Videodrome
| Videodrome | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Cronenberg |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | David Cronenberg |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Howard Shore |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by | Ronald Sanders |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5.952 million |
| Box office | $2,120,439 |
Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and singer Deborah Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small UHF television station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring extreme violence and torture. The layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he uncovers the signal's source and loses touch with reality in a series of increasingly bizarre and violent organic hallucinations. The film has been described as "techno-surrealist".
Max Renn (James Woods) is the president of CIVIC-TV (Channel 83, Cable 12), a Toronto UHF television station specializing in sensationalistic programming. Displeased with his station's current lineup (which mostly consists of softcore pornography and gratuitous violence), Max is looking for something that will break through to a new audience. One morning, he is summoned to the clandestine office of Harlan (Peter Dvorsky), who operates CIVIC-TV's unauthorized satellite dish which can intercept broadcasts from as far away as Asia. Harlan shows him Videodrome, a plotless television show apparently being broadcast out of Malaysia which depicts the brutal torture and eventual murder of anonymous victims in a reddish-orange chamber. Believing this to be the future of television—(staged) snuff TV—Max orders Harlan to begin unlicensed use of the show. Appearing on a talk show, Max defends his station's programming choices to Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry), a sadomasochistic psychiatrist and radio host, and Professor Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley), a pop-culture analyst and philosopher who will only appear on television if his image is broadcast into the studio, onto a television, from a remote location. O'Blivion delivers a speech prophesying a future in which television supplants real life.
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Wikipedia