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Love it or loathe it, David Cronenberg's 1983 horror film Videodrome is a movie to be reckoned with. Inviting extremes of response from disdain (critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the least entertaining films ever made") to academic euphoria, it's the kind of film that is simultaneously sickening and seemingly devoid of humanity, but also blessed with provocative ideas and a compelling subtext of social commentary. Giving yet another powerful and disturbing performance, James Woods stars as the operator of a low-budget cable-TV station who accidentally intercepts a mysterious cable transmission that features the apparent torture and death of women in its programming. He traces the show to its source and discovers a mysterious plot to broadcast a subliminally influential signal into the homes of millions, masterminded by a quasi-religious character named Brian O'Blivion and his overly reverent daughter. Meanwhile Woods is falling under the spell, becoming a victim of video, and losing his grip--both physically and psychologically--on the distinction between reality and television. A potent treatise on the effects of total immersion into our mass-media culture, Videodrome is also (to the delight of Cronenberg's loyal fans) a showcase for obsessions manifested in the tangible world of the flesh. It's a hallucinogenic world in which a television set seems to breathe with a life of its own, and where the body itself can become a VCR repository for disturbing imagery. Featuring bizarre makeup effects by Rick Baker and a daring performance by Deborah Harry (of Blondie fame) as Wood's sadomasochistic girlfriend, Videodrome is pure Cronenberg--unsettling, intelligent, and decidedly not for every taste. --Jeff Shannon

Rating : - "Long live the new flesh!"
Videodrome was a fantastic film by Cronenberg, I remember watching this film for the very first time just a few years ago and I was really impressed by this. I just thought that the film was more relevant and contemporary nowadays then it was back then. This innovative mix of science fiction, sex, violence, surrealism and horror has lost none of its touch over the years. I have enjoyed most of Cronenberg's movies and think he is one of the most underrated directors out there, this film definitely represents his own vision and was quite original I mean nobody would have thought about this concept back in 1983 which is amazing. O.K. so the film was totally bizarre and if you're the type of person who likes watching films that are streamlined and normal then forget it but if your familiar with Cronenberg's work then you'll probably know what to expect, the film gets increasingly more weird and surreal especially during the second half. The story was about Max Renn (brilliant performance by James Woods) who is this scuzzy low-life producer for Civic TV. Renn's station specializes in the perverse, soft core pornography, graphic violence and other such racy material which is Civic TV's specialty, giving viewers "a harmless outlet for their fantasies and frustrations" and that's what Renn obviously thinks and believes in.

Renn's latest program discovery may not be so harmless however, with the help of his techie friend Harlin (Peter Dvorsky) Renn is able to pickup an anonymous broadcast from overseas simply called "Videodrome", the show depicts a women being beaten and tortured in an electric chamber. What the two view is pure unadulterated snuff footage and Renn cannot stop watching, he soon gets hooked on watching this pirated snuff film channel but he soon discovers that everything is not as it seems and that the transmission wasn't broadcast at all but actually a tape which brainwashes him into acts of self mutilation on his body and starts mutating, he has this weird VCR like slit in his stomach. The special fx were amazing and truly shows the craftsmanship that went into this film, it was visually stunning and the gore and level of violence was quite high which is typical from David Cronenberg. The film also stars Deborah Harry from one of my favorite rock groups of all time Blondie and she also gave a fantastic and very memorable performance as Nikki Brand a radio Psychologist who has a disturbing masochistic side to her.

She enjoys pain and suffering and then decides to join "Videodrome" since it provides the perfect opportunity to satisfy her perverse and masochistic sexual desires. Les Carlson who plays Barry Convex the visionary behind "Videodrome" was also great and had the best death scene. The film's message was quite intriguing as it deals with mass-media consumption, brain washing techniques, obsession, media violence and how it effects people ect. you'll also see how the characters realities start blending with their hallucinations. Criterion has prepared a number of excellent supplements for this release. The first disc contains two commentaries and Cronenberg's recent short film Camera. Disc two has the 30 minute featurette "Forging The New Flesh" by video effects supervisor Michael Lennick, The other significant extra is a 1982 panel interview between Cronenberg, John Carpenter and John Landis entitled "Fear on Film". The 26-minute extra is even better than the effects documentary as three of the decades most influential filmmakers talk about various aspects of their films. "Effects Men" is another supplement on the technical aspects of the production, there is also the "Bootleg Video" supplement which includes three of the shorts that were seen within the film. The most entertaining is the "Samurai Dreams" soft-core porn that Cronenberg shot for the film and some truly bizarre trailers that make the film even weirder than it already is and some photo and still galleries and deleted scenes. Videodrome was a fantastic film which was nicely made by David Cronenberg with terrific performances from the three leads, the film also steps up a notch or two in the second half and is a highly creepy and original sci/fi horror film that just gets weirder and weirder! Do yourself a favor and see it now. I believe that Cronenberg is a true genius, Long live the new flesh! ;-).