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Poster for Videodrome

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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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

All reviews
83%
Tomatometer
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
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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