MOTW #6 Videodrome

[PackBacker]

MOTW #6

Videodrome 1983

Directed by: David Cronenberg
Written by: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Woods, Sonja Smits, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky

http://www.obscurehorror.com/videodrome.jpg

[Kikabi]

What can I say about Videodrome? This was my first, then second, watch. It had me in it's grip from the first frame. It helps a lot that it has a great, charismatic actor like James Woods to carry the movie. Terrific performance.

I'm not going to pretend I understood everything, but I did find everything about it fascinating. Especially how prophetic it is. Like people using special names as a way of masking their true persona - I'm sure everyone caught that. And how the film forced us to question ourselves - "what kind of person would watch something like 'Videodrome?'" Indeed, with these day of horror-torture, it's a fair question. After all, I voluntarily have watched some horror-torture movies. Anyway, did Videodrome predict that our entainment would eventually lead to such things. Not just horror-torture, but shows like Cops and Fear Factor, entertainment from other people's misfortune and suffering.

Anyway, I'm still lost about Max being the messiah-figure of the New Flesh. But it's easy to get lost; hard to separate his hallucinations from the reality of the movie. Heck, I can't even say the New Flesh is some thing real or not.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this movie tremendously, and I do think it's a near masterpiece from Cronenberg. It gets a 9/10 from me!

[Henry Lee Lucas]

Videodrome (Cronenberg, 1982)
10/10


This is my absolute favorite horror film of all time, and in my top 3 films of all time. I am constantly engaged in this movie when I watch it, from a visual point, narrative point, and I have so much fun interpreting it.

Before we get TOOOO far into conversation I just want to state this:
DAVID CRONENBERG HAS SAID on many occasions that though he is often seen as a technological prophet, he has had no intention of this, ever.
But that being said we can interpret away.
Aside from screen names (the obvious one) what about The Cathode Ray Mission? Bianca Oblivions goal for that place was to get TV to homeless people to plug them back into society, hey doesn't that seem like how were giving 100 dollar laptops to people in mud pits in the Sudan? to plug them back into society?

Visuals my god, this was before Cronenberg went over the top (not that he really did, though existenz was pushing it. as was dead ringers but i enjoyed that look) I love the vagina in James Woods' stomach, and I love the whole scene where he puts the gun in it, so haunting/sexual. Everything is so creepy and disturbing but subtle, no hardcore kill scenes or anything outstanding, but this movie makes you feel dirty and its intense. Him kissing the TV, great shot, esspecially with the tv tightening up haha and its veins pop out. god Rick Baker is the fucking MAN when it comes to effects.

Every time Brian O'Blivion is about to deliver some brilliant speech I am glued to the TV.


I
Love
This
Movie.
and could talk for hours but I have no good direction right now, gotta go to class.

[BugMuffins]

This movie made it clear to me that Cronenberg was as real a force to be reckoned with. As much as ANY artist on the planet. Like Lynch, Cronenberg seems to thrive on imagery. In MR. C's case, it's an artistic sub theme that is almost always anatomical in nature. His films (of the surreal sci fi & fantastic nature) evoke a stunning synesthesia like experience in the viewer. Few visionary artists are as distinguished & talented as Cronenberg.

Videodrome 10/10

[Kikabi]

The Cathode Ray Mission also reminded me of how the US government now considers basic cable to be an essential utility for the working poor and people below poverty levels.

[Inglorious]

I never could fully decide what I thought of Videodrome. I thought the plot was great, excecution was pretty good but seemed lacking. I havent seen it in about 3-4 years, but I do remember it decently. I thought a good 1/3 of it was slow.

It looked good for the style of film it is, and like I said, loved the plot. I also love Woods. That's all Ive ever been really sure about with Videodrome... Ill prob give it another shot and check it out - maybe then I can be much more decisive.

(And the damn stomach-vagina/VCR/something scene... so creepy yet... so rediculous!)

[Psychocandy]

Videodrome wasn't my intro to the world of Cronenberg body horror. That was Shivers (oh boy did that movie fuck up my eleven year old brain). I even saw Rabid before Videodrome (again...a movie that was just wrong in all the best ways). Oddly I didn't see Scanners until years later (I kept pussying out). Videodrome was slicker than anything he'd done before (which isn't to denigrate his pre-Videodrome output in any way...i've loved every Cronenberg movie i've seen). It's been a long time since I last saw it (although i've caught bits and pieces when it's been on TV). But there are a lot of scenes that have stuck in my head. The stomach vagina video tape scene is one such. But also the cigarette on the breast scene (which proved problematic for the BBFC in the UK for a number of years) and the bit where his hand fuses with a gun to form a fucked up hand gun (a moment later taken to a new level in Existenz with its wholly organic gun). And the scene where he presses his face into the TV screen. This is such a great movie. Once that I really ought to own on DVD. So I guess i'll go buy it just now. I might be back with some more comments once I refresh my memory. I really has been too long since I experienced Videodrome.

[JJFlamingo]

Classic, Masterpiece, Revolutionary, it all applies here, Cronenberg directs like a man on a mission, Woods brings amazing charisma to basically a scumbag character, and the whole hallucinatory last half hour leaves you wondering what is real and what is not. Outside of Dead Zone, Cronenberg has never topped himself...:D

[Frank the Tank]

This is a fucked up classic.

Woods is great, Harry is hot, and their is tons of weird, memorable imagery to leave it in your mind forever. It was pretty slow, but it's so unique that you just appreciate it even with the slow pace.

8/10

[Cronos]

Another masterpiece by Cronenberg, I love this film, excellent imagery, great cast and so damn weird that it was hard not to enjoy it, just another reason why Cronenberg is one of my favourite directors.

10/10

[Kikabi]

One of the things that my mind hasn't quite gotten a handle on - if it is at all possible - is the concept of The New Flesh. Dr. O'Blivion thinks his brain tumor is actually becoming a separate organ but how much faith can put in a halluncinating man?

What are your thought about the New Flesh?

[Kikabi]

What have we learned from Videodrome?

Here's some things I got from it:

It's easier and safer to make fake snuff videos than the real thing. Good to know!

Don't trust guys who call you patron (there's supposed to be an accent over the "o" for proper pronunciation)

Don't trust people who use obvious fake names like O'Blivion and Convex in real life.

If a vagina-like opening appears in your abdomen, it's not a good idea to go pocking around inside of it with a pistol in your hand.

Don't let just anyone stick just any video cassette into your vagina-like opening in your abdomen.

[Le_Big_Mac]

Probably my favorite Cronenberg film. One of the best examples of the combination of horror and abstract cinema.

[Kikabi]

I think what I appreciat the most about Videodrome, as a whole, is how the horror and science-fiction elements are so perfectly blended together there's no way one can try to pick apart the science-fiction from the horror. I find that very unique in a horror/science fiction movie, and one of the reasons I really dig this movie.