And Now, Your Halloweekend Scary Movie Round Up
Videodrome (1983)
Directed by David Cronenberg
“Television is reality, and reality is less than television.” This idea, stated midway through Cronenberg’s psychological horror classic, might be the thesis of every undergraduate media course today, but in 1983, it was eerily prescient. Violent, erotic, and relentlessly weird—in other words, classic Cronenberg—Videodrome pits the the CEO of a trash TV station (a superb James Woods) against a mysterious broadcast signal airing real violence and torture, content so visceral it thrusts its viewers into a fit of violent hallucinations. TV sets pulse and writhe at their owner’s touch, screens swell and stretch, and a gaping stomach wound doubles as an oozing VHS portal. Working alongside special effects whiz Rick Baker, Cronenberg piles on the surreal imagery until we’re unable to decipher the real from the imaginary—a familiar sensation for today’s overstimulated audience. A.J. Serrano (October 31, 4:30pm at the Museum of the Moving Image’s Cronenberg weekend)