Man, talk about feeling old. VIDEODROME was ushered (bravely I might add) by Universal into 600 theaters on February 4, 1983. I wasn't able to see it in theaters thanks to it never playing at the military base theater, but I caught it on video right when it came out. I mean, how could I miss this one? Fangoria gave me the first glimpse with a cover featuring a TV spewing forth some guts. That'll make quite an impression on you.

I really do consider this to be Cronenberg's masterpiece and, over the years, VIDEODROME has only increased its reputation with me. The film is so prescient with themes that are even more relevant today in the era of 400 channels. Hell, a little while back Bill Picard posted about a story where the Army was doing tests in virtual reality with helmets that looked just like the thing from VIDEODROME. After hearing Cronenberg's commentary on the Criterion DVD, I was amazed to hear where he gets his ideas. For example, the gun coming out of ones stomach being a materialization of the pit one feels in their stomach in a rage. Pure genius.

So what are your VIDEODROME memories? I know we've got some folks on here with some pretty in-depth first hand knowledge of the film ** cough, cough...Mr. Lucas...cough, cough ** and I'm sure some saw it during its initial run.

Cinemax is airing Videodrome in high-def in the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 15th -- a late night Valentine's present -- if anyone's interested. It's been somewhere around 15 years since I last caught Videodrome, and I'm looking forward to giving it another look.

At the theater I attended there were audience members audibly unhappy with the ending. There were a couple of ladies handing out opinion forms in the lobby. I scribbled my heart out (I wonder what I said now) but saw one form lying on the floor with the word CRAP scrawled across it. I love the film, it is insightful and subversive, but if you are going to try to bring subversion to the theaters you need to make some effort to make the audience a little bit happy.

I wanted desperately to see it on the big screen, but was snowed out the one week it played at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall theater in NJ. So, appropriately, I settled for the unrated videocassette a few months later.

I saw the film over here in the UK on its theatrical run. It was one of the first times I remember watching what was nominally a 'horror film' but coming to the realisation that it was also something else entirely. It had such an effect on my impressionable mind that I somehow managed to persuade my frightfully groovy high school English teacher to allow me talk about the film and its themes for my English oral presentation 'O' level exam (Hey, I got an A).

I also seem to recall a story of how Deborah Harry's scheduled interview on a then fledgling UK breakfast TV show was cancelled when the film's content was revealed.

The film was also affected by the fallout from the whole ridiculous 'video nasties' campaign, to the extent that UK video distributors CIC pre-cut the film for home viewing, removing much of the Woods/Harry S & M sex material as well as the Barry Convex demise. This useless version of the film circulated until the early 90s until it was replaced by the theatrical version.

Remember when a movie getting a special unrated home video release was a really, really big deal?

My first impression of the film was from the alternate cut that used to show on the A&E channel. This has always been my personally preferred version, perhaps due to the first impression factor.

I like that Barry actually gives us an explanation for Videodrome (which, eeriely enough, involved being used by soldiers in the field. I also like a later scene (just before he learns the connection between Barry and Harlin) in which Max turns to look at his reflection in a shop window and sees that his reflection is still wearing the helmet.

And, of course, there's Max's looped line, "Am I going to have to hurt you, Barry?"

I also don't miss the gorier version of Barry's death. It's far creepier to just have Max shoot him and then walk out with the sounds of Barry gagging and gurgling into the microphone. The gloppy puppet show doesn't really work in this case. I remember watching the film with my father years ago and he quipped, "He has Chinese food coming out of him."

Be all that as it may, I love the Criterion dvd and have warmed up to Cronenberg's preferred cut. When Criterion inevitably goes Blu-Ray, I hope that this is one of the first titles they reissue.

Well, without the effects, one misses the whole point of Max shooting Barry with his "Cancer gun".

I got to see VIDEODROME in a big theater up the block from me at the time. Even got the one sheet, which I miss having, when it was through with it brief run. An extraordinary film. Brave, and quite visionary.

