Videodrome [DVD] [1983] | ![Videodrome [DVD] [1983]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4130RC1RR6L._SL160_.jpg) | Director: David Cronenberg
Actors: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson
Studio: Uca
Category: DVD
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £3.98
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 23636
Format: PAL
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 85 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 3259190289192
ASIN: B00006RHUU
Theatrical Release Date: February 4, 1983
Release Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 Surreal adventure in horror December 21, 2004
Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland)
26 out of 31 found this review helpful
Cronenberg has achieved a huge cult following with his take on horror and science fiction. It's sophisticated, often controversial, and always incisive. He dissects contemporary society by looking into the day after tomorrow and giving a caustic spin to the commonplace - the motor car, the condominium, the television.pIn 'Videodrome', James Woods plays a Canadian television entrepreneur, a man who provides material - usually suspect, often porn - for cable TV. In the course of his seedy research he finds a pirate broadcast of a strange, compelling programme. The torture and masochism he glimpses as the programme hisses and breaks up is ... well, it looks real. Or is it just incredibly well made, with the interference and fluctuating picture quality just an example of good engineering and clever directing, simulating clandestine status to give the show a bit of edge?pWoods teams up with a radio broadcaster (Debbie Harry) to investigate. They tune in, turn on, and drop into an underworld of research and exploration which exposes human vulnerability to the influence of television. Maybe it doesn't just have a numbing effect on the brain ... maybe it can take over your body ... maybe the broadcast can become flesh as TV and reality merge? This is television as an acid trip.pAn engrossing movie, playing off its own ironic take on the ability of film and television to confuse, mislead, misinform, or corrupt. Cronenberg speculates on the impact of television by taking you into the surreal, asking you to suspend your disbelief ... then question your belief.pWoods' character is sated by all the garbage he's seen. Nothing surprises him any more. He needs something weird, something even more shocking than porn. Do people really need to be shocked? Given the mind-numbing diet of reality TV to which we've been subjected in recent years, maybe Cronenberg is wrong. Television doesn't have to push us to the extreme ... it can destroy our minds with monotony instead.pBut 'Videodrome' takes us beyond the unreal. Consider how much of your understanding and experience of the world is based on television news. The truth, and its corruption, is out there, and can come at you through your television screen. The moment we accept reality as what the television portrays, that's the moment it takes over our bodies as well as our minds.pA disturbing, thought-provoking, hugely entertaining film. Like many of Cronenberg's movies, though, you'll either love it or hate it. He's a man who doesn't seem to allow much room for a middle way. If you enjoy the unusual, if you appreciate the surreal, if you like to be challenged and explore irony, this may be a movie you'll love.
Long live the new flesh! August 21, 2002
Mr. Stuart Chandler
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Phenomenal entry from Cronenberg, which is as shocking and subversive today as when first released. The story's basic premise is that the world is slowly being controlled by television and video, with a specialist group sending out a dangerous broadcast which causes a tumour in its viewers. The tumour triggers vicious hallucinogenic effects and leads to the group being able to control these unfortunates to do their deadly deeds. pThe commentary on the potential effects of video/violence and pornography is fascinating and in typical Cronenberg style, it all ends badly with much gore and violence. Extremely thought provoking and perhaps even more relevant today, in light of the power of the media and TV to influence our perception of different events. pWatch and be propelled into a dangerous underground world of SM, violence and a quest for the truth that ends in tragedy.pSuperb and obviously worth the modest price. Just be careful - 'it bites'!!
Trust the screen? December 12, 2004
Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland)
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
Cronenberg has achieved a huge cult following with his take on horror and science fiction. It's sophisticated, often controversial, and always incisive. He dissects contemporary society by looking into the day after tomorrow and giving a caustic spin to the commonplace - the motor car, the condominium, the television.pIn 'Videodrome', James Woods plays a Canadian television entrepreneur, a man who provides material - usually suspect, often porn - for cable TV. In the course of his seedy research he finds a pirate broadcast of a strange, compelling programme. The torture and masochism he glimpses as the programme hisses and breaks up is ... well, it looks real. Or is it just incredibly well made, with the interference and fluctuating picture quality just an example of good engineering and clever directing, simulating clandestine status to give the show a bit of edge?pWoods teams up with a radio broadcaster (Debbie Harry) to investigate. They tune in, turn on, and drop into an underworld of research and exploration which exposes human vulnerability to the influence of television. Maybe it doesn't just have a numbing effect on the brain ... maybe it can take over your body ... maybe the broadcast can become flesh as TV and reality merge? This is television as an acid trip.pAn engrossing movie, playing off its own ironic take on the ability of film and television to confuse, mislead, misinform, or corrupt. Cronenberg speculates on the impact of television by taking you into the surreal, asking you to suspend your disbelief ... then question your belief.pWoods' character is sated by all the garbage he's seen. Nothing surprises him any more. He needs something weird, something even more shocking than porn. Do people really need to be shocked? Given the mind-numbing diet of reality TV to which we've been subjected in recent years, maybe Cronenberg is wrong. Television doesn't have to push us to the extreme ... it can destroy our minds with monotony instead.pBut 'Videodrome' takes us beyond the unreal. Consider how much of your understanding and experience of the world is based on television news. The truth, and its corruption, is out there, and can come at you through your television screen. The moment we accept reality as what the television portrays, that's the moment it takes over our bodies as well as our minds.pA disturbing, thought-provoking, hugely entertaining film. Like many of Cronenberg's movies, though, you'll either love it or hate it. He's a man who doesn't seem to allow much room for a middle way. If you enjoy the unusual, if you appreciate the surreal, if you like to be challenged and explore irony, this may be a movie you'll love.pBut for those of you already converted, the Special Edition offers a compulsive package of extras - commentaries, featurette, a documentary, interviews, and an enthralling discussion of the nature of horror. Excellent package.
The greatest film of the 1980's? November 14, 2002
Jason Parkes (Worcester, UK)
14 out of 28 found this review helpful
Videodrome is a definite contender for best film of the 1980's, along with films like Goodfellas, Blue Velvet, Blood Simple etc. Despite being a cult film, it's influence is still firmly with us. pCronenberg's idea, following much criticism for films like Rabid and Scanners (critic Robin Wood being particularly scathing of his 'body horror'), wondered what would happen if people really did become effected in a literal way by watching a film. Here then, the image is the start of the disease...pJames Woods is on top venal form as a TV executive obssessed with the Videodrome transmissions , who begins to experience hallucinations (and then some). Deborah Harry is great as Nicki Brand (so called for her penchant of stubbing cigarettes out on her breasts), a fellow Videodrome traveller- though Jeck Creley is great as a Marshall McLuhan type, Brian O'Blivion- who invents Videodrome. pThe imagery here is fantastic, there is one particular shot (the ear-piercing scene) that appears to have found itself into David Lynch's Blue Velvet (the lipstick smile of a face slightly out of shot during sex). The film slips into fantasy sequences without obvious signposts, which is great- films like The Matrix would be nowhere without this kind of thing. This fits easily into a universe of hyper-reality- whether William Burroughs, Philip K Dick, Seconds, Baudrillard's America ,The Ring, William Gibson or Natural Born Killers...pVideodrome is a film that messes with reality in a big way, to the point where the biological collapses and fuses with the machinery (I've lost count of essays on the cyberpunk/mutation theme in this film). Cronenberg's film is unlike much else you will see, his voice so deranged it has to be applauded (notable that the end: suicide recurs in many of his films- The Fly, Dead Ringers, The Dead Zone (to a degree), M Butterfly...). This film is an absolute classic that blends art cinema with horror to unforgettable effects; why don't people make films as messed up as this anymore?
Interactive Television June 13, 2000
sirarthurstreebgreebling@hotmail.com (Streeb Greebling Acres - London)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
David Cronenberg was at the height of his power's and he gave us Videodrome. James Wood's stars as the owner of a soft core pornographic cable T.V station. Out for even stronger and extreem programming and bored with the pretentious trash he has been recently offered he stumbles across a coded transmission of a hardcore S M programme , from the moment he see's the first image he can't get it out of his mind.Haunted by vivid hallucination's he sets out to find the source of Videodrome.Which takes him on a journey that goes beyond anything he could have imagined. The B.B.F.C have deemed that the full version of this film is too strong for the poor old English so it has been cut for Video release in the U.K. But the Full Version is out in the states so if you want to buy a copy get one from there (and its only one click away).
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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