‘The Cell’ Reigns Supreme: This Absolute Legend Just Declared Themselves a Fan
If you’ve never followed Hideo Kojima on his social media feeds, you’re missing out. The legendary video game multi-hyphenate behind games like Metal Gear and Death Stranding has made his various accounts into a collage of his interests, collaborators, and inspirations, and it’s always a fascinating peek inside his brain.
Because Kojima’s work is often horror-tinged or horror-inspired, his social media accounts also feature a number of horror creators and works. He doesn’t always comment on them directly, but he does like to share what’s been on his mind. Recently, he featured a visually stunning piece of sci-fi horror that turns 25 this year.
Directed by Tarsem Singh and written by Mark Protosevich, The Cell is best remembered today for its vibrant, often harrowing visuals, which were intended to depict the tormented mind of a killer. A strange blend of psychological serial killer thriller and fantasy horror spectacle, it follows a psychologist (Jennifer Lopez) who uses cutting-edge technology to project herself into the consciousness of her patients. She usually works with children, but when a prolific serial killer (Vincent D’Onofrio) goes comatose. At the same time, his final victim is still alive in a secret location, and detectives turn to her to solve the case. And there’s only one way to do it: By going inside the killer’s troubled, horrifying mind to find the person at the heart of the carnage.
On his BlueSky account, Kojima emphasized what most people remember about the film: Tarsem’s jaw-dropping visual sense, with a series of images highlighted through the movie’s original 2000 poster campaign.
It’s easy to see why a film like this would appeal to Kojima. Apart from the simple visual intrigue of the film, The Cell carries specific video game implications within its story. Lopez’s character, Catherine, must utilize a virtual reality suit to transport her mind into the consciousness of someone else, in this case, D’Onofrio’s terrifying killer. What she finds inside is a maze of disturbing characters, places, and the killer lording over it all as a torture-loving king. It would be frightening even as an observer.
Still, as Catherine progresses through the various levels of the killer’s mind, she discovers she’s not only susceptible to real pain and even death, but also susceptible to simply losing her mind inside his world forever, never to return. It’s a remarkable riff on video game immersion as well as a convincing collage of nightmarish imagery.
The Cell has always been a bit divisive among horror fans, but Kojima’s endorsement of its style is likely to garner a few more admirers, and they won’t be alone. Dread Central’s Tyler Doupe’ previously wrote a list of five reasons the movie’s worth seeing, including its “impressively nuanced” characters, and I very much agree. There’s so much more to this movie than surface-level chills.
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