Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Debbie Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small UHF television station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal of snuff films. Layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he attempts to uncover the signal's source, complicated by increasingly intense hallucinations that cause him to lose his grip on reality.
Distributed by Universal Pictures, Videodrome was the first film by Cronenberg to gain backing from any major Hollywood studio. With the highest budget of any of his films at the time, the film was a box-office failure, recouping only $2.1 million from a $5.9 million budget. The film received praise for the special makeup effects, Cronenberg's direction, Woods and Harry's performances, its "techno-surrealist" aesthetic, and its cryptic, psychosexual themes. Cronenberg won the Best Direction award and was nominated for seven other awards at the 5th Genie Awards.
The film has since become a cult classic and is recognized as a significant work in Cronenberg's filmography, as well as an influential example of body horror and science fiction horror.
Plot Max Renn is the president of CIVIC-TV, a Toronto UHF television station specializing in sensationalist programming. Harlan, the operator of CIVIC-TV's unauthorized satellite dish, shows Max Videodrome, a plotless show purportedly broadcast from Malaysia depicting victims being violently tortured and eventually murdered. Believing this to be the future of television, Max orders Harlan to begin recording the Videodrome broadcasts.
Nicki Brand, a sadomasochistic radio host who becomes sexually involved with Max, is aroused by an episode of Videodrome. Upon learning it is actually broadcast out of Pittsburgh, she goes to audition for the show but never returns. Max contacts Masha, a softcore pornographer, and asks her to help him investigate Videodrome. Masha informs Max that the footage is real and is in itself a philosophical movement, though Max remains skeptical, and that the enigmatic media theorist Brian O'Blivion knows about Videodrome.
Max tracks down O'Blivion to a homeless shelter where vagrants engage in marathon sessions of television viewing. He discovers that O'Blivion's daughter, Bianca, runs the mission, aiding her father's vision of a world where television replaces everyday life. Later, Max views a videotape of O'Blivion explaining that Videodrome is a socio-political battleground in which a war is being fought to control the minds of the people of North America. Max then hallucinates Nicki speaking directly to him, causing his television to undulate as he kisses the screen. Disturbed, Max returns to O'Blivion's shelter. Bianca tells him that Videodrome carries a broadcast signal that gives malignant brain tumors, which O'Blivion considers part of his vision, believing hallucinations are a higher form of reality. When O'Blivion found out it was to be used for malevolent purposes, he attempted to stop his partners, only to be killed by his own invention. In the year before his death, O'Blivion recorded thousands of videos, which now form the basis of his television appearances.
Later that night, Max hallucinates placing his handgun in a slit in his abdomen. He is contacted by Videodromes producer, Barry Convex of the Spectacular Optical Corporation, an eyeglasses company that acts as a front for an arms company. Convex uses a device to record Max's hallucinations. Max envisions himself on the Videodrome set whipping Nicki, whose image then transforms into that of Masha. Max then wakes up at home to find Masha's corpse in his bed. He frantically calls Harlan to photograph the body as evidence, but, shortly after he arrives, her body is gone.
Wanting to see the latest Videodrome broadcast, Max meets Harlan at his studio. Harlan reveals that he has been working with Convex to recruit Max to their cause. They aim to end North America's cultural decay by using Videodrome to kill anyone too obsessed with sex and violence. Convex then inserts a brainwashing Betamax tape into Max's torso. Under Convex's influence, Max kills his partners at CIVIC-TV. He attempts to kill Bianca, who stops him by showing him a videotape of Nicki's murder on the Videodrome set. Bianca then "reprograms" Max to her father's cause: "Death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh." Under her orders, he kills Harlan, who inserts his hand into Max's torso slit, causing it to transform into a stielhandgranate and then explode; and Convex, whose body erupts into massive tumors and tears itself apart after Max shoots him with a gun fused to his hand.
Now wanted for murder, Max takes refuge on a derelict boat in the Port Lands. Appearing to him on television, Nicki tells him he has weakened Videodrome, but to defeat it, he must "leave the old flesh" and ascend to the next level. The television shows an image of Max shooting himself in the head, which causes the set to explode. Reenacting what he has just seen, Max utters the words "Long live the new flesh" and shoots himself.
Cast
Production Development The basis for Videodrome came from David Cronenberg's childhood. Cronenberg used to pick up American television signals from Buffalo, New York, late at night after Canadian stations had gone off the air, and worry he might see something disturbing not meant for public consumption.Cronenberg, David. Director's commentary, Videodrome, Criterion Collection DVD. As Cronenberg explained, "I've always been interested in dark things and other people's fascinations with dark things. Plus, the idea of people locking themselves in a room and turning a key on a television set so that they can watch something extremely dark, and by doing that, allowing themselves to explore their fascinations." Cronenberg watched Marshall McLuhan, on whom O'Blivion was based, and McLuhan later taught at the University of Toronto while Cronenberg was a student there, although he never took any of McLuhan's classes.
