The Seventh Victim (1943)
Time After Time (1979)
Tras el cristal (aka In a Glass Cage) (1987)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Videodrome (1983)
“Don’t sit too close to that TV, you’ll ruin your eyes!”
Seems Cronenberg took this little bit of motherly hysteria to heart in crafting his mind-bending tribute to the Cathode Ray Tube. James Woods plays Max Renn, program director for a lowest-common-denominator cable channel. His relentless pursuit of smut and extreme video leads him to a broadcast signal that plays ultra-realistic torture and snuff. But something else is being broadcast along with the images, a buried signal that… oh, I won’t ruin it for you.
Hallucinations, madness and murder all follow as Renn tries to track tdown the elusive originator of the Videodrome signal, Brian O’Blivion – who (like the great and powerful Oz) will only appear projected on a television screen. It’s Marshall McLuhan’s worst nightmare as the medium becomes not only the message but also becomes a replacement for reality. Sexual perversion, media manipulation, spontaneous tumor growth, Debbie Harry and a man-gina – this one’s got it all! -
Roderick Usher