I like JPG's sentiment that Cronenberg's unnerving style lends itself to portraying the inherently strange disconnect between the "game world" and the real world. My absolute favorite example of this occurs early in the film when Ted "awakes" in-game to find himself working in a cannery assembly line, elbow-deep in mutant frog guts. Utterly confused in this environment, he just starts dissecting away, almost on instinct alone. His dish-gloved hands know what to do even if his mind is telling him, "Wtf am I doing here?" As he tries to get his bearings, he turns to a fellow "gamer" working on the line along side him. I don't remember the exact conversation (and unfortunately, I couldn't find a youtube clip) but after a few questions, Ted is fed a repeated line of stilted dialogue, revealing his fellow gamer's role in this scenario to be a NPC.

That scene just hits the nail so hard on the head for me. There is a kind of symbiotic relationship going on between those sorts of jarringly postmodern videogame moments and the way Cronenberg seizes your attention with his sensual, uncomfortable, weird-as-fuck style. I like to think the relationship between the "player" and their "pod", which is literally plugged in to the nervous system of its user (and lends Cronenberg an opportunity for his signature creepy penetration scene), is kind of a manifestation of that collaboration. The two merge together almost as seamlessly as Cronenberg fuses his style with videogame fundamentals.

But perhaps the most prolific scene is this gem right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L304A3KSh0
I don't use my Kinect much but so help me, reenacting this scene never gets old.

Great topic, Rowan. Looking forward to the next one!

We always end up talking about eXistenZ at lunch, whenever anybody orders the special. 🙂