header image
poster image

Videodrome

    Horror
    Science Fiction
    Mystery
73%tmdb logo
•
Feb 4, 1983
Rated R

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

Details

  • Directors
  • Revenue$2,120,439
  • Budget
    $5,952,000
  • Vote Average
    7.3
  • Vote Count
    2184
  • Popularity
    23
  • Language
    English
  • Origin Country
    CA

Cast

Background image 1
James Woods
Max Renn
Background image 2
Debbie Harry
Nicki Brand
Background image 3
Sonja Smits
Bianca O'Blivion
Background image 4
Peter Dvorsky
Harlan
Background image 5
Leslie Carlson
Barry Convex
Background image 6
Jack Creley
Brian O'Blivion
Background image 7
Lynne Gorman
Masha
Background image 8
Julie Khaner
Bridey
Background image 9
Reiner Schwarz
Moses
Background image 10
David Bolt
Raphael
Background image 11
Lally Cadeau
Rena King
Background image 12
Henry Gomez
Brolley
Background image 13
Harvey Chao
Japanese Salesman
Background image 14
David Tsubouchi
Japanese Salesman
Background image 15
Kay Hawtrey
Matron
Background image 16
Sam Malkin
Sidewalk Derelict
Background image 17
Bob Church
Newscaster
Background image 18
Jayne Eastwood
Woman Caller
Background image 19
Franciszka Hedland
Bellydancer
Background image 20
David Cronenberg
Max Renn (Helmet Scenes) (uncredited)

Recommended

Scanners
After a man with extraordinary—and frighteningly destructive—telepathic abilities is nabbed by agents from a mysterious rogue corporation, he discovers he is far from the only possessor of such strange powers, and that some of the other “scanners” have their minds set on world domination, while others are trying to stop them.
Item image
eXistenZ
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
Item image
Dead Ringers
Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.
Item image
The Fly
When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
Item image
The Dead Zone
Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.
Item image
THX 1138
People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.
Item image
The Running Man
By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
Item image
Weird Science
Two unpopular teenagers, Gary and Wyatt, fail at all attempts to be accepted by their peers. Their desperation to be liked leads them to "create" a woman via their computer. Their living and breathing creation is a gorgeous woman, Lisa, whose purpose is to boost their confidence level by putting them into situations which require Gary and Wyatt to act like men.
Item image
Maps to the Stars
Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family are chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.
Item image
Naked Lunch
Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.
Item image
The Brood
A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation.
Item image
Halloween II
After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael Myers has followed Laurie to the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, where she's been admitted for Myers' attempt on her life. The institution proves to be particularly suited to serial killers, however, as Myers cuts, stabs and slashes his way through hospital staff to reach his favorite victim.
Item image
The Big Chill
Seven old college friends gather for a weekend reunion after the funeral of one of their own.
Item image
Burn After Reading
When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of gym employees, Linda and Chad, they see a chance to make enough money for Linda to have life-changing cosmetic surgery. Predictably, events whirl out of control for the duo, and those in their orbit.
Item image

Reviews

(1)
CinemaSerf
60%
"Max" (James Woods) runs a television channel that specialises in adult content. Always on the look out for new and more innovative and shocking content, he stumbles upon a brief series of satellite images that tantalise him. It's on a television talk show that he meets "Nicki" (Debbie Harry) who has a penchant for sex with a twist - and that not only turns them both on, but furthers his desire to obtain his newly found (and pretty violent) content for his Channel 83 output. The other guest on that show is the renowned "Prof. Oblivion" (Jack Creley) who prognosticates that one day the reality of television and video will replace the "real" reality. These threads slowly all tie together when "Nicki" decides that she is going to star in this new "Videodrome" enterprise and "Renn" must now reconcile his concern for her safety with his mounting need to acquire the show. This film is surreal and bizarre and yet it's still quite effective at illustrating the most visceral aspects of human nature - sex, venality, lust - even pain; and the visual effects (particularly towards the last fifteen minutes) must have been particularly effective. It's a bit on the sordid side - not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but at times the seaminess of it all is distracting from the more interesting and provocative aspects of the narrative. Time hasn't been very kind to it either, the effects have lost much of their potency now and the acting is mediocre at best. It is well worth a watch, but I'm not sure that will be the case for very much longer.