with a proper pod. From there they finally enter the game and start playing. Reality and virtual reality start blending together. Who is anyone and is anyone what they seem?
Good, but I think might need a scorecard to keep track of the twists and turns. The body horror isn't as pronounced here but when it does show up Croneburg makes it count.
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