The conquest of individual will by a violence-riddled medium is the bleak subject of David Cronenberg's macabre sci-fi thriller. Cable operator James Wood, looking for sordid programming to boost his subscribership, becomes mesmerized by a pirate transmission, Videodrome, broadcasting from an S&M dungeon. This brings him into contact with a world of bizarre media fanatics battling for the “video word made flesh.”
“This is pretty obvious. I've always admired Cronenberg, ever since I saw Rabid as a kid. When I became a writer for Cahiers du cinéma, I championed Videodrome when classic cinephiles would not touch it. Often I've been asked about the influence of Videodrome on demonlover. Well, it's not the same age, it's not the same world. But Videodrome was certainly a visionary piece of filmmaking that had a premonition of our world and our perverse relationship to images. I guess demonlover deals with the same reality.”