David Cronenberg‘s 1983 sci-fi/horror film Videodrome is a strange and sometimes shocking vision about the impact of television on our psyche, the relationship between the perceived reality of television and our world of technological worship.
James Woods’ Max Renn is a sleazy TV station owner. He broadcasts porn and violence, the usual subversive stuff. Looking for new programming, he comes across a mind-alerting show called Videodrome. Videodrome is a snuff show, featuring women who are tortured and murdered; Max thinks it’s the greatest thing he’s ever seen, the future of television.
On a TV talk show, Max meets Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry of the band Blondie) a masochistic radio host who is soon in Max’s apartment, watching a tape of Videodrome. They both begin to get sucked into the tape; Nicki wants to get on the show, while Max starts hallucinating, or at least thinks he’s hallucinating. First, his television begins to talk to him. Then, his body starts to transform too.
The sex and violence that Max promotes with his television network begins to manifest itself physically on his body: he grows a Betamax tape deck vagina in his stomach, and his hand (pictured right) freakishly morphs with a gun. Max is a bit freaked out by his perceived transformation, so he tries to figure out what’s happening to him, involving an eyeglass manufacturer, evil corporations, the usual brainwashing evil people plot.
The special effects in this movie make statements, they are representative and critical to the themes raised by the movie. The old school makeup effects and creepy prosthetics may seem a bit dated, however they aren’t distracting. The effects are organic, as bizarre as Max’s hallucinations seem, they are not tacked-on, his world is scary and believable.
A strong story isn’t the movie’s highlight, but the framework does allow Cronenberg to bring up some interesting issues. In our media saturated culture, can anyone truly die when their image is preserved forever on videotape? Does television, as a perceived reality, replace actual experiences? Is watching someone murder someone on TV the same as witnessing real murder? Our fantasies are increasingly lived out through technology, obviously the technology in focus in Videodrome is television. Are these technologically fueled fantasies responsible for our increasingly violent, sex-obsessed society? Videodrome, in 1983, makes a strong case that technology may be in part responsible for the degradation of society.
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