Review of Videodrome (1983) by Paul W — 25 Jul 2012

Cronenberg is the master of the surreal bodyshock image that hardwires to your memory - once seen, you will never forget James Woods burying a pistol into his strangely pulsating vagina-like stomach. And to what purpose the "new flesh" of videodrome - a film with such mind-bending visions? A prophecy about where the world of pirate video, unregulated cable will lead? Pornography, snuff movies, reality TV and an impressionable audience swept up in an orgy of producer-programmed violence? Or is it a piercing satire on that same view - a shot across the bows of the video-nasty censors and the manifestos of media censorship? I favour the latter - it feels like a "reductio ad absurdum" argument as satisfyingly caustic now as it was 30 years ago, made by someone who loves to see his audience squirm.