10 Horror Movies That Judge You For Watching
3. Videodrome
David Cronenberg's legendary 1983 sci-fi horror film Videodrome follows TV bigwig Max Renn (James Woods), who in his pursuit of the next big thing stumbles upon the titular broadcast signal, which is comprised of brutally sexually violent acts.
Cronenberg's film is a tricky beast, at once serving as a commentary on our own hopeless enslavement to mass media products and their ability to warp the human brain, and also in many ways a shining example of it.
Videodrome is certainly a smart and artistically meritorious film, but its blackly comedic social satire both critiques the corrupting potential of entertainment media and exists as a thoroughly depraved piece of work itself.
It leaned into the growing debate about horror movie censorship at the time - particularly with the UK's crusade against "video nasties" - and by indulging the audience's every desire to see nauseating-yet-creative gore, basically told the viewer, "Eat up this sick filth, you insatiable degenerate."
And what a film it is.