Why It Ranks
Videodrome is the most prophetic media critique in sci-fi. Cronenberg predicted screen addiction, deepfakes, and the merger of flesh and technology. 'Long live the new flesh' is the defining statement of media-age body horror.
The Film
Cronenberg's Videodrome predicted the internet's effect on human consciousness forty years early. James Woods runs a cable station that discovers a pirate broadcast of torture and murder — except the signal causes tumors that hallucinate reality. His television breathes. His stomach develops a vaginal slot for videotapes. 'Long live the new flesh' is Cronenberg's most famous thesis: technology does not serve us. It absorbs us.
Fun Facts
Rick Baker's practical effects for the body-mutation scenes remain among the most disturbing ever created.
Debbie Harry of Blondie was cast because Cronenberg wanted someone who embodied media culture.
The film was inspired by Cronenberg's childhood fear of signals broadcasting from Buffalo into Canadian homes.
Academic courses on media theory regularly screen Videodrome as a core text.
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