Jude Law Starred In An Underrated David Cronenberg Sci-Fi Movie That Deserved Better

There were two mainstream sci-fi movies about virtual reality that released in 1999, and it's likely that 99% of the world could only name one. The Wachowski Sisters' "The Matrix" became a worldwide phenomenon, spreading like wildfire and blowing up the box office; meanwhile, body-horror maestro David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" flopped and became a footnote. Both films immersed themselves in exploring how virtual realities mess with people's minds, but they couldn't have been more different from each other. "The Matrix" was high-paced, cool, full of swagger and sexiness, while "eXistenZ" was slow, uncomfortable, and viscerally gross.

It was as much of a Cronenberg joint as "The Fly," "Videodrome," or "Crash" before it, which didn't help its chances to succeed at the box office despite featuring a young Jude Law bursting with sex appeal, a passionate and cryptic Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the amusingly weird Willem Dafoe in a brief yet pivotal supporting role. "eXistenZ" just wasn't the type of film to casually talk about at dinner parties and light-hearted get togethers (quite the opposite).

It follows renowned game developer Allegra Geller (Leigh), who's about to present her latest creation to an eagerly awaiting focus group. In this alternate future, video games are played through bio-pods that look like a cross between someone's kidney and an oversized Xbox controller, connected through bio-ports that are surgically inserted sockets in people's spines. However, the event quickly goes awry when an audience member attempts to assassinate Geller with a gun made of flesh and bone. Only wounded in the shoulder, she's escorted to safety by security guard Ted Pikul (Law), who has no idea what wild adventure this woman has in store for him.

Made on a mere $15 million budget, it's impressive what Cronenberg was able to bring out of "eXistenZ." Relying mostly on oddly repulsive practical effects (with some CGI sprinkled on top here and there), "eXistenZ" wastes little time before taking you into the weeds of its maker's peculiar mind. Cronenberg leans heavily into the grotesque, often delivering scenes where you aren't sure if you should laugh or revolt (or both), but never without having something provocative or stimulating to say. If "The Matrix" made its virtual reality philosophical and paranoia-laden, Cronenberg's version is more on the visceral and existential side.

In "eXistenZ," the writer-director envisions a future to speculate about how technological invention and human biology would evolve together, while also laying out and examining the repercussions of a simulated reality that can become so realistic and sensible that you struggle with differentiating life from fantasy. In fact, he goes deeper, questioning how personalities, desires, and sexual attractions can change within that realm. After all, there's no Cronenberg body-horror without sexual tension and deviance, and "eXistenZ" is littered with ambiguous and metaphorical intercourses throughout.

In retrospect, it makes sense that critics mostly loved it back then since it was appealingly strange yet wildly introspective, while audiences treated it as something too slimy and deviant to keep a distance from. So, it's hardly a surprise that Cronenberg's feature did poorly at the box office, garnering only $2.8 million worldwide. It surely deserved better, and time kind of did it justice some years later, turning it into an absolute cult classic still often talked about among hardcore Cronenberg fans.