ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - February 4th
"VIDEODROME" released in 1983
MINI BLOG
A sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station, in David Cronenberg's Videodrome!
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A sleazy cable-TV programmer, Max Renn (James Woods), is always looking for new cheap and erotic movies for his station, Civic TV Channel 83. When his employee, Harlan (Peter Dvorsky), decodes a pirate video broadcast showing torture, murder, and mutilation called Videodrome, Max becomes obsessed to get this series for his channel. He contacts his supplier, Masha (Lynne Gorman), and asks her to find the party responsible for the transmission. A couple of days later, Masha tells that Videodrome is real snuff movies, which arouses Renn's sado-masochistic girlfriend Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry) who decides to travel to Pittsburgh, where the show is based, to audition. Max investigates further, and through a video by the media prophet Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley), the creator and Videodrome, and learns that Videodrome is more than a TV show - it's an experiment that uses regular TV transmissions to permanently alter the viewer's perceptions by giving them brain damage. Max is caught in the middle of the forces that created Videodrome and the forces that want to control it, while his body itself is turning into the ultimate weapon to fight this global conspiracy!
[O'Blivion appears on the TV screen, speaking with Renn]
Brian O'Blivion: The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena: the Videodrome. The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television.
Top: TV producer Max Renn (James Woods) introduces his girlfriend, Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry) to Videodrome;
Above: The creator of Videodrome, the media prophet Barry O'Blivion (Jack Creley)
David Cronenberg recalled how, when he was a child, he used to pick up television signals from Buffalo, New York, late at night after Canadian stations had gone off the air, and how he used to worry he might see something disturbing not meant for public consumption, which began the first ideas for Videodrome. After 10-years as a director, helming such cult classic horror films such as Shivers and Scanners, Cronenberg returned to the idea of Videodrome. Cronenberg cast James Woods in the lead role of sleazy TV producer Max Renn, Deborah Harry as Nicki Brand, with a supporting cast including Peter Dvorsky, Sonja Smits, Leslie Carlson, and Jack Creley as Renn's TV technician Harlan; O'Blivion's daughter Bianca; head of Spectacular Optical, Barry Convex; and media messiah Barry O'Blivion, respectively.
During filming of the Cathode Ray mission sequence, the film's gaffer, Jock Brandis, walked in and casually informed the crew that the power lines to the building were smoking because of the load imposed on them by the TV sets. For the chest-slit sequences, Woods lay down in a hole built into a couch with the chest-slit apparatus glued onto him. Woods swore he would never work with anything that had to be glued onto him ever again! During filming the sequences with the flesh-gun (which "fired" bursts of cold, vaporous gas), Woods played a prank on Cronenberg by smearing his (real) hand with blue paint and pretending he had frostbite.
During filming of the Cathode Ray mission sequence, the film's gaffer, Jock Brandis, walked in and casually informed the crew that the power lines to the building were smoking because of the load imposed on them by the TV sets. For the chest-slit sequences, Woods lay down in a hole built into a couch with the chest-slit apparatus glued onto him. Woods swore he would never work with anything that had to be glued onto him ever again! During filming the sequences with the flesh-gun (which "fired" bursts of cold, vaporous gas), Woods played a prank on Cronenberg by smearing his (real) hand with blue paint and pretending he had frostbite.
TRIVIA: The videotapes used in the film (at least as key props) are Betamax format. This is because VHS cassettes were too large to fit into the false stomach for special effects scenes.
Top and Above: As Renn's exposure to Videpdrome increases, he starts to experience severe hallucinations and even his own body starts to mutate!
An epilogue was planned but never filmed. In it, Max Renn, Bianca O'Blivion and Nicki Brand appear on the set of Videodrome. Bianca and Nicki are shown to have chest slits of their own, from which emerge strange mutated sex organs - this concept was also used in one of Cronenberg's earlier films, Rabid (1977). The scene was scrapped along with many others due to cost overruns, bad timing (Harry had stomach flu and Woods was visiting relatives), and the sheer difficulty of executing such a special-effects scene. A number of other ambitious special effects sequences were also dropped.
Among the scenes that were scripted but deleted was one where Max Renn's TV rises up out of his bathtub, while showing an image. The crew had researched how to do this - there had been talk of having the actor in the tub - and had come up with several solutions. One involved filling the tub with a clear fluid that was non conductive, but that would have cost $25 a quart. The crew eventually decided to take a real TV and simply cover its insides with layers of waterproofing insulation. It worked - they dunked the TV into a swimming pool and found, to their astonishment, that TVs float due to the ultra-high vacuum inside the picture tube. The scene was axed just before it was to be filmed.
Although considered a box office flop at it's time of release, Videodrome received generally positive reviews, with Variety writing, "[the film] is dotted with video jargon and ideology which proves more fascinating than distancing. And Cronenberg amplifies the freaky situation with a series of stunning visual effects." Despite its poor commercial performance, Videodrome also won a number of awards upon its release, including tying with with Bloodbath at the House of Death for Best Science-Fiction Film at the 1984 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film and was nominated for eight Genie Awards with David Cronenberg tying with Bob Clark's A Christmas Story for Best Achievement in Direction. In 2009, Universal Studios announced that it had obtained the rights to produce a remake of Videodrome, with Ehren Kruger beging named to write the script and produce the film with partner Daniel Bobker - but the project seems to have been abandoned since.
Among the scenes that were scripted but deleted was one where Max Renn's TV rises up out of his bathtub, while showing an image. The crew had researched how to do this - there had been talk of having the actor in the tub - and had come up with several solutions. One involved filling the tub with a clear fluid that was non conductive, but that would have cost $25 a quart. The crew eventually decided to take a real TV and simply cover its insides with layers of waterproofing insulation. It worked - they dunked the TV into a swimming pool and found, to their astonishment, that TVs float due to the ultra-high vacuum inside the picture tube. The scene was axed just before it was to be filmed.
Although considered a box office flop at it's time of release, Videodrome received generally positive reviews, with Variety writing, "[the film] is dotted with video jargon and ideology which proves more fascinating than distancing. And Cronenberg amplifies the freaky situation with a series of stunning visual effects." Despite its poor commercial performance, Videodrome also won a number of awards upon its release, including tying with with Bloodbath at the House of Death for Best Science-Fiction Film at the 1984 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film and was nominated for eight Genie Awards with David Cronenberg tying with Bob Clark's A Christmas Story for Best Achievement in Direction. In 2009, Universal Studios announced that it had obtained the rights to produce a remake of Videodrome, with Ehren Kruger beging named to write the script and produce the film with partner Daniel Bobker - but the project seems to have been abandoned since.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 78%
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