“Long live the new flesh!” Arguably Cronenberg’s first masterpiece, the still unsettling Videodrome follows renegade TV executive Max Renn (Woods) as he doggedly strives to lower standards and discover new thrills. His latest interest is a pirate station that offers something new and more shocking than anything even he can cook up. Max becomes obsessed with the broadcast, especially a striking blonde actress (played by Deborah Harry) who’s constantly on air. He soon finds his lifestyle, his career, and his sanity threatened. The typical Cronenberg motifs are all present, to striking and exquisitely lurid effect, particularly the key theme of characters’ bodies betraying them – a betrayal linked to technological advances, the media, and a shadowy, labyrinthine conspiracy. In his essay in the Toronto on Film book, Geoff Pevere argues that Videodrome is seminal in establishing the dominant image of the city as a cold, hostile place, a perception that holds even for those just sitting at home watching TV. “This 1983 shocker by David Cronenberg comes about as close to abandoning a narrative format as a commercial film possibly can. . . . an audacious attempt to place obsessive personal images before a popular audience – a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).

 Rated 14A.