Videodrome

Videodrome

2014 "Long live the new flesh."
Videodrome
Videodrome

Videodrome

7.2 | 1h28m | R | en | Horror

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

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7.2 | 1h28m | R | en | Horror , Science Fiction , Mystery | More Info
Released: June. 19,2014 | Released Producted By: Famous Players , Guardian Trust Company Country: Canada Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

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Cast

James Woods , Sonja Smits , Debbie Harry

Director

Carol Spier

Producted By

Famous Players , Guardian Trust Company

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Reviews

crystallogic This is a deeply disquieting film that never loses it's power to make me feel unsettled. It's my favourite Cronenberg picture by a considerable margin, tough admittedly I haven't tried them all yet.You might find, in 2018, the tech to belong in a museum. maybe you don't like TV very much and so the problems of a person finding themselves in the videodrome seem remote to you. but think about it this way, then. What would today's videodrome be like? Nope, this isn't an invitation for some idiot to re-make Cronenberg's film. i'm just saying: surely this film is even more powerful today than it was in 1983? I don't like TV either. Haven't had cable for nearly twenty years! Don't miss it or want it. But ... I, and in fact most of my friends, spend an awful lot of time on the internet. I even got an Android phone, which can be used to view all kinds of video content. We don't need networks anymore. All we need is a distribution system (much cheaper and more flexible than the television network) and the people to make content.I love the notion of a signal activating something in the brain that creates a new "growth" that can lead to mind-altering halucinations, which stay with you and affect your reality even when you're not watching the box. That's brilliant. Also very scary to contemplate. The movie does an excellent job of pushing the "horror" buttons, particularly with regard to Max's situation and descent to becoming a pawn in other peoples' games. I love the way the film sets up this terrible situation and makes the audience itself feel the mounting paranoia. By the end I didn't feel anyone was trustworthy. I feel like Cronenberg revisted a lot of his films in the adaptation of The Naked Lunch, another film I really appreciated, almost as much as this one, really.
Scott LeBrun This stunning film, grim and graphic at nearly every turn, is an incredible early work by David Cronenberg when he was still into his "body horror" cycle. ("The Dead Zone", done the same year, broke him free for a moment.) James Woods delivers an amiable performance as Max Renn, operator / part owner of a small time cable TV station. He's looking for edgy new programming, and his employee Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) shows him the pirated transmissions of a hideous series dubbed "Videodrome". There are no stories to speak of, it's just straight-ahead torture and degradation. Well, as it turns out, viewing Videodrome causes freaky and strikingly violent hallucinations for just about anybody.Taking a journey into the worlds of David Cronenberg is always interesting, if nothing else. And "interesting" is never a bad quality to possess. Some people may wince at the effects sequences in these early movies, but they are evidence of the way that Cronenberg could often appeal to adult intellects as well as affect them at gut level.Here, he hypothesizes that television and technology are so ingrained into human experience and existence that they can become part of our physical makeup, so to speak. His themes are prophetic; "Videodrome" could be seen as a way-ahead-of-the-game forerunner to the "torture porn" sub genre that exploded in the 21st century. And the desire for some networks and stations to try to draw people in with entertainment that they can't get anywhere else has remained relevant over the decades.Approximately 35 years later, the wonderfully gross Rick Baker effects lose none of their power to amaze. This viewer was particuarly delighted by the pulsating videotape and television set, and by that "flesh gun" that results when a regular gun is fused into Max's body.Cinematographer Mark Irwin and composer Howard Shore do typically excellent work. This is also a nice showcase for a solid cast: Woods, Sonja Smits, Deborah Harry (the Blondie singer looks VIVACIOUS, and is intriguing as an enigmatic woman who gets off on physical pain), Lynne Gorman, Jack Creley, Dvorsky, and Les Carlson as Barry Convex, the villain of the piece.After all this time, the new flesh is still living a very long life.Eight out of 10.
tankace Videodrome was made more than three decades ago and dispute the setting of cable TV being nowadays outdated ,the idea it isn't. Far from it, it actually quit prophetic about the evolution of mass entertainment.In the story we follow a sleazy TV programmer, who's programs are of questionable quality to be polite and he tries to find the next best thing in order to get more audience. And the he finds out Videodrome, a show like no other, with an extremely violent imagery. But during his watch he starts to have some disturbing visions and at times it is hard to understand if watch he saw was real or not. In general David Cronenberg is master on making something unsettling feel close to the watcher as if he is facing them and Videodrome is no exception.To the prophetic , the main theme of the movie is how over-exposure in violence can cause significant mental and psychical damage to the brain and body. Now the idea that watch violence in movies and television will make cruel yourself, it is wrong for nowadays we have dozens of violent TV shows and the global crime rate is lower than when Videodrome came out, but I won't disagree with that watching mindless slaughter in your free time it isn't the best way to have a good time. For instance in Game of Thrones a lot of horrible events take place, but the reason they are so painful is that we care about the characters in it, while in Passion of Christ we only see Jesus becoming out of the blue a bloody pulp ( I don't make any religious remark I judge the film as it is) so yes horrific but why?And that is I think what Cronenberg try to warn us. Also if you are bit conspiracy crazy with that film you will either have a blast or go nuts. If you want to watch it do it at your own digression, for it has also scenes for which Cronenberg is famous for.All in all it is a really interesting film and a must watch for anyone with strong opinion about the way violence is presented to the audience, I hypothesis you will find a lot of meat in that flick.
Predrag Videodrome is a classic sci/fi horror film from David Cronenberg which stars James Woods in what has to be his best role as a T.V. producer in the not too distant future. Woods turns in another great performance, and the cast is appropriate. Cronenberg paces this very well, and can make the film scary without having to have someone suddenly jump out with a knife. Also notable are the effects by a rising Rick Baker and the score by Howard Shore. Plus, this is one of the first films to explore the possibility of TV influence on the masses, only that taking it to another more demented level. The story's highly original and is filled with bizarre imagery, looking at it from today's standpoint it's unsettling how prophetic the movie was.Cronenberg gathered many parts of a script and ideas together to create a near avant-garde film that uses TV and fanatical programmers as villains. Suffice to say that what starts out as an already interesting and challenging portrait of a soft-porn Cable-TV station owner looking for the next big thing in the adult entertainment world evolves into a nightmare that relentlessly never eases until the very last frame. his film was ahead of its time by decades and is still a significant movie using TV/Media as the vehicle for great evil, as prompted by an already receptive audience. Cronenberg suggests that we have created a TV Pornographic Frankenstein that is out of control.So, this is as close as it gets to a morality tale of one man's descent into hell, but it's also an outrageously twisted glimpse at what might happen when broadcast media becomes completely unregulated - pretty far-sighted in 1983. Almost thirty years further down the line, you'll still need a Kevlar-coated stomach to fully appreciate the film's 'message', but it's worth it.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.