Sleazy cable TV programmer Max Renn (Woods) encounters a strange new program known as "Videodrome". Under its mysterious influence, Max's fantasies seem to come to life as strange things begin to happen and reality is not what it seems. Unmistakable weirdness from cult director Cronenberg.
Max Renn runs an unauthorized cable channel in Toronto that caters to viewers demanding increasingly violent and pornographic material. One night, in search of new programming fodder, he stumbles across a scrambled satellite transmission emanating from unknown regions -- a startlingly graphic broadcast that routinely depicts the brutal torture and murder of women. Excited by his find, Renn attempts to track the show to its origins, but he continually encounters resistance, including a warning from one of his programming suppliers that the broadcasts are not dramatizations but depictions of actual murders.
Undaunted, Renn finally traces the show to Pittsburgh, where he encounters the transmissions of a Messianic madman known as Brian O'Blivion. Although O'Blivion is dead, his daughter continues to spread his twisted gospel by broadcasting old videotapes of his sermons, encouraging people to embrace the barbarous new TV world as reality. Eventually Renn finds the man who is controlling all the hallucinatory video violence. But by then, Max has begun his own descent into madness, an insanity culminating in physical manifestations of the exploitative sleaze he has profited from over the years.
Additional production company: Guardian Trust Company
Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Began shooting October 27, 1981; completed shooting December 23, 1981. Released in North America February 4, 1983.
Excerpt: "Torture, murder, mutilation! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant, and almost no production costs. Where do they get actors who can do this?" -- Max Renn (James Woods)
"The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore 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." -- Professor Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley)
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 1.85
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. David Cronenberg - Director
2. James Woods - Star
3. Deborah Harry - Star
4. Mark Irwin - Director of Photography
Bonus Feature/Short - 1. CAMERA (Dir. David Cronenberg)
2. SAMURAI DREAMS
3. FEAR ON FILM
4. FORMING THE NEW FLESH
Featurette
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
Documentary - 1. FORMING THE NEW FLESH
Text/Photo Galleries:
Stills/Photos
Additional Text - 1. Essay By Film Critic Carrie Rickey
2. Essay By VIDEODROME Expert Tim Lucas
Featured
Les Carlson: Actor
Review 1:
"...[Cronenberg] is developing a real genius for this sort of thing....[Woods] gives the performance a sharply authentic edge..."
Source: New York Times
p.C9 02/04/1983
Review 2:
"...[The] picture is a real find for horror buffs looking for new thrills..."
Source: Variety
02/02/1983
Review 3:
"[I]t looks outright prophetic and, even scarier, absolutely coherent."
Source: Premiere
p.112 10/01/2004
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