Some quotes that I think really show just how prescient Cronenberg was:



Well, I think we live in overstimulated times. We crave stimulation for its own sake. We gorge ourselves on it. We always want more, whether it's tactile, emotional or sexual.

Brian O'Blivion: "The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena: the Videodrome. The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television."

Max Renn: Do you know a show called 'Videodrome'?
Masha: Video what?
Max: Videodrome. Like video circus, video arena. Do you know it?
Masha: No.
Max: It's just torture and murder. No plot, no characters. Very, very realistic. I think it's what's next.
Masha: Then God help us.

Rena King: What about it, Nicki? Is it socially positive?
Nicki Brand: Well, I think we live in overstimulated times. We crave stimulation for its own sake. We gorge ourselves on it. We always want more, whether it's tactile, emotional or sexual. And I think that's bad.
Max Renn: Then why did you wear that dress?
Nicki Brand: Sorry?
Max Renn: That dress. It's very stimulating. And it's red. You know what Freud would've said about that dress.
Nicki Brand: And he would've been right. I admit it. I live in a highly excited state of overstimulation.



I think it was definitely ahead of it's time, and it's themes resonate even stronger,today. I'm not too sure if Cronenberg has done anything as challenging since then.

I too originally saw it via MCA's unrated VHS, which had a strange form of copy-protection on it that made all the bright colors (like Nicki's red dress on the TV show and Convex's cancer-sprouts) on my dub of it break up into snowlike distortion. I saw it in 6th grade, and it was the first horror movie that opened my eyes to the possibility that a genre movie could be relevant and philosophical as well as manipulative in all the good ways we expect our genre movies to be. I didn't realize then how rare such a movie is! One of the things I most liked about it was the feeling I got that DC hadn't entirely worked out all the issues he raised. At the end of the film there's a lot left unresolved, as though his ideas were too ambitious to be contained within the scope of Max's story, or maybe because they were still in the process of "becoming." As others have pointed out, its prescience feels like DC was picking up on changes happening in the media environment; maybe he wasn't quite sure where they were leading so he didn't want to give it false closure. It somehow feels a lot more "real" than the "petri dish horror" movies that take place in self-enclosed worlds that start and stop at the ends of a normal film. Videodrome gave me something to think about, not just what I'd seen but what it meant, and this why I've never gotten tired of it. I'm definitely looking forward to Tim's Videodrome book, now listed at amazon as streeting 3/30.

Now that is a true VIDEODROME experience! Did you hold a manila folder over the top of the TV to hopefully get a better look?

I'm amazed to see this thread because, just last night (on the anniversary, as it were), I finished proofreading my book on VIDEODROME for Millipede Press. Today I have to attend to some photo captions and then I should be done, except for signing off on the changes to the text once they've been made.

I'm very pleased with the way the book is turning out, and am grateful to my younger self for the extent and vigor of his curiosity. Piers Handling of the Academy of Canadian Cinema read an early draft of this material and said it was the best production history of a Canadian film he'd ever read; I don't think there's any question that it's better now, with one foot in 1981, 82 and 83 and the other in 2008.

I have a lot of memories connected to this film, including being present for James Woods' first bullet squib shot -- he was scared at first, but jubilant afterwards and cheerfully showed us the red mark caused by its concussion on his chest -- and laughing a lot at his on-set humor and antics.

I saw Les Carlson in his long underwear while his bullet squibs were being removed. He kept putting off our interview all day, then finally agreed to talk with me as he was having the squibs taken off at the end of a long day. The next morning, the production manager got in my face because Les had billed her overtime because of my interview! In fact, the production manager came close to throwing me off the set the very first day because, although I arrived with Cronenberg's approval, he had failed to get the production's permission for me to be there, and everything was top, top secret.

