Review of Videodrome (1983) by Akash C — 03 Jul 2011

Cronenberg is the master of making you think you're watching one thing and then suddenly switching it on you. In these modern times where every single movie has a "twist" ending, one can certainly appreiciate the hallucinogenic craziness of 1983's Videodrome.

James Woods stars in this bizzare mind scramble of a film about the programmer of a small cable channel, specializing the violent and the obscene. When one of his technicians intercepts a pirate transmission of bootleg snuff footage, things start to get truly weird and soon, he can't tell his hallucinations from reality.

Cronenberg would later mimic the feel of this film in his wildly successful Naked Lunch, but here it is much more raw and unrefined. Videodrome has several unsettling scenes of uniquely disturbing body horror - Cronenberg's specialty.

Mix this with an undercurrent of sex and fetishism and you get one of Cronenberg's most genuinely grotesque films. Rick Baker does a stellar job with some supremely gruesome sequences - all with practical fx, 80's style.

If surrealistic and visually overwhelming cinema is your bag, you better watch this one now.