Videodrome

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Videodrome

R

Released Jan 28, 1983

1h 30m

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

83%

Tomatometer

58 Reviews

80%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn (James Woods) 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 (Deborah Harry) 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.

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Critics Consensus

Visually audacious, disorienting, and just plain weird, Videodrome's musings on technology, entertainment, and politics still feel fresh today.

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Gary Arnold

Washington Post

Simultaneously stupefying and boring, Videodrome is too extreme a blunder to survive exposure to a justifiably disillusioned horror-movie public.

Aug 4, 2015

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Variety Staff

Variety

Film is dotted with video jargon and ideology which proves more fascinating than distancing. And Cronenberg amplifies the freaky situation with a series of stunning visual effects.

Jun 6, 2007

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Never coherent and frequently pretentious, the film remains an audacious attempt to place obsessive personal images before a popular audience -- a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars.

Jun 6, 2007

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Sam Moore

Vague Visages

The cold, the mechanical, the projected — all of these traits become lively embodied and erotic.

Jun 5, 2024

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Scott Nye

Battleship Pretension

While Videodrome is in some ways a very heady, theme-driven film, it’s also just a thrilling experience.

Oct 20, 2023

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Howard Waldstein

CBR

Always on the hunt for something newer and edgier, Max comes across a Malaysian broadcast of live executions, which Max immediately wants to begin airing on his network.

Jul 18, 2023

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Brent

A Cronenberg Masterpiece

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/23/22

Full Review

Sergio A

A cult film due to its impact on horror, its original and psychedelic ideas, and its visually hallucinatory style. The foundation that the master David Cronenberg would later refine.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/16/25

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Made for M

A must see, but likely more than once. This movie is a work of genius so far ahead of its time it took the world 40 years to catch up. When you watch this movie, just consider this - how many screens are you tapped into each day? How many videos do you watch? How many online monikers do you have? How much of this is real and how much of your impression of it all is simply hallucination and imaginings connected to things said by people on a screen? That's the point of Videodrome - the fight that is taking place in this place.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/27/25

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Farah R

What a mess! I kept watching, hoping to understand what the hullaballoo was about, but Videodrome never made any sense.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/22/25

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matthew d

A movie that's starts out extremely interesting and turns into a cheesy grade C altered reality Sunday night reject that only offers the horror of regret of having picked it

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/15/25

Full Review

Judith R

Videodrome is one of those films that you shouldn’t watch late at night because it’ll have you staying up all night wondering into your thoughts. Videodrome was an entertaining film to watch with an interesting plot and unexpected turns. It really has you question the reality of TV and the channels that really play at night when people are supposedly sleeping or the kinds of things that are broadcasted in secret channels. Some of the scenes can make you feel a bit uncomfortable or give you an eerie feeling like when he starts hallucinating with the lips on the tv or when he starts shoving things into his scar. The film had a lot of effects that I think were really done well for its time. From the veins and breathing of the tv to the scar on the stomach it was all just done really well and seemed very realistic. Overall, for this film you have to pay really close attention because there is a concept that's much more than just the dangers that the show brought. The hallucinations also made it somewhat confusing to differentiate what scenes were real and what were hallucinations. It was a combination of real scenes that jump straight into the hallucinations that really play with you. Overall I would recommend this film because of how trippy it is and how it plays with your imagination.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/21/24

Full Review

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David Cronenberg

Director

James Woods

Max Renn

Deborah Harry

Nicki Brand

Sonja Smits

Bianca O'Blivion

Peter Dvorsky

Harlan

Leslie Carlson

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Synopsis

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn (James Woods) 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 (Deborah Harry) 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.

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Héroux
Screenwriter: David Cronenberg
Distributor: Criterion Collection, Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 28, 1983, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 19, 2016
Runtime: 1h 30m
Sound Mix: Mono, Stereo
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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