Review of Videodrome (1983) by Stephen C — 28 Aug 2012

So in a David Cronenberg film a guy works for a sinister opticians,his name Barry Convex , Marvellous.

By the time he made this film Cronenberg was working with bigger budgets and heading towards the masterpiece that is The Fly.

Here his attack on the isidious and dangerous nature of televison seems to be an almost accurate with the Internet taking the place of TV .

James Woods is on suitably sleazy form as TV exec Max Renn who is looking for the ultimate rush and appears to have found it with the TV show Videodrome which shows torture and murder on an illegal cable feed.

Renn is keen to broadcast the show nationwide but as he goes deeper he becomes almost unhinged by visions and nightmares which may of not be real.

Becuase this is Cronenberg those visions are suitably alarming including a large gape in Renns stomach which looks like a womans ladybits ,and a gun which becomes fused to his hand.

Add to this Debbie Harry as his girlfriend who likes burning herself with cigarettes and you have your typical weird but great David Cronenberg film.

Its amazing that Cronenberg can make surreal pieces of work like this and getaway with it ,whats more amazing is that almost 30 years down the line he is still doing it with films like Cosmopolis.

Proof again that he is a master and one to be savoured.