Fresh
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.
Variety Staff, Variety
Videodrome
First it controls your mind. Then it destroys your body.
1983 · 1h 28m · R
Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction
Directed by
David Cronenberg
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Videodrome
Overview
As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
83%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Never coherent and frequently pretentious, the film remains an audacious attempt to place obsessive personal images before a popular audience -- a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Rotten
There are distinct signs of strain in the plot convolutions, not least in the spectator's loss of faith over indiscriminate and cheating use of hallucination; what certainly survives is Cronenberg's wholesale disgust with the world in general.
Chris Peachment, Time Out
Fresh
Though Videodrome finally grows grotesque and a little confused, it begins very well and sustains its cleverness for a long while.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
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