Videodrome (1983)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, Debbie Harry, Leslie Carlson, Peter Dvorsky, Jack Creley, Lynne Gorman, Julie Khaner. [R]

Jaded UHF television president Max Renn (Woods) has become bored with the basic sensationalism his programming lineup peddles and wants something more subversive and dangerous, which he thinks he has discovered with the snuff recordings broadcast by a rogue pirate signal known as “Videodrome”. Turns out, it’s even more dangerous than he thought, as repeated exposure starts warping his mind and mutating his body. An audacious trip down the rabbit hole (“Long live the new flesh!”), writer/director Cronenberg’s freakishly fascinating ideas and obsessions often trump the execution, but as an abstract exploration of the loss of authority over one’s own body, it can be quite compelling (and repulsive) at times. Soft spots in the supporting cast and a few instances of clunky dialogue may actually benefit the surreal nature of the story and imagery—its cold commentary and limited logic will be inaccessible to some, but if it strikes a nerve (or taps a cortex), the hallucinations are unforgettable: literally diving headfirst into an amorphous screen, new meaning to the term “bio-weapon,” the growth of an abdomino-vaginal cavity, and so on. Pity that its half-formed premise suggesting that the television medium could likely be the next biomechanical evolutionary step in the human race isn’t pushed further, but the last thing a disorienting movie like this needs is to lose focus.

69/100