long live the new flesh

I'm glad I watched Videodrome by myself. I think that had I watched it with friends,  we would have passed it off as a medium budget, gory eighties flick. Watching it alone, it had more resonance. Videodrome comments (quite effectively) on the carnal, lecherous nature of mankind and how television caters to and encourages those traits. In a more provocative turn, Videodrome also argues that the only way for "them" (the government or those faceless/nameless/numberless entities running the world, here portrayed as the purveyors of Videodrome) to eliminate these negative traits of humanity is not only to capitalize on them, but also utilize them by encouraging mindless murder. 

Another bragging point for Videodrome is that it addressed the entire torture porn genre well before it was hip and edgy in the 00's. It also manages to do this far more tactfully and intelligently that those movies exploiting violence and sex currently. In fact, Videodrome accurately predicted mankind's preoccupation with the entire torture porn genre. If some hallucinatory virus could actually be projected through "inappropriate" video content, I'm confident in saying that 75% of the population would be growing video-tumors.