Videodrome

Videodrome is a 1983 film written and directed by David Cronenberg. James Woods and Deborah Harry star.

The film's story begins with the program director (Woods) of a sleazy local cable TV channel looking for new material to titillate his viewers. His technical staff picks up transmissions of bizarre, violent programs. As the director attempts to locate the source of the transmissions, he finds that they are beginning to affect him mentally, and then, as will be familiar to those who have seen Cronenberg's earlier films, to cause him to undergo a physiological transformation as well.

Because the film takes place entirely from the lead character's point of view, it becomes difficult to tell what is real and what is hallucination. A vagina-like opening appears in his stomach, allowing the villains to mentally program him by inserting video cassettes into it; as the film goes on, these begin to look more like tumours. Under the influence of his programming he takes a gun, which merges with his hand to form a literal "handgun", and shoots his former employers. He is then literally reprogrammed by Harry's character, so that when one of the villains attempts to insert another tumour-like cassette into him he is able to fuse a grenade to the man's arm (i. e., a "hand grenade") which explodes and kills him.

Woods's character finally takes refuge on a derelict boat in the harbour, where he sees a TV set showing an image of himself pointing his handgun at his head and saying "long live the new flesh". His on-screen image shoots himself and the TV explodes, spilling human intestines all over the deck. He then repeats the action he has just watched, pulls the trigger, and the screen goes blank.

From the above description it will be obvious that Cronenberg has lost none of his taste for depictions of bodily distortions and viscera. The film can be seen as a highly literal metaphor for the corruption of television.

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