Headscratchers / Videodrome

• I just watched this movie, and looking around the Internet, while I've seen much discussion of the movie's overall themes and message, I've seen surprisingly little discussion of the central question nagging at me as I watched it: what in the name of Jesus H. Cronenberg is happening in the film? Taken at face value, the movie is filled with bizarre supernatural events that lack even the slightest rationality to them. The explanation given in the film itself—that the video gave the protagonist a brain tumor causing him to experience wild hallucinations—doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What sort of brain tumor would lead to controlled hallucinations that Videodrome could direct, let alone use as a means of brainwashing him? My best guess as to what's really supposed to be happening is simply that the videos have used some form of post-hypnotic suggestion on the protagonist, and everything else that we see is simply how he perceives what's happening—his mind's symbolic (and somewhat Freudian) interpretation of the events.
  • Not knowing what's going on is the entire point. Multiple interpretations are valid and are supposed to be so; that's part of the horror. As the audience, being influenced by Videodrome the film, we can't be certain about its own narrative. Given the McLuhan connection of "the medium is the message," O'Blivion's line about "the television is the retina of the mind's eye," and extending from O'Brian's speech in 1984 about manipulating objective reality through controlling subjective reality, Videodrome is essentially about using television to change reality through perception. Viewing it as told via a reliable narrator is not necessarily incorrect; reality becoming the Videodrome hallucinations (rather than the other way around, really) is part of this allegory.
  • It is a movie - the technology presented doesn't have to be literally possible. There's no real reason to be caught up on the idea that a mind-controlling-tumor-implanting signal doesn't exist, because if it did, there'd be no need to make a movie about it, because we'd be living in Videodrome.
  • Essentially, a shadowy group is trying to destroy a segment of the population that is obsessed with sensational TV footage, an obsession that ultimately takes the place of more intelligent pursuits. Videodrome is a signal that gives its viewers malignant brain tumors. However, the tumors also turn people into brainwashed zombies before they die by rewiring the brain so the individual can’t tell the difference between reality and TV, which is actually what the technology was designed to do. Dr. Brian O’Blivion helped create the technology behind Videodrome believing it was the final step in creating a world where real life and TV footage were one and the same. Ideally, it would create a world where everyone was connected through shared visions. But the tumors were an unfortunate side effect and the hallucinations made Videodrome’s victims susceptible to committing violent actions. When O’Blivion found out exploiting these side effects is what his financiers intended to use Videodrome for, they killed him to prevent him from blowing the whistle. Max Renn, president of a local TV station, is picked as a test subject for further research and as a way to introduce the Videodrome signal to a larger audience thanks to his network’s reputation for broadcasting worthless junk. Renn tries to track down the source of the Videodrome footage and becomes a pawn for both sides (O’Blivion’s daughter and Convex) in a larger "Videodrome" war - Convex’s side seeks to use the signal and ensure all the cultural “lowlifes” are destroyed, while O’Blivion’s family is trying to stop them.

• What the actual fuck happened to Convex after he was shot? Was it his Videodrome-associated tumor violently seeking a new host? Was it Renn's handgun causing that mutation? Was it a just a hallucination? Are these three theories and possibly more entirely valid given the nature of the film?
  • Convex was shot and killed, and it's likely the tumors sprouting from Max's body were a part of his hallucination.
  • Given that Convex is (from our perspective) the main figurehead of his "side" of the war, one might assume that he's so entwined with Videodrome that his tumor is spread throughout him and exposes itself upon his death.
  • Everything is from Max's perspective, and we never see the "real" world. The viewer isn't even sure he did any assassinations. For all we know, he's drooling on the floor having hallucinations while he wastes away, dying, on the floor of his room.

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