Videodrome
Director: David Cronenberg
Year Released: 1983
Rating: 3.0
Underground TV station manager Max (James Woods) stumbles upon - and becomes obsessed with - a "secret" broadcast of something called "Videodrome," an S&M show that causes its viewers to experience hallucinations (and grow vaginas in their chests!). Pre-dates the Internet (and its collective horrors) by a good number of years - can't accuse Mr. Cronenberg of not being a visionary - and raises legitimate concern over the cumulative effect the mass media has on the human brain, but the tone is preachy and paranoid and the ending is a complete downer, and kind of a cop-out, as if Cronenberg just ran out of ideas. Moralizing aside, Rick Baker's make-up and special effects are still stunning and creepy, especially his pulsating Betamax and the breathing television set: ironically, today's CGI would have probably lessened the effect.