I remember Rick Baker talking on the set about the difficulties of having to be a business manager for EFX as well as an artist. He spoke to me more than once about wanting to retire, when he had enough money, and spend his life sculpting animals. I always heard reggae playing in his workshop, but in our last interview, he confided to me that he didn't really care for reggae, that it was his concession to the guys in EFX, whose average age was 20. I remember standing next to Rick one day, seeing that he was about a head shorter than me, and realizing that this was the guy who had played King Kong opposite Jessica Lange. Kong's hotel room was in the penthouse of the tallest building in Toronto and I stood with him on the balcony overlooking the city.

I remember being under the stage, pulling the cable that tore Barry Convex's upper lip as he had his memorable death scene. We were all wearing garbage bags to protect our clothes from the overrun of Karo blood and it was like being in a submarine. A pretty crew member sitting next to me began to strip and stopped when she got down to a T-shirt that said "Courage, My Love." Needless to say, I've never forgotten her and she's in the book.

I remember telling Cronenberg at the wrap party in March, as Elvis Costello sang in the background (on tape), that Philip K. Dick had just died.

I remember feeling a visceral reaction to my first viewing of the movie, partly engendered by the lower frequencies of Howard Shore's amazing score, and going to Cronenberg's house for dinner after my screening. David seemed nervous at first -- but relieved when I shook his hand and called him "Maestro." I was elated and, I'm sure, cursed more than was appropriate over dinner. I was young and in rarified air.

The movie itself is a miracle. It was shot by the seat of everyone's pants, without a firm middle or end, had a series of disastrous previews as it was being cut together, and somehow came together as what it is in the editing room. It bears little resemblance to any script I read. I love the movie but don't feel it is the perfect expression of what Cronenberg was going after; the time and money simply weren't there. VIDEODROME succeeds on the strength and vision of its ideas rather than how they coalesce into a story. As always, always happened on Cronenberg's films, some of the best scripted stuff got left out for some reason or other.

I later visited the sets of DEAD ZONE and THE FLY but with their escalating budgets and higher profile prima donna stars and various related/unrelated tensions, some of which were my own fault, they were not on the whole as pleasurable to visit. Overlooking the film's failure at the boxoffice, and the failure of my work to surface in any faithful version till sometime later this year, I regard VIDEODROME as one of my life's happiest adventures.

I think the first hour of this movie is brilliant, and then it kind of hops the rails for its last third. But I love it anyway.

A long time ago, I made the mistake or recommending it to a co-worker.

She was appalled, and always looked at me a bit oddly thereafter.

Hey, I thought she could take it.

That is amazing to hear. Any thoughts you can share on the film's initial screenplay? Or is that for the book (easily my most anticipated reading purchase for this year)?

Anyway, thanks so much for all of that info Tim! It is great hearing those kind of stories.

And thanks to everyone else for sharing your viewing stories. Long live the new flesh!

Well, no point in rephasing and compressing what I've already written and rewritten. Besides, there were many different drafts. The book should answer your questions... but it's good to know there are eager readers awaiting it!

Incidentally, I reposted my comments at my blog today, along with another photo of me from my first day on the VIDEODROME set.

http://videowatchdog.blogspot.com/2008/02/...e-turns-25.html

Well, no one can top Tim's very cool anecdotes from the actual set! Can't wait to read Tim's book.

I don't really have much to add except my little story of seeing it opening day to a practically empty house at the long-gone Picwood Theater in Los Angeles. I saw it one more time that week knowing it wouldn't last long, and it didn't. Even in L.A., the film disappeared in a week - two at most. I always felt that some of the make-up efx (even though impressive and creative in design) were somewhat unconvincing, but I still loved the film immediately for its brazen attitude and ideas. It will be interesting to learn more about the original script and what wasn't filmed when Tim's book comes out.

