Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, Videodrome follows the CEO of a small UHF TV station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal of snuff films.
After an ambitious television producer happens upon an illegal broadcast of “Videodrome,” a plotless series where individuals are tortured or murdered, he receives a dose of his own medicine when it literally poisons his brain.
Layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he attempts to uncover the signal’s source.
Cronenberg examined the boundaries of taste in the early days of cable television by telling the story of a programmer searching for ratings by any means necessary.
The resulting journey causes Max to fall down a dark rabbit hole as he begins to question what is real and what is part of the show.
As the unscrupulous narcissist Max Renn, he cast the young James Woods, who delivers a performance that’s loathsome, disturbing and deservedly leads to a comeuppance.
Distributed by Universal, Videodrome was the first film by Cronenberg to gain backing from any major Hollywood studio.
With the highest budget of any of his films to date, the film was a box-office bomb, recouping only $2.1 million from a $5.9 million budget.
The film was praised 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.
Now considered a cult classic, the film has been cited as one of Cronenberg’s best, and a key pillar of the body horror and sci-fi horror genres.
The movie’s probe into viewers’ insatiable obsession with images of sex and violence was ahead of its time.
