10 Hidden Meanings Behind Confusing Horror Movies
7. Videodrome
Speaking of Daddy Cronenberg, we’re moving onto what’s arguably his weirdest and dirtiest film, the wickedly prophetic Videodrome.
Released in 1983, its premise is basic at the start, with television station president Max looking to profit from distributing violent pornography provided by a newly discovered satellite broadcast called - you guessed it - Videodrome.
Along the way, he begins sleeping with a radio host named Nicki, for a while, it’s not particularly difficult to comprehend. That is, until Nicki disappears and Max begins investigating the origins and purposes of Videodrome.
What follows is a grotesque cerebral trip involving characters swapping places, tumour-induced nightmares, breathing video tapes, gross stomach vaginas, humanoid TVs, and exceedingly philosophical jargon about Videodrome redefining perception, connection, and existence.
By the end, Max becomes an assassin with a gun fused into his arm and a determination to embrace the “new flesh” to Videodrome once and for all. In the process, the movie fulfils its eerily sophisticated, blunt, and timeless predictions regarding mankind’s obsession with technology and boundary-pushing sadomasochistic entertainment.
It’s an archetypal David Cronenberg movie, after all, so you’d be foolish not to expect something monstrous and multilayered.