"Whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television."
VIDEODROME is a masterpiece. (even though it stars James Woods) One of David Cronenberg's best, it is a surreal parade of hallucinogenic nightmare imagery. Max Renn owns a local late night cable station known for pushing the envelope. In seeking something new, he comes across a scrambled, pirated broadcast called Videodrome, that appears to broadcast snuff films. Max also begins a relationship with sadomasochistic radio host Nicki Brand, played by the icon Debbie Harry, who becomes so enraptured by the program that she wants to be a contestant. After Max's exposure to Videodrome, he begins to suffer hallucinations, the result of a brain tumor the program has caused. If you've ever heard someone say that TV will warp your mind, well, this is that movie.
The true brilliance of VIDEODROME lies in the second half, as at first this feels like an arch-conservative message about violent media having a violent effect on the viewer, but, little spoiler, it turns out that Videodrome was actually produced by the morally righteous higher-ups in a concentrated effort to kill off the kind of people who would even watch something like Videodrome in the first place. It is both very of its time because it's all about videotape and very prophetic because it's all about how we perceive and filter our reality through screens, which has only grown more and more true since it came out 40 years ago.
The effects are incredible, particularly the infamous scene in which Max finds an orifice has opened in his own chest, but I think the unsung champion of VIDEODROME is the cinematography. Cronenberg's movies get an unfair rep for looking "flat" and that is not the case here. There's so much inventive camera framing from the POV of TV and other equipment, a shot of the city from the angle of a satellite dish, introducing Nicki on a TV screen before revealing her in person, and so much more that only further sells the whole concept. VIDEODROME is a ride. There is no other movie like it and there will never be another movie like it. Long live the new flesh.