VIDEODROME

'''VIDEODROME. David Cronenberg, dir., script.''' Canada: Universal / Filmplan International (and others), 1982 (copyright), 1983 (release). 87 min.

Techno-Horror, political and philosophical art film (with a very high "Ick factor). Of interest at least for its presentation of TV as a potential threat. D. C. Willis (in Horror and Science Fiction Films III), finds VIDEODROME "the next phase (after ALIEN) in the evolution of the movie monster as a cross between the animal and the technological" and in finding Videodrome like the Videodrome process it shows as "'a giant hallucination machine'" (299). Cf. THE FLY (1986), and note especially imgery of penetration and "cyborgization" by a mechanism (gun) and a videocassette, and the superimposition on the protagonist of a device that will serve as a high-tech dream-catcher for his hallucinations. Note transgression of organic/mechanical/electronic barriers so, e.g., a hand can morph into an oldfashioned German handgrenade: in this film the Word may become fleash, and flesh become all sorts of things. CAUTION: A highly important film, but not suitable for children or sensitive adults.

Relevant images on web as of early 2015: