"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."

As a kid, David Cronenberg used to pick up American television from across the border and worried that he'd see something he wasn't supposed to see. Videodrome's CIVIC-TV was based on the Canadian television network Citytv, which had a show called The Baby Blue Movie that played stuff like Camille 2000 and Wild Honey. There's also an urban legend that Cronenberg saw Emanuelle In America and wondered how anyone could enjoy a movie that combined sexuality with snuff footage. I don't know -- or care -- if that story is true. I'd like to just have complete faith in it.

The director was between Scanners and The Dead Zone and got a bigger budget on this movie than he never had before. Of course, it barely made its money back yet became a classic film, which is usually the way of the world.

Max Renn (James Woods) is the president of CIVIC-TV, a Toronto UHF television station that shows footage on the absolute limit of what is allowed to be shown on TV. One of the satellite dish operators shows Max Videodrome, which is either coming from Malaysia or Pittsburgh -- as a lifelong resident, I am pretty pleased with that -- that shows people being tortured and murdered with no storyline to get in the way.

Max's lover, Nikki Brand (Debbie Harry) is so turned on by Videodrome that she goes to try out and never returns. Max is now obsessed and learns that the channel is so much more than just a video show. It may also be the voice of a political movement.

Media theorist Brian O'Blivion is the only person who can guide Max further down the tunnel. At the homeless shelter where O'Blivion's daughter Bianca (Sonja Smits, The Pit) conducts marathon TV watching experiments. He soon learns that O'Blivion was killed by his partners who created Videodrome but lives on in the hours of video footage he created. Oh yeah -- Videodrome also creates brain tumors and hallucinations which are both the symptom and the cause.

Videodrome is really part of an ideological war between its sex and violence-obsessed viewers and Barry Convex (Leslie Carlson, Black Christmas) and the Spectacular Optical Corporation, a combination ophthalmology and arms company. They program Max - via videotapes inserted into a vaginal opening in his chest that causes his body to transform and even grow a gun in his hand - to murder anyone that gets in their way, which may or may not all be hallucinations, until Bianca reprograms him to start killing for her father's cause, shouting "Death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh."

That new flesh means ascending outside of the bonds of our normal form, which for Max means suicide. Or does it? There were plenty of endings made for this movie, including one where Max, Bianca and Nicki appear on the set of Videodrome, all with slits in their chests filled with sex organs. As an atheist, Cronenberg cut this ending, as he felt it may make people think he believed in Heaven. He was also forced to cut all manner of berserk things from the script, like Max having a grenade for a hand, as well as him melting into Nicki as they kissed and a total of five more characters dying of cancer.

This sequence sums up why I love this movie so much:

Max Renn: Why do it for real? It's easier and safer to fake it.

Masha: Because it has something that you don't have, Max. It has a philosophy. And that is what makes it dangerous.

You can hear dialogue from this movie in tons of songs, including "Microphone Test" by Meat Beat Manifesto, "Master Hit" by Front 242, "Children" by EMF, "Draining Faces" by Skinny Puppy, "Scared to Live" by Psychic TV and so many more.

For a movie made in 1983, it really could have been made today. There's so much to experience here and I will be going back for another experience. See you in Pittsburgh.

I do understand in some ways what the film was trying to say. I also know that it's been praised and many consider it an exceptional film. However, I tried watching it tonight and ended up turning it off about halfway through the movie. Why? Because the extremely violent images were very disturbing...especially because I am sure folks enjoyed watching this. You see folks being tortured, a woman getting off with some VERY realistic masochistic behaviors (involving needles, burning herself and more) and after a while it just was too much. And, at that point I just said to myself...'how much of this can I take and SHOULD I even keep watching?'. Seeing folks brutalized just isn't my cup of tea...especially when it's combined with pornographic images and sex. Perhaps I am too squeamish, but life is too short for me to fill my mind with such stuff and I do not plan on trying to watch this one again...once was enough...so you are forewarned.

David Cronenberg's films are technically very well made and while his films are very disturbing a good deal of his films also have either a dark or subtle wit, poignant emotion or even both. He is for me one of the most interesting and unlike any other out there directors, despite being known for body horror and originating it his films are much more than that. All these are the reasons for my admiration and appreciation for him.

Will be honest in saying that 'Videodrome' is not quite one of my favourites of his, do much prefer the likes of 'Dead Ringers' and 'The Fly' and find that they are more accessible as films. It is still a very intriguing film that hits hard on the disturbance factor. Something of a transition film, with all the distinctive Cronenberg touches and themes but now exploring more ambitious concepts, on top of being one of his most disturbing 'Videodrome' is also one of his most personal and most complex.

'Videodrome's' weak links really are the story and pace in the latter stages. The story starts off very interesting and much of the film is unsettling in atmosphere, but in the latter stages it does start to unravel and the more it does the less sense it makes and more muddled it gets until the viewer is completely lost.

As the story unravels, the pace does too, meandering until it becomes exhausting when things get on the over-the-top side.

However, as always with Cronenberg, 'Videodrome' is a very accomplished looking film. It boasts some of the most startling imagery of any Cronenberg film (in a way that is both disturbing and also oddly beautiful),Cronenberg again showing his visual mastery even if the techniques became even more refined in his later work, as can be seen with 'The Fly' and 'Dead Ringers'. Howard Shore's, a Cronenberg regular, score is deeply haunting while also with a degree of emotion, not just going for full on horror but also the emotional core.

Script may not have as much dark wit or poignancy as other Cronenberg films, but it probes the mind at least and flows well. Much of the film is truly unnerving and makes one think twice about the future of media, the tension there frequently. Cronenberg directs with a typically adept touch. The characters carry 'Videodrome', Max is a sleazeball and is a meaty one at that. The acting is very good, with the driving force being James Woods giving a lead performance of true ferocity.

Overall, good if not one of my favourites of Cronenberg. 7/10