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Videodrome is a must-see if you want to see the one film synonymous with the phrase “weird shit starts happening”. In fact, this film shows off Interactive TV of the most unique kind! Getting a “Smart TV”? The ones in this movie are psychic!
In this review I will mention some elements of the film, as I expect almost everyone reading this will have seen it, but I won’t say anything plot-spoilery.
Max (James Woods) buys new TV series on Betamax for his nefarious-quality programming on Civic TV, found on the dial at Channel 83, for which he is its president. These include Samurai Dreams, a bizarre show which starts with a Geisha doll dildo holder, a scene which the BBFC used to censor back in the early days of this film’s release. However, he soon moves onto something stronger, one where the sort of footage obtained here, however, is very degrading, featuring men and women being whipped and tortured in a grim-looking room with electrified clay walls(!), sometimes even including a murder. The show is called “Videodrome”.
There’s also some incredible special effects – back in the days before CGI stopped a lot of filmmakers from having to think – including seeing James Woods fishing around inside his own guts! He’s standing up when this is happening, so it’s not like he’s poking his head over the sofa and pretending to be doing this while still sat down. This is so damn clever! (and yes, the extras do go into how this is all done, but don’t spoil the fun first if you haven’t seen it)
It’s interesting to compare life now and then with a film going back 30 years, and how it sees events. Back in 1983, satellite TV hadn’t yet taken off for the domestic market so it was left to nerds with huge satellites trying to get… well, anything they could get, and with a big, motorised dish. Also, in these times, groping employees on the bum is seen as perfectly acceptable. There are personalised wake-up calls via the television, plus an early Oculus Rift demonstration, sort-of. Oh, and there are video tapes that breathe!
Since watching Videodrome causes Max to experience bizarre things, the question is – what is real and what is a hallucination?
Woods is on top form, as he almost always is, and there’s also a notable performance from Debbie Harry (listed as ‘Deborah’, here), as radio talkshow host Nicki Brand, who he later discovers gets off on self-harm. Now, everyone has their turn-ons in the bedroom, but I think I’d draw the line at drawing blood! There’s also a remarkable, haunting organ score from Howard Shore.
And last Friday, when a sinkhole opened up in Manchester, causing the Mancunian Way to be closed in both directions, the council announced that the ground was still moving inside.. making it all sound a bit like a non-violent version of Videodrome…
Videodrome isn’t a perfect film overall, since it’s way too daft at times and it sometimes feels more like a collection of great scenes than a coherent movie, but it’s never anything less than an essential must-see. The lack of coherence could be put down to the fact that, as per the extras, Cronenberg gets his inspiration from his nightmares. If that’s the case, then how come he remains so slim when clearly he’s eaten every last scrap of cheese from behind the cooker?!
And something about the ending which I’ll hide in a spoiler tag:
…or rather, that’s actually an uncredited David Cronenberg, would you believe?
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 theatrical ratio and in 1080p high definition, and while I’ve put full details below about the transfer, everyone involved have done a bang-on transfer here and it looks incredible. Given how the film is 32 years old and will have mostly been viewed in its early years on iffy-looking videotape, fans now have the print they deserve. You’ll actually believe James Woods is that young again! 🙂
I’m watching on my Panasonic 50″ Plasma TV with a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
As for the audio, the sound is in mono, and while you thus won’t experience any split-surround effects, remember that the film was made in mono and my aforementioned comments on Howard Shore’s incredible score.
Taken from the Collector’s booklet about the video and audio transfer:
- “Videodrome was restored by the Criterion Collection and supervised by cinematographer Mark Irwin and approved by director David Cronenberg. This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, while Digital Vision’s DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm magnetic tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using Audio Cube’s integrated workstation.”
The extras are as follows, there are tons of them, making this another incredible Arrow release. Note that anything pre-2000 is in standard definition and the majority of it is natively 4:3:
- David Cronenberg and the Cinema of the Extreme (21:04): Presented in 4:3, with clips from Videodrome in 1.85:1 letterbox, this is a documentary originally broadcast on the BBC in 1997, where Nick Freand Jones looks at David Cronenberg’s movies, censorship and the horror genre with George Romero, Alex Cox and Mr Cronenberg, himself.
I like the way Mr C states how every film will be seen on video and laserdisc far more than it would be in the cinema. He was right, back then, but later on in 1997 DVDs were first released in the US, and then in 1998 in the UK.
This is one of my favourite types of extras, if not my all-time favourite – an extra which was made for TV decades ago, most likely with the intention to only ever be shown once and would rarely see the light of day again. Thankfully, when these pieces are dug out and put on a release like this, it means a new generation can discover them all over again. The same goes for original trailers.
- Forging The New Flesh (27:44): A documentary by Special Video Effects technician Michael Lennick, exploring the film’s video and prosethetic effects.
This piece includes a lot of on-set and pre-production work, plus the news that the screenplay wasn’t even finished before filming began, since they had to just get going on it, such was the budget restraints. And thanks to physical effects supervisor Frank Carere, we see how he created the special keyboard which would go on to operate the pulsating television owned by Max Renn. There’s also contributions from Bill Sturgeon (Makeup Effects Crew) and Rick Baker (make-up effects supervisor).
- Fear On Film (25:40): A roundtable discussion, hosted by Mick Garris, featuring directors Cronenberg, John Carpenter and John Landis.
Part of a programme called Take One, this blast from the past comes from 1982, all three directors talk about the problems they’ve had making films and getting them rated by the MPAA. Obviously early on in their careers at the time of making this, you’d be hard-pushed to get three big directors of their magnitude in the same studio together these days, even though they are clearly friends from this piece.
