
Videodrome is what happens when you combine David Lynch surrealism with David Cronenberg’s brand of bodily brutality and violence, and holy shit is it a freaky experience. The first time watching Videodrome isn’t really “watching” as much as being put into a world of deviancy and sexual violence and experiencing something not from this world. What I would give for a re-do of that first viewing again. If you have no idea what Videodrome is about, good. Keep it that way. If you still don’t know what its about and want to be spoiled a tiny bit, then here’s a short synopsis. Basically, Videodrome follows skeevy James Woods as skeevy Max Renn, a sleaze ball of a cable programmer looking for the highest “wow” factor program to put on his station. His dreams seem to come true when he stumbles upon an ultra-violent BDSM program under the name of Videodrome. It turns out these dreams of his turn into nightmares as he starts to spiral out of control, vulva-like Betamax players pop out of his chest, and the TV sucks his face right in. Its weird, but trust me, there is so much more than just the “wait, what?” features to Videodrome.
Director David Cronenberg’s main purpose with Videodrome, or at least it seems to me, is to expose and express his disinterest with the constant bating of violence shown on TV, and to show dissatisfaction with the way programs try to look for the most “edgy” material they can come up with. In this, Cronenberg came up with his most edgiest film at the time. I rarely have to look away from the screen, but with Videodrome it was a constant occurrence. Some of the imagery presented in this film is just so odd, surreal, and haunting that it’s impossible to rid them from your brain (the image of Woods’ head going into the TV like the one above this write up will forever be ingrained in by brain). Looking past the horror of it all, Videodrome is a masterfully crafted surrealist thriller, one that I don’t think will ever be done again. Cronenberg paints a world full of sick elites as the camera pans on shots for maybe a bit too long, creating a sense of claustrophobia and fear of what is and what could be coming. With actors like James Woods and the always incredible Debbie Harry (!!!) as the headers for this film, Cronenberg crafts a world of horror for the cable era, one that is overlooked quite a bit this day of age, so give this a shot and be sucked into Videodrome!
Videodrome
1983
dir. David Cronenberg
87 min
Playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre at 11:59pm on Saturday July 8th in 35mm!