Videodrome and Me

Being the first Cronenberg film to put under my belt, this high school discovery unearthed an immediate fascination with the synthetic/organic nature of the director’s work. The fact that I was not well versed in the b-horror area, nor had I much exposure to the visceral and graphic assaults on the flesh, certainly contributed to Videodrome’s immediate ascension to the heights of my favorite films list. Watching it years later, I found I was able to identify more of the social relevance of the media influence. The psychological and sociological connections would likely elude me until later viewings.

Watching it now, more than 4 years and 1,100 movies later, I find my self no less engaged and no less fascinated with the 27 year old film. Be it the strange breathing VHS, the seamless excursions into fantasy, or the technical mastery of an electronic world fused with the biological, Cronenberg’s story seems a sci-fi nightmare or a unnerving prophecy. Either way, the uncertain discomfort in not knowing the digital world from the real seems even more relevant today than Cronenberg imagines it in the 1980’s. The advanced state of computer image making and visual manipulability only blends the line between the virtual and the actual. And with health concerns from cell phones and similar electronic gadgets, the infectious nature of our own creations may not stray that far from the horrific mental machinations found in this film.

Videodrome also exists on another plane. While my first experiences with it certainly didn’t examine the personal and individual characteristics, repeated viewings have made me notice the character and their existence in the story. Each and every one is tied to the TV, be it as slave, as master, or as sidekick. For some the pleasure is financial, for others it is sexual. But Cronenberg’s creation doesn’t imagine a world where cheap porn and increased viewership demand attention. Rather, this neurotic lifestyle that encompasses everyone onscreen is reflected to everyone looking at the screen. Pleasing our most scopophilic desires we navigate this uncertain and unfamiliar tech/flesh synthesis. The TV has become the retina of the mind’s eye. It’s only scary how true this is becoming and how connected to, nay dependent on technology we have made ourselves.