Videogames are becoming increasingly popular in our society. They are becoming so embedded in our culture that, with massively-multiplayer online role-playing games like Second Life, players are beginning to supplant their real lives with them. Leave it to director David Cronenberg to spot such a trend and take it to grotesque extremes. eXistenZ is a walk through a videogame as life (or is it a walk through life as a videogame?) and is yet another Cronenberg examination of the melding of technology and the body, fully infused by the director’s mad genius.

The title eXistenZ comes from the title of the videogame within the film. It has been created by the world’s most famous game designer, Allegra Geller, whose most notable contribution to videogame technology is the revolutionary “Pod,” a fleshy, organic videogame console/controller that plugs in, via umbilical cord, directly to a hole, called a “bio-port,” pierced into the player’s spine. Upon demonstrating her game to a focus group, Geller is shot with a gun almost as disgusting as the gaming pods by someone who wants to end what he sees as her deterioration of humankind. Geller runs away with Ted Pikul, who was working security at the demonstration, and, in an attempt to determine whether eXistenZ’s framework was damaged during the assassination attempt, she plugs both of them into the game, which is a fully realistic version of virtual reality.

eXistenZ the videogame is quite peculiar. Its goals occasionally mimic those of real life, but some events are pre-scripted like a semi-linear videogame, in which the character has a choice over certain paths but no choice in others. Therefore, when Geller and Pikul enter eXistenZ, they don’t even know what the point of the game is at first (an analogy to life), but they soon are set on the game’s path and have no choice in where it turns (like a linear game). Then, staying true to its mimicking of life, eXistenZ gives them something to play: (you guessed it … maybe) a Pod videogame within the game, perhaps creating an even fuller life analogy. Certain actions are played out against the players’ wills; the game literally forces them to carry these actions out so that the plot can advance. The parts they control are most of the moments of action, like figuring out puzzles or killing assassin informants, as well as some moments of character interaction. It is a disorienting game, indeed.

The forced actions aspect of the movie comes across at first as a flaw, lending more of the film’s concept to videogame influence than real life influence, the latter of which would always provide a more rewarding framework to any movie. However, upon analysis, this idea is worth giving some consideration to. The players are forced to perform these select actions and say these select words because that is what they have been pre-scripted to do. This brings up the question: To what extent are our real life actions our own? Obviously, in the real world actions are carried out by will (even if that will is coerced), and our bodies don’t involuntarily perform actions that are otherwise voluntary. However, is there a deeper influence behind some of our actions? Have our personalities been hardwired in certain ways that we cannot control? Perhaps there are some analogous underlying forces in our lives that will cause us to always take one course of action over another, not in the sense that our physical bodies will override our will but in the sense that will doesn’t enter into the equation and we will just do.

It is not free will, though, that is eXistenZ’s most interesting concern. The most intriguing concept the film explores is the Cronenberg staple of the melding of the body and technology, a theme explored by the director’s two masterpieces: Videodrome and The Fly. Videogame devices are no longer computer chips and wires contained in a plastic casing; they are artificially created organisms, complete with flesh, blood, bone, and internal organs. Furthermore, the players become so immersed in their game worlds that there are times when they don’t know for sure whether they are in reality or a virtual reality. The point is not that of movies like The Matrix, in which we are oblivious slaves to technology; rather, the point is that reality and artificiality are merging to the point where the terms become irrelevant. In truth, we can never verify the authenticity of the world in which we are living, but, as eXistenZ demonstrates, that doesn’t much matter.

If eXistenZ has a flaw, it is that it is so outlandish that it is impossible to relate to on an emotional level. The main characters are given little depth and are used only to take us on the wild ride through the game. There is no reason to actually care about them. Furthermore, the film’s frequently repulsive imagery will be enough to turn some viewers away quicker than you can say "mutation lunch." The movie will likely have you thinking about life and reality, but it won’t have you feeling much of anything (aside from the occasional stomach-churning, that is). It is purely intellectual.

eXistenZ is so sly in the way it approaches its thematic concerns that its first quarter or so comes off as a disappointment. The absurd (and disgusting) gaming pods and seeming flaws in writing (like the fact that Geller doesn’t know exactly how to progress in the game she designed) set the film up as a creepy experience with no point. However, as its themes and plot play out, the film’s elements begin working together, and the nonsensical plot points begin to make sense … on some level, at least. By the end, you will be fully immersed in eXistenZ, much like Geller and Pikul. Perhaps that’s the scariest part of it all.