LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

Years before "The Ring" terrified the world with a killer videotape, the definative Cronenberg classic and my personal favorite was the orignal terror on tape fright fest. Filled with spectacular visuals, not a movie to watch while under the enfluence of alcohol or anything else as it could be fairly mind blowing that way im sure as it is to the sober eye. The story is about the head of Channel 83, Max Renn(played by James Woods) who pushes the envelope with sex and violence with the channels programming. His co worker beings him to the attention of a bizarre and violently macabre show that the tape recorder has recorded coming in from a strange signal from unknown origins. Woods imediately watches the tape which shows a closed room with a person people tortered and mutilated and eventually murdered on film. Thinking its all performed and not real he is intrigued and sets out to find the source of the signal and how is producing this "Videodrome" show in order to be able to broadcast it on the air for big ratings. On his quest he meets a beautiful radio personality, Nikki (played by Deborah Harry, the lead singer of Blondie) who loves pain and rough sexual exploits. Max learns the signal came from Pittsburg, PA and Nikki says she has been assigned on a trip to Pittsburg and wants to try out for the show. Max is unable to stop her fearing for her safety and what follows is a macabre and disturbing trip into a warped reality of hallucinations where nothings seems real or unreal. Is Nikki dead? What happened to her in Pittsburg? Who side is who on?

Written and Directed by:
David Cronenberg

Cast:

James Woods .... Max Renn
Sonja Smits .... Bianca O'Blivion
Deborah Harry .... Nicki Brand
Peter Dvorsky .... Harlan
Les Carlson .... Barry Convex
Jack Creley .... Brian O'Blivion
Lynne Gorman .... Masha
Julie Khaner .... Bridey
Reiner Schwartz .... Moses
David Bolt .... Raphael
Lally Cadeau .... Rena King
Henry Gomez .... Brolley
Harvey Chao .... Japanese Salesman
David Tsubôchi .... Japanese Salesman
Kay Hawtrey .... Matron

MOVIE FACTS:

During filming of the Cathode Ray mission sequence, the film's gaffer, Jock Brandis, walked in and casually informed the crew that the power lines to the building were smoking because of the load imposed on them by the TV sets.

The chest-slit sequences had 'Woods, James' built into a couch with the chest-slit apparatus glued onto him. Woods swore he would never work with anything that had to be glued onto him ever again! During filming the sequences with the flesh-gun (which "fired" bursts of cold, vaporous gas), Woods played a prank on director David Cronenberg by smearing his (real) hand with blue paint and pretending he had frostbite.

An unfilmed deleted scene shows Max Renn, Bianca O'Blivion and Nicki Brand appear on the set of Videodrome. Bianca and Nicki are shown to have chest slits (vaginas) of their own, from which emerge strange mutated sex organs. The scene was scrapped along with many others due to cost overruns, bad timing ('Harry, Deborah' had stomach flu and James Woods was visiting relatives), and the sheer difficulty of executing such a special-effects scene. A number of other ambitious special effects sequences were also dropped.

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