The director captures the worst-case scenario of what might happen at the dawn of the video era, going all the way back to our parents' warning us not to sit too close to the television.
Videodrome (1983)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:45
Fresh:36
Rotten:9
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Visually audacious, disorienting, and just plain weird, Videodrome's musings on technology, entertainment, and politics still feel fresh today.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Television
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Max Renn runs an unauthorized cable channel in Toronto that caters to viewers demanding increasingly violent and pornographic material. One night, in search of new programming fodder, he stumbles... Max Renn runs an unauthorized cable channel in Toronto that caters to viewers demanding increasingly violent and pornographic material. One night, in search of new programming fodder, he stumbles across a scrambled satellite transmission emanating from unknown regions -- a startlingly graphic broadcast that routinely depicts the brutal torture and murder of women. Excited by his find, Renn attempts to track the show to its origins, but he continually encounters resistance, including a warning from one of his programming suppliers that the broadcasts are not dramatizations but depictions of actual murders. Undaunted, Renn finally traces the show to Pittsburgh, where he encounters the transmissions of a Messianic madman known as Brian O'Blivion. Although O'Blivion is dead, his daughter continues to spread his twisted gospel by broadcasting old videotapes of his sermons, encouraging people to embrace the barbarous new TV world as reality. Eventually Renn finds the man who is controlling all the hallucinatory video violence. But by then, Max has begun his own descent into madness, an insanity culminating in physical manifestations of the exploitative sleaze he has profited from over the years. [More]
Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Les Carlson
Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Les Carlson
Director: David Cronenberg
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Heroux
Reviews for Videodrome
Cronenberg, whose Max Renn might be seen as some sort of alter ego, however absolves technology from its share of responsibility for media-induced alienation.
Underbaked, but you can't argue with its otherworldly aura. One disappointment: we don't get to see the belly-slit sex organs Baker designed for the never-used orgy finale.
Required viewing for any cult, horror, sci-fi, cyberpunk, or philosophical film fan.
Thematically, it connects easily with most other titles in the Cronenberg oeuvre, with the added treat of having been released far ahead of its time.
Home to the delicious Miltonic idea that what Adam dreams he wakes to find real.
A showcase for some of the most unforgettable special makeup effects work ever to see a movie screen.
By the time it reaches its...inevitable-feeling conclusion, 'Videodrome' has become more than a mere horror film--it's an indictment of everyone represented by its characters.
A horror film of unusual substance and vision -- the first film from David Cronenberg that announced his true importance as a filmmaker.
Never coherent and frequently pretentious, the film remains an audacious attempt to place obsessive personal images before a popular audience -- a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars.
it feels like Cronenberg started with a great idea, and just wasn't sure what to do with it
Nearly twenty years after Videodrome was shot, it still feels contemporary.
Cronenberg continues his growth out of more obvious horror realms and ups the stakes with heavier philosophical entreaties for his characters to endure.
Though Videodrome finally grows grotesque and a little confused, it begins very well and sustains its cleverness for a long while.
If weirdness is what you want, then you can't do any wrong seeing a David Cronenberg film.
Veers from being risible to sinister as it explores how viewers are brainwashed by TV.
Latest News for Videodrome
April 27, 2009:
Uni Preps New Videodrome ![]()
Universal has announced plans to remake David Cronenberg's "Videodrome," with Ehren Kruger set to write and produce. More...
March 01, 2007:
"Saw" Maker to Tackle "Scanners" Remake
Darren Lynn Bousman, director of "Saw 2," "Saw 3," and the upcoming "Saw 4," will soon be helming a remake of David Cronenberg's... More...
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