Back home

eXistenZ

2083 votes

Producing House

A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.

movie

Status: Released

Released Date: 1999-04-14

Runtime: 97 mins

Director: David Cronenberg

Spoken language: English

Genres: Action, Thriller, Science Fiction

Original title: eXistenZ

Production Companies: Alliance Atlantis, Serendipity Point Films, Natural Nylon Entertainment

Production Countries: Canada, United Kingdom, France

Reviews

t

tmdb81799156
I'm sorry but this low budget disaster got zero interest from me. The props were horrid. The story was ridiculous; really, it was just so "stupid". Maybe I should be using bigger words, but this movie was just awful in every way. I rarely give up on a movie; I feel like someone shouldn't give a movie a bad review unless they've seen the entire thing. I've seen the entire thing, finally. It was almost painful to get through. It is just a cheap and dreadful production. The SyFy channel makes better quality garbage than this.
2017-07-28

J

John Chard
Free will is obviously not a big factor in this little world of ours. Hee, yet another David Cronenberg picture that divides opinions, not just among the casual film watchers, but also his most ardent fans. Plot is a little nutty in actuality, as it finds Jennifer Jason Leigh as the world's most high profile games designer. While testing her new virtual reality game out with a focus group, an assassination attempt puts her on the run with an ally of sorts, marketing man Ted Pikul (Jude Law). With the prototype of the new game in their possession, the pair must enter the game's realm to unlock the various puzzles and threats that now confounds and stalks them. With Cronenberg back to writing something solely from his own head, eXistenZ finds the Canadian auteur happy to be back making a truer piece of work for his kinked visions. Unfortunately the advent of such virtual reality fare and various realist themes was well in filmic swing come the time eXistenZ was released, rendering it in some eyes as a band wagon jumper. That's unfair, because it's still a unique film, as Cronenberg blends body horror with visual invention to create a mind warp of gaming possibilities, a thrum thrum of futuristic verve. He gets top performances out of Leigh (great hair as well) and Law, while the narrative is constantly tricky enough to demand the viewer pays attention whilst being prepared to, perhaps, be surprised. Not prime Cronenberg, but still smart and funky, twisty and nutty, scary and oblique. So very much a Cronenberg original, then. 8/10
2016-02-22

Recommendations

Delicatessen
3.7

Delicatessen

1991-04-17

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasio

The City of Lost Children
3.6

The City of Lost Children

1995-05-17

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow hi

Eraserhead
3.7

Eraserhead

1977-09-28

First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, a

1984
3.3

1984

1956-03-06

In a totalitarian future society, a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by fall

I, Robot
3.5

I, Robot

2004-07-15

In 2035, where robots are commonplace and abide by the three laws of robotics, a technophobic cop in

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
3.1

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

2001-07-02

Led by a strange dream, scientist Aki Ross struggles to collect the eight spirits in the hope of cre

The Time Machine
3.7

The Time Machine

1960-05-25

A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostil

The Time Machine
3.2

The Time Machine

2002-03-04

Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into t

Gattaca
3.8

Gattaca

1997-09-07

Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is a

Silent Running
3.2

Silent Running

1972-03-09

After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
3.7

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

1999-11-17

A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the su

Videodrome
3.6

Videodrome

1983-02-04

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewer

Dune
3.1

Dune

1984-12-14

In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice exte

WarGames
3.5

WarGames

1983-06-03

High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a compute

Total Recall
3.6

Total Recall

1990-06-01

Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Recall, a comp

The Running Man
3.3

The Running Man

1987-11-13

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, c

Planet of the Apes
2.9

Planet of the Apes

2001-07-25

After a spectacular crash-landing on an uncharted planet, brash astronaut Leo Davidson finds himself

Planet of the Apes
3.8

Planet of the Apes

1968-02-07

Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans fo

Fight Club
4.2

Fight Club

1999-10-15

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a sho

Absolut
3.9

Absolut

2005-04-20

Two guys against globalization want to plant a virus in the network of a finance corporation. On the