Virtual Reality has been a much chewed on hot topic over the last decade. I only see two types of virtual reality that are discernable.

1. A virtual reality you can readily distinguish from the real-life and are able to identify you're in an artificial simulation. From online social media to VR headset, all of them will fit in this criteria.

2. The other type of VR being where you cannot tell whether the world you inhabit is real or not—and when you're in it, you're there with your entire being. VR like this does not exist, yet. We see similar concepts in The Matrix trilogy, Inception (dream world), Assassins Creed video game series (animus), and there's also the simulation hypothesis where some people claim we are all in a giant simulation in a supercomputer run by a super alien race!

Anyway, when you think about this latter type of VR, naturally you imagine high-end, futuristic heavy technology that is regularly featured in science fiction movies and TV shows. David Cronenberg created a similar, super realistic VR world in the film eXistenZ but without featuring mechanical supremacy. Instead, he resorted to what he feels home at—flesh and bone. source

"eXistenZ" is a bio-game specially designed to access a virtual world. That VR is so lifelike and excruciatingly detailed that the gamer cannot tell the difference whether they are in the game. To enter the game you need a biopod that looks like a pile of mutilated meat after a third-degree burn! A white-ish gut-pipe extends from the biopod and goes into the backbone of a gamer (human) via a bio-port manually drilled there beforehand. When initiated, that mutilated meat-pie will start to hum as if it's moaning with pain and the player will enter the game.

Not everybody is happy with such an invention. There are realism extremists who fanatically oppose the game and the company that made it. When the designer of the game, a public celebrity Allegra Geller (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) gets attacked by one of those realists with an organic gun—she flees with an intern of the game company named Pikul (Played by Jude Law). At one point both of them enter the game using one of those horrendous biopods. Now that the game has begun, it's up to the viewer to distinguish what's real and what's not and when exactly does it end.

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It's a wonder how the virtual reality is set up in the biopod—however, the way Cronenberg built the near-future bio-mechanical world makes it believable. Viewing of his "Videodrome" will come in handy in this case to prepare the audience for what to expect or, NOT to expect in this case.

Even though the film sci-fi in nature, it has a lot of gory scenes as fitting for the body-horror genre. If you don't mind a little blood, I don't see any reason to skip this one. The film itself is fascinating with an imagined world I'd love to explore. I've picked up some cyberpunk-ish vibe as well, although not that pronounced so take this with a grain of salt.

I'm giving it a 7.5 out of 10.

Thanks for reading. :)

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