Videodrome (1983)

Embraced by most genre fans as a subversive masterpiece of social and technological commentary, this David Cronenberg film did nothing except one thing…confuse the hell out of me. Maybe if I had taken more pop-psych courses at school I would have picked up on all of the little “violence in the media” commentary as others seem to have, but in my eye “Videodrome” stands simply as a confusing and extremely muddled film.

James Woods portrays a sleazy television programmer whose station specializes in airing porn and violence to the masses. Looking for the next “big thing” in sadistic entertainment, Wood’s stumbles across a satellite feed of a certain program entitled “Videodrome”, which is essentially nothing more than snuff T.V. Taking home a copy of “Videodrome” for personal viewing, Woods soon starts to experience one weird hallucination after another. Apparently, viewing the violence-laden program enables a dormant part of the brain to grow, feeding on the violence and thus creating the hallucinations that, of course, turn out to be reality.

There is a whole little subplot involving the creator of the show and his intent it will have on society, but honestly once this little part came into play I was completely lost. I understand that Cronenberg was playing social commentator and all, but really, what does James Woods sticking VHS cassettes into a hole in his chest have to do with anything? It seems to me that Cronenberg started with a nifty concept that slowly got lost as the film progressed. Rick Baker’s f/x are decent as always, and the scenes of Wood’s chest opening up with a very vaginal looking orifice are indeed fairly disgusting. Woods rules as always, and look for Deborah Harry as a masochistic shrink who loves to burn herself with cigarettes. Most horror and sci-fi fans love this film, though personally I feel it’s