*Blog post started on December 21, 2020.
Regarded as a horror classic by some, this is a mess of a picture, but to see how they sweep it up is worth a view. Brooklyn PI Harold Angel is hired by the aloof and religious Louis Cyphre to find a crooner who skipped out on his fame and fortune arrangement just before WWII. Every time Angel gets a clue, a brutal off camera murder follows. Why he would introduce a 17 year-old Voodoo priestess to it is barely comprehend-able, especially with “Fight Club” parallels.
From 13 days of work in a row to three days off this week (including Sunday), I am still trying to get my bearings. Eva The Queen Kitty is looking after me, which is the reason I give for why people say she has a resting bitch face, so that leads me to think I am an emotional wreck. If anything, I feel like I am on Zoloft. There are no worries, but no motivation. Perhaps a trip to my folks on Christmas Eve will get me excited. COVID had already ravaged the residence, so it should be safe.
I wish I could complain about stuff, aside from my PA wanting me to do a video conference for a physical exam (She could have responded to my cancellation reasoning with, I will not just give you your diabetes meds.). Anger would at least be an emotion. "Cyberpunk 2077" is fun enough, not too buggy on the PS4. If anything, I think the story is too tight. It is very difficult to freely break the law. Thus, the urge to go on a killing spree is hindered.
There is definitely an under lying aggression to me, it just is not anger. I think that is kind of zen when you think of all those kick ass Tibetan monks from Shaw Bros. films and Mr. Miyagi teaching LaRusso you learn how to fight so you do not need to fight. It definitely does not jive with nihilism.
I have just inspired myself to write a "Funny or Die" replacing Tyler Durden and the Narrator with the protagonists from "The Karate Kid". An improv team is what I need to sell my subtle art of talking too much.
I guess it is now obvious that I am just spending too much time in my head. This is the reason for revisiting "Angel Heart", a flick I watched during the best times of 2004. My brain was a wreck then, and it seemed to work out fine. The dilemma for Sunday became trying to find a Redbox movie that was not a cheap psychological drama or horror. Ironically, when I was going through my unwatched iTunes, David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" was among them. It just means that I trust those ideas when it comes from Canada's Master of Horror.
eXistenZ (1999, 1:37)
Allegra Geller is considered by most to be the best video game designer since video games have become bio-technological. Her talent is so great, that competitors to her company think it would best serve them to have her eliminated. The first demonstration of her newest game, "eXistenZ" was infiltrated by an assassin who wounds Allegra and kills the host of the presentation just as people were being hooked up to the newest biopod. Only marketing representative in training, Ted Pikul, is quick to act and whisk Allegra from the chaos.
Paranoid, Allegra decides it is best to find friendly people of the grid to protect her and Pikul. With no means of contacting her, she will have the time to examine her game and see if the attack resulted in any damage to it. The difficulty in doing this is that she needs a friend to explore the game with. Pikul is the only person she can trust, but he is a bit paranoid of games that tap directly into the nervous systems of the players. He may also just be afraid of piercings since he does not have the input slot installed into his spine.
The conditions are less than ideal. Time is not on their side, and her newbie is obviously going to have difficulty determining what is real and only a game. But if the software is damaged, how will either of them truly understand their existence be it reality or existence spelled with a big X and Z.
Centered around video game consoles with the same texture and color of sex toys, "eXistenZ" must have been intended to be Cronenberg's spiritual successor to "Videodrome". Like the prior feature, it definitely feels like a product of its time, but when you consider what video games have become, it still resonates with today's audiences. This film is what every pre-Matrix internet film wanted to be, aside from also being PG-13.
This feature has some body horror elements, but not the make up effects that audiences had grown accustomed to with Cronenberg's works like "Videodrome", "Scanners", and "The Fly". There are plenty of revolting images like the mutant reptiles and amphibians that Jude Law has to eat in order to create a gun constructed of bone, but the true horror revolves around needing to connect umbilical chords from the console to the base of their spine. Can any video game be worth genuine trauma to play? I will say yes, but with 28 years of combat sport experience and clinical depression on top of that, I may be an exception.
The thing that would deter me from wanting to be essentially feeding my life force to a PlayStation is that the game "eXistenZ" leaves it users grounded to its rules. Pikul and Geller have to follow the dialogue trees to progress and the decisions are never as challenging as we hope. I would love to know how many hours of gaming the then 57 year-old director had to put in to know exactly how they work. It turns out as an anti-gaming theme because it shows some of us are so desperate to escape reality, that we will anchor ourselves to not needing to make tough decisions just to be somebody else.
The cast plays all there parts brilliantly, and with the exception of Jude Law's flat tone (at least he did not try to go full on American accent), every quirk is justified by the conclusion that is very reminiscent of the "Twilight Zone". It is almost a shame that Cronenberg has only written one other film since this feature.
If anything else is lacking, it might be action. This is a video game after all. I guess you can say that it emulates those from the horror genre before Capcom and Paul W.S. Anderson screwed up the "Resident Evil" franchise. You get to be disturbed, but the narrative lacks intensity for our characters. But, again, this is not really much of a stretch from where video games have ended up today, so you have to appreciate Cronenberg having his finger on the pulse.
With the lack of "Fangoria" worthy imagery, "eXistenZ" does not seem like your standard Cronenberg, but it still delivers a story that is right up his fans' alley. Add in a "Twilight Zone" vibe, it is surprisingly accessible. Society would probably benefit from a reissue of this feature just to stop and think about the technological escapism and where it may lead...limited dialogue selection.
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