And what was John Landis’ secret forthcoming movie? I can only imagine it was 1983’s Trading Places.
- Samurai Dreams (4:47): The complete, uncensored footage from the programme, with commentary from Michael Lennick.
- Helmet Camera Test (4:45): Early work-in-progress shots of the footage seen through Max’s VR helmet, the images pixelated using Atari ST and Amiga computers! There’s also a video feedback effect, inspired by its use in early Doctor Who opening titles.
- Why Betamax? (1:11): Yes, there’s no VHS tapes in this film, just Betamax, but why?
- Promotional featurette (7:52): A ‘making of’ from back in the day, featuring occasional bits we’ve seen elsewhere so far in the extgras, but I love these gems from long ago which would otherwise not have seen the light of day had it not been for this Blu-ray release.
- Interviews: Three of them, starting with Mark Irwin (26:27), a cinematographer who worked with Cronenberg on many occasions, with an introduction similar to the style of the film’s opening. There’s also one apiece for executive producer Pierre David (10:20) and author Dennis Etchison (16:45) who talks about his novelisation work on the film and his observations on the script. All three of these interviews were filmed in April this year and mix in clips from the film amongst the chat.
- Camera (6:42): A short film made by Cronenbergin 2000, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Toronto Film Festival of that year, which sees Les Carlson (Barry Convex) in his fourth collaboration with the director. It’s certainly an intriguing piece, and again one of those rare films which won’t show up anywhere else.
- Pirated Signals: The Lost Broadcast (25:47): Deleted scenes, only found after being seen in TV broadcasts of Videodrome. Don’t expect pristine quality in that case, but there’s always a good few examples of films from the ’80s where a TV version had more footage than the theatrical cut, such as Dune
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087182/alternateversions but of course, that TV version will be in 4:3 whereas the film was usually presented in 2.35:1 (with a 70mm print in 2.20:1).With 17 clips featured, there’s some great stuff here, but since the main version of the film on this disc is the Director’s Cut, I think it’s best to keep these pieces as extras only.
- Trailers (4:35): Three original theatrical trailers, the latter two being utterly bizarre.
- Audio Commentary: with Tim Lucas, the on-set correspondent for Cinefantastique Magazine and author of Videodrome: Studies in the Horror Film, whose soft voice begins by stating that the film was meant to be released in 1982, with “Channel 83” pointing to the future.
- David Cronenberg’s Early Works: Disc 2 begins with four short films – Transfer (6:27) and From The Drain (12:48), his first two shorts, restored by the Toronto International Film Festival; Stereo (62:43), his first short feature film, restored by the Criterion Collection from a 35mm composite fine grain element; and Crimes Of The Future (62:37), the follow-up to Stereo, restored by Arrow Films from a new 4K scan of the original 35mm negative. Naturally, the version on this disc will be 1080p, but if someone wants to give me a 4K TV, I’ll happily check out the 4K version when it’s available 😉
At the time of posting this review, I’ve only watched the two shorter films, and if I was to describe them as linear and pedestrian, you would know I was lying my backside off. There’s such madness in these that it’s impossible to know where to begin, so I say: Watch and enjoy. Just don’t try to understand.
- Transfer The Future (16:51): Author Kim Newman talks about the early works of David Cronenberg.
- Collector’s Book: There’s also a 48-page hardback book featuring new writing from Justin Humphreys on Videodrome in a modern context, Brad Stevens on the alternate versions, Caelum Vatnsdal on Cronenberg’s early works, extracts from Cronenberg on Cronenberg featuring Cronenberg’s reminiscences of getting started in filmmaking and shooting all the films in this collection, plus more, all illustrated with original archive stills.
Subtitles are in English, and as you put the first disc in, the main menu features clips from the film set to the haunting score, cleverly put together not to give too much away, and also in terms of pacing, such as with Woods shaking a video cassette when there’s a pause in the music. The second disc, naturally, contains footage from the aforementioned early works. There are 12 chapters to the main film, as well as chapters to break up the early works, and the lengthier extras. As always, I’d prefer more than 12 for the main film, but I’ll let them off when the amount of extras on this release put this as a contender for “Boxset of the year” (alongside with Society, another Arrow release).
“Long live the new flesh”? Long live the new Boxset! 🙂
Videodrome: Limited Edition is out now on Blu-ray/DVD Double Pack Limited Edition and check out the full-size cover by clicking on the packshot.
(click on the image for the full-size version of the digipack. It’s BIG!)
|
FILM PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
8 10 8 10 |
| OVERALL | 9 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 89 minutes
Year: 1984
Distributor: Arrow Films
Released: August 17th 2015
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: FCD1133
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Héroux
Screenplay: David Cronenberg
Music: Howard Shore
Cast:
Max Renn: James Woods
Bianca O’Blivion: Sonja Smits
Nicki Brand: Deborah Harry
Harlan: Peter Dvorsky
Barry Convex: Les Carlson
Brian O’Blivion: Jack Creley
Masha: Lynne Gorman
Bridey: Julie Khaner
Moses: Reiner Schwarz
Raphael: David Bolt
Rena King: Lally Cadeau
Brolley: Henry Gomez
Japanese Salesman: Harvey Chao
Japanese Salesman: David Tsubouchi
Matron: Kay Hawtrey
Sidewalk Derelict: Sam Malkin
Newscaster: Bob Church
Woman Caller: Jayne Eastwood
Bellydancer: Franciszka Hedland
Max Renn in helmet: David Cronenberg (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.