Videodrome - D-

Quick Hit: Creepy idea, fun effects, but absolutely dreadfully slow to the point that everything worthwhile seems to fall apart.

​If you haven’t noticed up to this point of this month, or of this blog in general, I’m a pretty big horror movie fan. I always have been, from when I was watching The Blair Witch Project as a terrified 10 year old, to watching the original Japanese Ringu as a young teenager. I still spend a lot of my movie time watching horror movies, and I spend some of my leisure time perusing different horror movies sites (Cinnemassacre, Bloody Disgusting). It was on one of these sites (I don’t even remember what list I read about this one) where I came across the movie Videodrome. 

It’s a David Cronenberg film. I have really enjoyed some of his other films, so I thought based on the description of it, that I would love it. I spent the six bucks at V-Stock and bought it… and it promptly sat on my shelf. Every time I would go to watch it, something else would catch my eye as more interesting at that moment. Eventually, when Shannon and I were discussing movies for Halloween, I thought it would be a good fit, and it would get me to watch it eventually as well. So we listed it, and I watched it.

Man was I wrong.

I really didn’t enjoy this movie. The parts of the movie that I thought I was going to enjoy, I did (aka, the effects were great and gruesome). However, I thought the plot would be better. I thought the pacing would be better. I thought the acting would be better. I thought the entire thing would 

Pictured: My brain after this movie.

be better. It wasn’t, and I admit I was wrong.

The movie is entirely slow. The plot is lame, some kind of veiled message against mass media attacking our brains. I absolutely get it, and I still enjoy the different parts of the Cronenbergian body horror, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good movie. It’s pretty bad. James Woods plays  Max Renn, a media mogul that runs a smut tv channel. He is consistently trying to find new edgy programs to air, and he comes across this Videodrome, which is basically people getting abused in a BDSM manner before they are killed. He finds some girl, they have sex and do a variety of painful things, and then he shows her the video. Turns out she knows all about it, and then it proceeds to get more and more confusing.

I had to watch this dribble twice, because the first time, I fell asleep. I FELL ASLEEP! IN A HORROR MOVIE THAT IS FOR MY BLOG! That doesn’t happen, but it did here just out of sheer boredom.

The only reason I would recommend to anyone to watch this is if you want to be confused, uncomfortable, bored, and ultimately angry. Or, if you like decent effects, it’s not a bad place to start.

I’m giving Videodrome a “D-“.

For more on this film check out IMDB.