Videodrome (1983)

Plot of Videodrome: Max Renn is the boss of a Toronto TV station which specialises in soft porn. His technician manages to tune into another station which is seen, apparently, to be presenting snuff films and the technician manages to identify the source as being based in Pittsburgh. Nicki Brand, Max’s girlfriend leaves to audition for the station and never returns, but Max begins to see her image on the TV, particularly in a scene where media expert Brian O’Blivion is expounding his theories when a masked person strangles him. On removing the mask it is seen to be Nicki. Max goes to a homeless shelter run by O’Blivion’s daughter where men watch TV in ramshackle spaces. Max has a handgun, but hallucinates that it is concealed in a slit in his stomach, and later O’Blivion’s daughter inserts a video tape into the slit. Max’s hallucinations become more extreme, causing him to kill some of his colleagues in the TV station, and on the TV Nicki urges him to kill himself.

Content: There is sex, but surprisingly muted. However on video we see naked women being whipped violently, and on another a naked Japanese girl engaging apparently in sex, possibly with a dildo which first appears as a Japanese doll. When Max is encouraged to whip Nicki, she is a face on a TV screen. Various things appear to be breathing, TVs tapes and more. Once Max has a slit in his stomach things are inserted, his pistol and a tape, these things removed plus what seems to be a hand grenade on the end of someone’s arm. When Max recovers his pistol it is sort on moulded into his hand.

A View: This film is apparently a version of “body horror”. It has become something of a cult outing but was not originally successful. It was selected by Total Film as one of the “23 weirdest films of all time”. It was not immediately evident to me what Max was. I thought initially that he might be a detective, but in time his role is revealed. I would say that it is typical Cronenberg stuff and only really worth seeing if you are a film buff, since there is no doubt that it has a place in filmography, but I’m not sure you could really call it entertainment.

Fun Fact: A scene in the script which featured grotesque genitalia emerging from the slit in Max’s stomach was never actually filmed.