Director: David Cronenberg
I enjoy body horror as a horror sub-genre, and I really enjoyed Cronenberg's The Fly, so I was looking forward to Videodrome. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think it is a film I shall revisit; the plot was a touch confusing, and hopefully a second viewing will clarify some points for me.
As with The Fly the prosthetic work is really good. I am definitely someone who prefers in-camera effects to simply using CGI for everything (not that it doesn't have its place). The tactility of the prosthetics adds to the grungy, fleshy ideas presented in the story; the pulsating television is an arresting image.
This film is very much of its time, and I can imagine some young people in the next few years watching this and not really understanding the culture of video. For me, video was the way I watched films for the first eleven years of my life, and I felt strangely nostalgic for the grainy image on the screen. An interesting film certainly, and one I will re-watch at some point.
I think it's worth another look. There's a lot in Videodrome at the thematic level that is prescient in the same way a film like Network was.
ReplyDeleteCronenberg is all about the body horror. The Fly (as you mention) has a lot of this, but so do films like The Brood, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, and eXistenZ.
I have enjoyed the Cronenberg films I have seen. Do you have a recommendation for what to see next?
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