Videodrome (1983)

Dr. David Scott Diffrient

SPCM 358: Gender and Genre in Film
(HISTORY AND THEORY OF CINEMATIC HORROR)
(not for use without written permission)

Videodrome is a first-person film

(according to Cronenberg):
We get no information that
Max doesnt get himself

The film moves far beyond the conventions

of identificatory protagonist-oriented

narrative to a submersion in the central

characters increasingly fevered and

disconnected hallucinations (William Beard)

We get no information that

Max doesnt get himself

The film moves far beyond the conventions

of identificatory protagonist-oriented

narrative to a submersion in the central

characters increasingly fevered and

disconnected hallucinations (William Beard)

It is not just Max Renn who

becomes delirious, boundaryless,
fantastically beset it is the film

How does the film begin?

What Channel #?

summarize the films storyline

Max Renn, CEO of Civic TV

Nicky Brand

Harlan

Brian OBlivion,
a media philosopher

Barry Convex,
the head of Spectacular Optical

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)

a.k.a. Orgy of the Blood Parasites

a.k.a. The Parasite Murders

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)

a.k.a. Orgy of the Blood Parasites

a.k.a. The Parasite Murders

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)

horror is associated
with the predatory
female body

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

after Videodrome, a critical Cronenberg emerges,

showcasing monstrous, predatory male minds

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

Which moments stand out for their goriness?

after Videodrome, a critical Cronenberg emerges,

showcasing monstrous, predatory male minds

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

Which moments stand out for their goriness?

Are these moments unnecessarily excessive or gratuitous?

Or are they central and essential to the films themes?

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

horror as a construction of
a monstrous patriarchal order

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

horror as a construction of
a monstrous patriarchal order

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

horror as a construction of
a monstrous patriarchal order

Stereo (1969)
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
Fast Company (1979)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)
Spider (2002)
A History of Violence (2005)

Videodrome is a film of both bodies and ideas.

In terms of the films conceptual or philosophical

content, which themes stood out as being the most

profound or thought-provoking? Have those themes
been broached in other horror films?

the films political message/commentary

helpless private individuals are being manipulated by

predatory corporate forces under conditions of universal
technological penetrations and colonization (William Beard)

the media is ubiquitously intrusive, threatening identity

helpless private individuals are being manipulated by

predatory corporate forces under conditions of universal
technological penetrations and colonization (William Beard)

the media is ubiquitously intrusive, threatening identity

the unified subject/self is revealed to be a false consciousness

Videodrome is a film of both bodies and ideas.

In terms of the films conceptual or philosophical

content, which themes stood out as being the most

profound or thought-provoking? Have those themes
been broached in other horror films?

in Scanners, a menacing
and powerful organization,
ConSec, is engaged in
military and scientific
development with
conspiratorial overtones

in Scanners, a menacing
and powerful organization,
ConSec, is engaged in
military and scientific
development with
conspiratorial overtones

a sinister front for a

large-scale effort in social
engineering