Michael (Edward Furlong) is a gore-loving, media-saturated, suburban teen. Isolated by his distant father and dead mother, he finds refuge in horror fanzines and slasher flicks. He plugs into a new interactive game where the player enacts all too real murders. He thinks he can beat the wisecracking gamemaster--called the Trickster (T. Ryder Smith)--at his own game, but when he finds a severed foot in the fridge Michael realizes there is a bit more to Brainscan than he realized.