Monday, October 30, 2006

Videodrome


--Reviewed by Lindy Loo


Plotline: A cable tv producer is constantly seeking out the newest most edgy programming for his television station. When he stumbles across a pirate station in which a person is being beaten and tortured, he thinks that perhaps this is something that would get him more viewers. Instead, he ends up stumbling into the world of Videodrome, a world where television and reality become fused in the mind's eye.

Scariness factor: Meh.

Gross-Out Factor: There's a bit of old-school goriness--heads getting smashed in close-ups, gaping wounds that people stick their hands (and vcr tapes) into, etc.



Complaints: Since I really dug The Brood, I decided to order another Cronenberg movie from the library. As always, Cronenberg offers up a horror movie that is a bit of a social commentary as well, this time one about how we're controlled by television and sex and how it leads to violence and death in a strange apocalyptic vision of mind-control through the television (which symbolizes what technology and television is doing to us in the real world), etc. etc. blah blah blah but the message is terribly heavy-handed and not all that interesting. Quiet honestly, I was bored bored bored with this movie. I found James Woods irritating. The sex between him and Debby Harry was moreso just creepy than sexy. I just wanted to shield my eyes and look away. Some of the special fx were silly and laughable. And again, the message was just heavy-handed and not all that interesting--it might be worth exploring in our current reality-tv culture, but even then, still not so much. And for christ's sake, if a giant hole opens up in your stomach, perhaps you should NOT JAM A GUN IN THERE.

High Points: There were a couple moments of creepy good special fx. But that really was about it.



Overall: Get The Brood or The Fly instead. They are far superior Cronenberg horror flicks.

Grade: D

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4 Comments:

At 4:03 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe not one of Cronenberg's best FX films, but one that has an unbeatable reflection upon the power of images and, ultimately, the consequences of tv culture upon our societal mind.

 
At 10:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had a lot of build up for this movie reading other people's reviews, but I was not a fan of it.

 
At 9:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dispite the coments above, I seggest this film for the sake of the special effects, and to see how David started in the film indestry. For I am an effects man myself.

 
At 1:25 AM, Anonymous Humidifiers Evansville said...

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