Worthy and unsettling start to the Game vs Reality Theme (Existenz (DVD))

Member Name: mcader

Product:	Existenz (DVD)
Date:	01/02/09 (7 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clever and memorably dark

Disadvantages: Not much optimism about gaming

It's actually a game within a game within a game....within limitless amounts of games.....Canadian director Cronenberg has produced some fine film-food-for-thought....including Crash, and The Dead Zone. Moving on from Videodrome, (a renowned art house film of the 80's confronting and warning about the dangers of television), he now does the same with the notion of Virtual Reality and game-playing......the result is a typically memorable experience, containing some imaginative features and which tries hard to produce a relevant, disorientating feeling of psychosis. He is an artist playing a game with the viewer, and with the idea of gaming.

"You have to play the game....in order to find out why you're playing the game."

"Thou, the player of the game, art god".

It achieves some fairly easily achievable goals, for we can recognize the buttons Cronenberg is indirectly pressing; addiction; loss of self; a questioning of reality itself; the attraction and interest in a fabricated reality, as opposed to the real. A sinister edge is expressed in moments where the characters are no longer in control, and a warning to the future can again be found in such moments.

"Break out of your cage, Pikul"

The line that Cronenberg draws between reality and fantasy is extremely thin, so you won't be finding any Virtual Reality special effects here. But what you do find instead are suitably disturbing metaphors for biological intrusion; disgustingly slimy and repulsive, living components that include the game pods themselves, which gamers must 'port' into by literally plugging an umbilical chord into their implanted 'bio-ports'. The nature of addiction is made obvious to see, albeit an addiction of much greater, self-absorbing implication, where our own perceptions can become confused. Jason Leigh's pivotal character, a game designer called Allegra Geller, exudes a relevant level of unpredictability; of manipulative sexuality, guiding us through the game but keeping us wary throughout. We are not at anytime particularly at ease with the characters or the reality that we are given. It's a paranoid, untrusting setup that is a hallmark of a sinister Cronenberg world.

"I'm not even sure if here....where we are.....is real at all......"

We are led to a remote gas-station, a secret hide-away of scientists in the woods, a trout farm...
We are made to feel implicated in the game-playing process, through the medium of film. There is a strong 'game within a game' story that disorientates and resonates around the line that is investigated, between reality and fantasy. It could be said that the entire film is, in a sense, a version of the game; a form of sensory submission, violation, or means to transcendence. This is quite relevant actually, where games and films are so closely linked these days. We are all playing here; we are all intruded upon by realities; by other people's realities. It is a message that is appropriately conveyed by Cronenberg and ticked off his 'to warn' list. The theme of dangerous role-play is also explored, as near the end of the film we realise that most of the characters have been played by different characters, and the film construction can come full circle.

The drama inside the game is directly, disturbingly linked to drama outside of the game, in the form of a threat to gaming by assassins from 'the Realists', with further uncertainties from potential corporate take-overs. The theme and message here is that no fantasy is entirely a fantasy, and herein lies the possible dangers of advanced fantasy. It is open to exploitation that can lead to harm. It may be abused or manipulated to suit negative or unexpectedly 'diseased' effects, which suits a third party. Can a game be a powerful weapon of brainwashing? Are we not all to an extent brainwashed by our own beliefs and values? Will games even lead to new, threatening or liberated sexual freedoms? 'Game urges' are created within eXistenZ, which even promote sexual feelings towards the two main characters that will 'heighten the emotional tension in the next game sequence'. The film highlights our sensitivity to such urges, including the thrill in being threatened with a (pseudo-)death, or the urge to cause a (pseudo-)death, which is obviously an ingredient in gaming.

"Everything in the game is so realistic....I don't think I really could."

"You won't be able to stop yourself. You might as well enjoy it."

He goes ahead and kills the waiter, who comes to a particularly sticky end, and we are all implicated. There are some other imaginative features to the film.....the 'bots' that go into loops when the right words for 'game progression' are not uttered. There is a mild sense of unease or paranoia generated by being at the mercy of the unknown motives of the characters surrounding us.

"Free will is obviously not an important factor in this little world of ours."

"It's like real life....There's just enough to make it...interesting."

I like the way it links game-playing with acting and role-play, another key feature about immersive gaming. Good old Ian Holm even gets a chance to confess to his own dodgy accent, although Christopher Eccleston should not have escaped either here.

A lot of games seek to exploit our fear of death, by allowing us to re-enact empowering scenarios that confront death. Cleverly, Cronenberg links this with another, more old-fashioned feature - that of puzzle-solving - by presenting it through the puzzle of assassins who are seeking to undermine the game itself. This must be the central fear of any game designer.

"I've devoted five of my most passionate years to this strange little creature........because I knew.....it was the only thing that could give my life any meaning''

Cronenberg plays with the fear of death and gives it a more sinister edge when it is ultimately turned against itself, to become more real than we were expecting, or that the game was expecting. The game, on which they - and we - depend, is a mortal, vulnerable thing. It is like a living 'creature', like our own mother-reality perhaps, although the latter is (hopefully!) more stable and reliable. However, it is true that at no point 'inside' the film are we really able to predict or to solve the puzzle - rather, we are simply led through the developments. We get the point though; that gaming addiction is more total, more long-lasting, and more escapist than possibly any other supplicant threatening to exist......Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is a memorable proponent or embodiment of this. Jude Law is great as a frantic, possibly naïve participant. None of us are sure when Allegra, the possible designer and player of the game asks:

"Have I won? Have I won the game?"

Only perhaps, in that she has figured something out or proven herself to be cleverer than the others. When the film itself ends, we may still be inside a game......but by now the games with death and human motive have turned truly sinister.......and the music from Howard Shore is strong in enforcing this.

There is not much in the film that explores a more optimistic side to Virtual Reality. For can this technology not also be more promising, and provide a more interactive, less biologically affecting, social solution to solitary escapism? Can it not also educate, improve self-confidence and portray vital experiences? This has always been the satisfying nature of games......and a game is only good perhaps, when it can successfully satisfy some desires (or by massaging or playing to our egos?) So, speaking as a veteran of many a game, I'm not sure I wholly agree with the 'umbrychord' metaphor, except as a symbol of dependence. eXistenZ, although it can make you squirm is actually a bit one-sided and restrained on the imaginative level.

Overall, the main emphasis or warning is placed on the general vulnerability and susceptibility we open ourselves to when we indulge our addictive, mind-trap fantasies. We are in worlds of manipulation and façade. They offer experience and empowerment, and yet, like any drug, they hold a highly absorbing power over us that can be abused. Our main enemy in such a scenario is, as is shown, our own motives; the motives of minorities.

There will be more elaborate and compelling films that will investigate this very modern theme, and they will certainly move on from the 'thin line' device or routine (there's a funny version in the British Red Dwarf tv series; it should be essential to the canon). However, Cronenberg has made - rightfully - a worthy and unsettling start. Should the film really be called transCendenZ....?

Summary: We are in worlds of manipulation and façade