David Cronenberg’s Videodrome isn’t just a classic sci-fi horror, but also a brilliant noir thriller.
Ryan explains why…
Everything in Max Renns life is beginning to pulsate.
The strength ofVideodromes images.
Strip all those things away, and what are we left with?
The action will take place in a city, more often than not Los Angeles.
Videodrome, Max learns, is an underground show which deals exclusively in torture, rape and murder.
Max is repulsed, but also fascinated.
Where does the signal come from?
If this is the case, who made it?
Why did they make it?
And, most darkly: can Max do business with them?
Thus Max becomes the storys detective, hunting downVideodromes origins and becoming increasingly disturbed by what he finds.
Max learns, however, that the events depicted inVideodromearent mere play-acting theyre real.
And thats what makes it dangerous.
Like ChandlersThe Big Sleep,Videodromealso features an elderly, reclusive millionaire.
We later learn that the professor had himself watchedVideodrome, sparking a malignant brain tumour which ultimately killed him.
As a result, OBlivion only exists in a library of videotapes curated by his daughter Bianca.
In it, the protagonist is poisoned and has about 24 hours to discover who the culprit was.
Even incidental details inVideodromecorrespond to the widely-accepted staples of film noir.
Max is acting like an enthusiastic drinker and smoker, just like the protagonists found in most noir movies.
Videodromes plot was partly inspired by personal experience.
The movie adaptations ofBlade RunnerandMinority Reportplayed up the detective genre elements implied in Dicks work.
Of course, the noir elements inVideodromeare only a part of a disturbing, visceral whole.
Whats fascinating about Cronenbergs film, in fact, is just how effortlessly he fuses style and genres.
