From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!upstill Newsgroups: net.movies Title: Videodrome Article-I.D.: ucbvax.827 Posted: Tue Feb 8 13:57:48 1983 Received: Fri Feb 11 04:32:18 1983 Let's say that Videodrome is for those with very, um, special tastes. The plot concerns the operator of a small Toronto television station who is on the lookout for ever more titillating shows with which to pander to his audience. He gets more than he bargained for when his head pirate discovers a signal coming off of satellite of a show called Videodrome, which is nothing more or less than snuff TV: one room, two masked men and, usually, a woman to torture. Great idea, thinks our hero, maximum raunch on a minimal production budget. But upon further investigation he gets much more than he bargained for. Videodrome, the movie, is very strong stuff. It is "about" the relationship between the media and the audience, strongly (and explicitly) implying it is a hypnotic, sadomasochistic bond. How do you explicitly imply something? With very overt symbolism and imagery, which will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with David Cronenburg's films: the images here are as horrific as anything you've ever seen. I like Cronenburg a lot, but there are two major problems with this film: first, the theme of media criticism is usually highly obvious in the way it's presented, although there are a lot of ideas going into it. The other problem is that the world he creates (one of hallucination vs. reality) seems to have no real definition, no consistent rules: at first, the hero's hallucinations have no effect on others, and he is under the control of them. Later, he is controlling them and they DO affect the outside world. You might get the idea that this is a very ambitious horror film. That is the correct impression. I just wish it had been more successful.