Love the point about Videodrome seeming like it somehow nailed the vibe of the dark side of the internet. Reminds me of how much Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse totally nailed the feeling of seeing something disturbing online and having it mess with your head for a long time.
Fast Company has been showing on HBO lately (and is on HBO Max) and I had forgotten: a.) that I had seen it; b.) that I reviewed the Blue Underground Blu-ray for the AVC; and c.) that it was directed by Cronenberg. I DVRed it based on the description in the TiVo's program guide, started watching it, saw Cronenberg's name in the credits, gasped, looked up reviews, and saw myself quoted somewhere. Anyway... it's not bad! Solid drive-in fare, with no discernible trace of Cronenberg's personality (but some cool shots).
May 18, 2022·edited May 18, 2022Liked by Scott Tobias
I'd say Woods' explosive streak started earlier than this (at least at THE ONION FIELD), though VIDEODROME is where it starts to gel into more than a portrayal. One of my favorite performances of his from this era is Ted Kotcheff's 1982 family drama SPLIT IMAGE, in which Michael O'Keefe gets led out of college into a cult run by Peter Fonda, and his dad Brian Dennehy hires Woods as a deprogrammer who kidnaps the son and breaks him (and his mom and dad) down. He's got this shitty little mustache and sweats and barks his way through the whole movie. Completely zooted out of his mind. It's insane.
Nice! Super curious how you picked these two to pair up, which feels counterintuitive to me (but still lead to a very enjoyable read).
I love Videodrome like few other movies - to me, this is the real meat of Phase 2 Cronenberg, with that sense of 'what the heck is even real' permeating every inch of scfeen. I'd group Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Existenz and Spider into there.
Brood feels like a real culmination of Phase 1 Cronenberg - overtly metaphorical body horror stuff, with Shivers, Rabid, Scanners and The Fly all neatly fitting into the "goopy efx w/ a theme" pile. (Also? Caught a screening of Shivers here in Madison back when the Orpheum did revival midnight movies and it literally changed my life.)
Other Cronenberg Phases:
- "Chilly 'Sexy' Times" - movies where sex is the discomforting borderline horror factor, Dead Ringers, Crash, maybe M. Butterfly (haven't seen that one, rep has kept me away)
- "Let's Rumble" - 'noir'/'genre' stuff made thru a 'Berg lens, including The Dead Zone, Eastern Promises, History of Violence and sort of Fast Company
- "The Life of the Mind" - movies where Cronenberg feels like he's...kinda lost interest in movie making. This set (Cosmopolis, A Dangerous Method, Maps To The Stars) all feel like he is interested in the themes/ideas but has lost his interest in making them compelling as movies.
Actually typing this out, it's kinda nuts how many distinct channels he works in - more range than credited!
Hoping there is maybe some sort of consideration of what he brings as an actor (and/or maybe even why directors of his stature are often so good on camera).
I watched this movie over & over on vhs for many years, obsessed. I took a few years off in the early ‘00s until Criterion put out their DVD and discovered that the version I was so used to was heavily cut. It was missing huge chunks of the Max/Nikki sex scenes, including the reason why she’s named Brand, a whole lot of gore and Barry Convex’s entire fate (they left in the sounds he made so that scene was particularly surreal). It was like seeing it for the first time.
Videodrome is the first Cronenberg movie I ever saw, and it remains my favorite to this day. One of my favorite memories is lending my Criterion disc to a friend, and then him telling me later that he turned it off after about 30 minutes because he thought it was boring. I told him to give it one more shot and just get to the last act. The next time I saw him he was a total Cronenberg convert.
Finally some New Flesh talk.
Love the point about Videodrome seeming like it somehow nailed the vibe of the dark side of the internet. Reminds me of how much Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse totally nailed the feeling of seeing something disturbing online and having it mess with your head for a long time.
Fast Company has been showing on HBO lately (and is on HBO Max) and I had forgotten: a.) that I had seen it; b.) that I reviewed the Blue Underground Blu-ray for the AVC; and c.) that it was directed by Cronenberg. I DVRed it based on the description in the TiVo's program guide, started watching it, saw Cronenberg's name in the credits, gasped, looked up reviews, and saw myself quoted somewhere. Anyway... it's not bad! Solid drive-in fare, with no discernible trace of Cronenberg's personality (but some cool shots).
I'd say Woods' explosive streak started earlier than this (at least at THE ONION FIELD), though VIDEODROME is where it starts to gel into more than a portrayal. One of my favorite performances of his from this era is Ted Kotcheff's 1982 family drama SPLIT IMAGE, in which Michael O'Keefe gets led out of college into a cult run by Peter Fonda, and his dad Brian Dennehy hires Woods as a deprogrammer who kidnaps the son and breaks him (and his mom and dad) down. He's got this shitty little mustache and sweats and barks his way through the whole movie. Completely zooted out of his mind. It's insane.
Nice! Super curious how you picked these two to pair up, which feels counterintuitive to me (but still lead to a very enjoyable read).
I love Videodrome like few other movies - to me, this is the real meat of Phase 2 Cronenberg, with that sense of 'what the heck is even real' permeating every inch of scfeen. I'd group Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Existenz and Spider into there.
Brood feels like a real culmination of Phase 1 Cronenberg - overtly metaphorical body horror stuff, with Shivers, Rabid, Scanners and The Fly all neatly fitting into the "goopy efx w/ a theme" pile. (Also? Caught a screening of Shivers here in Madison back when the Orpheum did revival midnight movies and it literally changed my life.)
Other Cronenberg Phases:
- "Chilly 'Sexy' Times" - movies where sex is the discomforting borderline horror factor, Dead Ringers, Crash, maybe M. Butterfly (haven't seen that one, rep has kept me away)
- "Let's Rumble" - 'noir'/'genre' stuff made thru a 'Berg lens, including The Dead Zone, Eastern Promises, History of Violence and sort of Fast Company
- "The Life of the Mind" - movies where Cronenberg feels like he's...kinda lost interest in movie making. This set (Cosmopolis, A Dangerous Method, Maps To The Stars) all feel like he is interested in the themes/ideas but has lost his interest in making them compelling as movies.
Actually typing this out, it's kinda nuts how many distinct channels he works in - more range than credited!
Hoping there is maybe some sort of consideration of what he brings as an actor (and/or maybe even why directors of his stature are often so good on camera).
Stoked for more of this!
No one asked, but I'd rank these early films thusly: 1) Videodrome 2) The Brood 3) Shivers 4) Scanners 5) Rabid But I like them all.
When Harlan sticks his hand in Max's new orifice, it's transformed into a hand-grenade, just as when Max does the same, it comes out as a hand-gun.
I was always confused too until I looked it up and discovered it's the shape of a stick hand grenade rather than the "pineapple" sort.
I watched this movie over & over on vhs for many years, obsessed. I took a few years off in the early ‘00s until Criterion put out their DVD and discovered that the version I was so used to was heavily cut. It was missing huge chunks of the Max/Nikki sex scenes, including the reason why she’s named Brand, a whole lot of gore and Barry Convex’s entire fate (they left in the sounds he made so that scene was particularly surreal). It was like seeing it for the first time.
Videodrome is the first Cronenberg movie I ever saw, and it remains my favorite to this day. One of my favorite memories is lending my Criterion disc to a friend, and then him telling me later that he turned it off after about 30 minutes because he thought it was boring. I told him to give it one more shot and just get to the last act. The next time I saw him he was a total Cronenberg convert.