Every time I pass the Westside Pavillion (where the Picwood once stood), I reminisce about those days of seeing VIDEODROME, LIFEFORCE, MAUSOLEUM, and many others at the upscale one-screen theater which is now home to Barnes & Noble and other banality. A friend of mine has the huge gold-metal 3-dimensional star that once adorned the Picwood's marquee in his giant studio loft. I can't remember how he got it, but he's had it ever since the theater was demolished many years ago. I just heard last week that the National Theater in Westwood closed down last year, too. Guess they need room for another Starbucks. It's really very depressing.

BIG SPOILERS FOR A CLIMACTIC SCENE


Wow! The making of what is probably my all-time favorite gore effect... thanks, Tim!

Utterly shocking (and quite satisfying) upon my first viewing in the 80s, this scene only gets funnier and funnier each time I see it. If such a sci-fi "cancer gun" death were possible, the shock and blood loss of being ripped apart like that would kill you in seconds. Not so here. Dying up on a stage in front of a live audience, miked right into the PA system, Convex projects to the cheap seats with a hugely theatrical death that keeps going on... and on... and on! He's like some hammy actor at the climax of some community theater Shakespeare tragedy. Max Renn's hallucinations are really going the extra mile for him, giving him the kind of Barry Convex death he really feels Convex deserves. And I think Max really earned every last aaaacccckkk, aggggg, koff, and yiigaaaaahhh gasping out of that histronic and fleshless skull.

By the way, what I'm standing over in that picture is the "Stage 1" dummy of Convex. It's what was lying on the stage behind Max Renn as he commandeered the mic and yelled "Death to Videodrome - Long live the New Flesh!" It was a late evening and the rig was never meant to be shown closeup, so the stills cameraman felt justified in grabbing a nap... but consequently, Donna was the only person there who took any still photos of the rig before it was dismantled.

I pre-ordered Tim's book on Amazon sometime in the Fall of last year and had no idea when it might show up. Glad to hear it's not too far off now. I saw the movie in the theatre on opening night with one friend and the place was only half full and the crowd hooted abit early on, but by the time the film was over people were filing out subdued and mumbling. I went again on Sunday night (I talked a different friend into going) and my friend and I only saw one other person seated when the movie started. Could word of mouth really been that bad? I didn't read any newspaper reviews of it at the time, did it get bad reveiws (no reveiws)?

I too saw this opening weekend at a multiplex in Beavercreek, Ohio. My brother and a friend had gone with me to see SCANNERS when it was released and I thought I could talk them into going to this one, but no doing. This and a showing of CLOCKWORK ORANGE around the same time-period were the only times I couldn't convince someone to see a movie with me (so I guess that puts VIDEODROME into good company).

If I remember correctly, I was one of five people in the theater for the showing. This on the Saturday the movie was released.

Opening day ads quoted Andy Warhol and me (credited as CINEFANTASTIQUE). The reviews were actually some of the best Cronenberg ever received, especially David Ansen of NEWSWEEK and Carrie Rickey of THE VILLAGE VOICE. I remember that then CINCINNATI ENQUIRER critic slammed the movie, going so far as to say that Debbie Harry was not only a bad actress, but sang badly in the movie as well! (Clearly, he or she walked out after some scene or other and... improvised.)

I first saw the film with its video crew at a private screening, then had the film on videotape from the time it opened, but I did go to see it at a theater just for the experience. It was an empty shoebox theater, indifferently projected, my least favorite time watching the movie.

Sci-fi/horror elements aside, that Universal felt VIDEODROME could attract a mall/multiplex audience at all speaks of a different, pre-indie boom and arthouse circuit era, which I date from the mid-80s. Today it would be unlikely to get much past the big cities and the Landmark-type chains. (Not unlike other, more recent Cronenberg pictures.)

I recall that, despite the lavish front page coverage before release, Fangoria (or then editor Bob Martin) headed a reader's positive letter about the film with 'The Guy Who Liked Videodrome'. The reader's praise for the film was met with comments that the film was a failure because it lacked narrative coherence.

That is right! I read that a few years ago for the first time and posted about it here. My how the times have changed.