Cronenberg's first exploration of themes of the branding of sex and violence and media impacting people's reality was writing a treatment titled Network of Blood in the early 1970s; its premise was a worker for an independent television company (who would become Max Renn in Videodrome) unintentionally finding, in the filmmaker's words, "a private television network subscribed to by strange, wealthy people who were willing to pay to see bizarre things." He later planned the story to be told from the main character's first-person perspective, showcasing a duality between how insane he looks to other people and how he himself perceives a different reality in his head. Concepts similar to Network of Bloods were further explored in a 1977 episode of the CBC Television series Peep Show Cronenberg directed, named "The Victim." The film's fictional station CIVIC-TV was modeled on the real-life Toronto television station CITY-TV, which was known for broadcasting pornographic content and violent films in its late-night programming bloc The Baby Blue Movie.
Victor Solnicki, Dick Schouten, and Pierre David of Vision 4, a company taking advantage of Canada's tax shelter policies, aided Cronenberg in the film's financing. Vision 4 dissolved after Schouten's death and reorganized into Filmplan International which funded Scanners. Solnicki, David, and Claude Héroux formed Filmplan II which gave financial backing to Videodrome. This was the last film Cronenberg made under Canada's film tax shelter policy.
Cronenberg's increased reputation made it easier for his projects to get produced, leading to the film's $5.5 million budget, more interest from studios and producers, and a larger number of interested actors to choose from. After the box office success of Scanners, Cronenberg turned down the chance of directing Return of the Jedi, having had no desire to direct material produced by other filmmakers. Cronenberg met with David in Montreal to discuss ideas for a new film, with the former pitching two ideas, one of them being Videodrome.
Cronenberg started writing the first draft of Videodrome in January 1981, and, as with first drafts of Cronenberg's prior projects, included many parts not featured in the final cut to make it more acceptable for audiences; this included Renn having an explosive grenade as a hand after he chops off his flesh gun during a hallucination, Renn and Nicki melting, via a kiss, into an object that then melts an on-looker, and five other characters besides Barry also dying of cancer. Cronenberg admits that he was worried that the project would be rejected by Filmplan due to the excessive violent content of an early draft, but it was approved, with Claude Héroux joking that the movie would get a triple X rating.Cronenberg on Cronenberg (1992) Although talent for the film was attracted using the first draft, alterations were made constantly from pre-production to post-production.
Accumulation of the cast and crew started in the summer of 1981 in Toronto, with most of the supporting actors being local performers of the city. Videodromes three producers, David, Claude Héroux and Victor Solnicki, suggested James Woods for the role of Max Renn; they unsuccessfully tried to attach him to another film they produced, Models (1982). Woods was a fan of Rabid (1977) and Scanners, and met Cronenberg in Beverly Hills for the part; Cronenberg liked the fact that Woods was very articulate in terms of delivery, and Woods appreciated the filmmaker's oddball style as well as being a "good controversialist" with "a lot of power." Cronenberg doubled for Woods in the scene where Max puts on the Videodrome helmet since the actor was afraid of getting electrocuted. Co-star Debbie Harry was recommended by David, and Cronenberg cast her after viewing her two times in Union City (1980) and a Toronto audition. She had never had such a large part before, and said that the more experienced Woods gave her a number of helpful suggestions.
Filming The film was shot in Toronto from October 27 to December 23, 1981, on a budget of $5,952,000 (), with the financing equally coming from Canada and the United States. 50% of the film's budget came from Universal. The initial week of filming was devoted to videotaping various monitor inserts. These included the television monologues of Professor Brian O'Blivion, as well as the Videodrome torture scenes and the soft-core pornographic programs Samurai Dreams and Apollo & Dionysus. The video camera used for the monitor scenes was a Hitachi SK-91. The film's cinematography was handled by Mark Irwin, who was very uncomfortable with doing the monitor scenes; he was far more experienced with composing shots for regular film cameras than videotapes, disliked the flat television standards of lighting and color, and couldn't compose his shots privately as all of the film crew watched the monitors as the shots were being set up. Cronenberg stated that Videodrome was the first time that he fired a crew worker due to an incident between a hairdresser and Harry.
The Samurai Dreams short was filmed in half a day without any audio recorded at a rented spot at a Global TV studio in Toronto, and lasted five minutes longer than what ended up in the final film.
Three different endings were filmed. The ending used in the final film, wherein Max shoots himself on the derelict ship, was James Woods' idea. One of the initial intentions for the ending was to include an epilogue after the suicide, wherein Max, Bianca, and Nicki appear on the set of Videodrome. Bianca and Nicki are shown to have chest slits like Max, from which grotesque, mutated sex organs emerge. Another ending featured an orgy between Bianca, Max, and Nicki after Max shoots himself and sex-organs were designed for the scene, but Cronenberg decided to remove the scene.
Effects