Videodrome

Here's a film to watch if you're in the right mood. I don't often recommend David Cronenberg's Videodrome; unless a person is predisposed toward films that rattle around in your head, Videodrome can be downright disturbing. I'm surprised to find it on a "must-see" list.

James Woods plays a television producer of questionable tastes, always looking for the next big thing in transgression. When he stumbles upon an underground snuff show called Videodrome, he wants to syndicate it. Things take a turn when he begins experiencing hallucinations that steadily encroach on his life, until he is no longer sure what is real anymore. Neither is the viewer and therein lies the power of the film. Videodrome blurs the line between real and imagined to such convincing, devastating effect, its influence continues to be felt on films like The Matrix, Donnie Darko, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Woods and co-star Debbie Harry (lead singer of Blondie, in her first movie role) go to great lengths exploring the world of Videodrome, along the way encountering revolutionary optometrists and a man who exists only on VHS, as well as pushing dangerous boundaries of how far mind and body can be taxed until they break. There are developments that bewilder and unnerve, all building toward a climax that threatens reality itself.

Regardless of my surprise seeing Videodrome on this list, my respect for the film grows with each viewing. Is this because I have begun hallucinating, like a character in the film? Possibly. The central conceit that tv signals can interact dangerously with the brain and infect it with tumors is sci-fi horror par excellence, and as is becoming obvious in my contributions thus far, I don't seem to watch much else -or hallucinate about much else, however you want to paint it. Cronenberg plays into the fear of infection and twists our perceptions of what is unfolding before us on the screen; don't be surprised if after watching this you never trust a television again.

If you are not turned off by psycho-sensual imagery and wild excursions into human depravity, this is the film for you; if not, may I recommend Sense and Sensibility instead?

PS. David Cronenberg made a film called eXistenZ (1999) that is considered by some, including myself, to be a sequel to Videodrome. It doesn't rank as a "must-see" for our purposes here, but allow me to say that it is a superior viewing pleasure in every way, the work of a master who, at the time of making Videodrome (1983), was just finding his wings.