The Dead Zone & Videodrome

In The Dead Zone Cronenberg takes Stephen King's sprawling, episodic novel – captures its essence, tightens it up to tell a sad, moving story of a man who comes out of a coma and discovers that he has a gift -- but to what purpose? It's a supernatural thriller with a philosophical slant. Christopher Walker was ideal casting – with those haunted eyes of his, and the feeling that he carries a great weight on his shoulders. Despite Martin Sheen's cartoonish villain -- The thought-provoking story, crisp direction, and Walken's tragic yet sympathetic character keep the film centered.

Videodrome is classic old-school Cronenberg. It's one of the most disturbing, maddest movies I've ever seen. Described as "Techno-surrealism", it tells of a scummy TV programmer named Max (James Woods) who stumbles upon a scrambled station that shows snuff films. As he probes deeper into its origins, he uncovers a conspiracy of mind control. Tomatoes summarized it as "Visually audacious, disorienting, and just plain weird," and adds that its, "musings on technology, entertainment, and politics still feel fresh today." I agree: While the FX is 80s-style low-budget, they are icky and effective. And the story is prophetic, especially through the character of Professor O'Blivion, who refuses to appear on TV, unless he's shown through a TV and with a fake "TV" name. He predicts that "Soon all of us will have special names." Avatars and fake names? Hmm, that sounds… familiar

While the final reel is difficult to make sense of, the film is so overall effective in creating an unsettling feeling that I'm okay with that. Sometimes it's not important that everything is completely understood, it's enough simply to experience it. That's a big part of surrealism; it's cerebral and humorous, but it is also about sensation -- evoking mood and feeling even at the expense of logic. Cronenberg was one of the best of the ‘New Surrealists’ -- joining David Lynch and Terry Gilliam -- who took up the mantle from Fellini, Buñuel and Cocteau.

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