inked78

I watched this on Hulu, and I would definitely recommend it to other. I'm not sure why I didn't watch it before, other than that I was in college in rural Iowa when it came out. Overall a good disconcerting film about the players of a video game. The way the players play comes off as something between sex and drug addiction. Part of this is due to the fact that players use a bio-port to connect to the game. When you watch them plug each other n you can't help connecting it to sex (one licks another's bio-port), or drug use (IV drug users shooting each other up). It this way the movie will remind you a great deal of Naked Lunch.

At any rate it is a fun ride. The basic theme is about people losing, or not losing, their grasps on what is real versus what is not real. There are lots of movies to check out in this genre (which is really both cyber punk, and bodily horror). I recommend (as starters): Naked Lunch, A Scanner Darkly, Videodrome.

I actually watched this film immediately after watching eXistenZ. I'll mention that I had also recently watched the (non-Cronenberg) film A Scanner Darkly. I mention this only because there is some relationship amongst these films. It was watching eXistenZ that made me want to check this one out. I've watched a few other Cronenberg films, and I liked this one. It's basically the story of a guy who gets interested (ostensibly for business purposes) in bizarre broadcasts of porn (some of which is hardcore BDSM). He runs a low-budget TV station that wants to run stuff that will attract viewers by shocking them. While attempting to track down the source of such movies, he becomes involved with a woman who is very into BDSM. At the same time he finds that, after watching the initial hacked broadcasts from the mysterious source, that he experiences bizarre and violent hallucinations. As time goes on he become increasingly unable to differentiate between these hallucinations, and reality.

This film is a good example of the bodily horror genre. It has strong affinities with A Scanner Darkly, and eXistenZ, in that all three appear to feature lead characters who lose their ability to distinguish between what is real, and what is not. For the time it was made the special effects are quite good, and they don't appear schlocky for today's viewers.

In addition to bodily horror, this one might dip a bit, but not fall totally into, the cyber punk genre.

I would definitely recommend watching it with eXistenZ, but you should watch this one first.

I would watch this one again. Don't let the first few minutes scare you off. This isn't Saw, and it isn't I Spit On Your Grave. It's low budget for sure, but the quality was pretty good (and doesn't detract too much overall, mostly just transitions). I don't like torture films, so I was leery (and the title is cheesy), but this one was heavy on the story, not the torture (kind of like Touristas). One issue where you definitely need to suspend your disbelief: how did a strong woman like this get duped into meeting a creep like that at a secluded location? Seriously, even in the rural desert I don't think that happens. Get past that point and you're fine.

A bit formulaic, but well executed. In short, I've seen a lot worse movies of this type with much larger budgets. Give this one a chance. It won't blow you away, but it is a decent horror flick.