Too Scary; Didn't Watch - VIDEODROME

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Snuff films, body horror, and videotapes, we're recapping David Cronenberg's cult masterpiece VIDEODROME!  Trailer Recap begins @ 31:27 Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone, welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch for themselves. I'm Emily and I am too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Henley and I'm also too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy and I love watching scary movies and so I watch them so that you don't have to. We have a long anticipated one this week. Or at least I have been anticipating it.

You guys. I'm scared. Maybe not so much. Oh, boy. I got to say, I tripped myself up just now doing the intro because I was thinking about how Henley always gets tripped up. Oh, that was so hard. The intro was so hard.

And as I started getting through it, I was like, do I remember what I'm saying? You can't think too hard about it remember what I'm saying? You can't think too hard about it. That's the trick. You can't, you just got to say it. You just got to say it. That's why I could never be a professional athlete is because that's why that's literally the only reason. I mean, obviously the natural skill is there, but like the instinct, people are begging you, trying to recruit you left, banging on your door what people might not know about me is that i'm seven and a half feet tall how would they know they would have no way of knowing but truly like that is what actually would always trip me up playing sports growing up is that i would get in my head i would be like i actually don't know how to catch this lacrosse ball yeah i don't know

even though i've done it a million times that that instinct doesn't kick in. I'm feeling this right now with, I'm learning Spanish, taking a little, doing a little audio Spanish lessons. And I overthink everything to the point that I speak so slowly. Whereas only when it starts to like feel more natural and you relax a bit, I feel like is when it's feels like you're actually learning it. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Anyways, did anything scary happen to us this week? Um, well,

I graduated again. Um, I graduated from my program, which is cool, but that, I mean, that wasn't scary. That was cool. But,

but my parents came to visit for that. And when parents visit, you do a lot of stuff in your city that you wouldn't normally otherwise do. You know? Which, one of those things is we went to the La Brea Tar Pits, which I've never been to before. Yes, yes, yes.

And, you guys, I didn't understand. I was like, oh, yeah, the La Brea Tar Pits, it's like a, you know, dinosaurs and stuff. It's not dinosaurs it's um well it's mega fauna of course woolly mammoths what big animals woolly mammoths and like big big bears and saber-toothed cats and stuff oh saber-toothed cats okay okay but here's the thing about the La Brea Tar Pits. It's so deeply upsetting.

I was horrified. Horrified. It's just... Wait, set the scene. Set the scene for anyone who doesn't live in LA or might not be familiar with what they are. It's actually very... So tar is just like liquid asphalt, basically. It's like very so tar is just Like liquid asphalt basically It's like oil and Asphalt and it's just

Black sticky Naturally occurring substance Literally like decay in the Ocean yeah that gets Pushed up like because of earthquakes Like a little crack forms That it can get like it was like push push Push down low

I'm doing such a good job of this And it oozes up Anyway so there's a lot of it Because LA is like a basin There's a lot of this Tar that came up And Animals

Megafauna Would get stuck in it and die a slow, horrible death. That's awful. They would just step through it and not be able to move and die slowly. Right, because it's not like they're drowning. I mean, maybe some got submerged enough to be blessed with a faster death but for the most part they're starving to death right they're starving to death just stuff some things would try to come and eat them while they're like stuck probably and then those things so there's like a ton of dire wolves because dire

wolves would come and try to eat the animals that were stuck in the tar and then they would get stuck in the tar and they'd all just Die stuck in the tar It's so fucking Crazy that it's like Oh let's go to the library of tar pits and it's like this is So so Sad yeah and So gnarly I just didn't Like I think I thought that

The tar had buried A lot of fossilized Remains that like we found That the fossils there were like they'd been covered by the tar and then we found them but no no no the fossilized remains are there because the tar killed so many things

also it's key that they weren't drowning I mean I think it's really key that they weren't drowning I always thought it was a quick death as well no and like a quick sand type thing that pulls you all the way under. Right. Yeah.

No. No. Right. And okay. Also, there's like all these little placards that explain like, here's the animals that we mostly found at this, you know, part of the tar and here's what. And all these little quips about like this, you know, This bird could fly 35 miles an hour Not fast enough to escape the tar

Like it was just talking about Just like Roasting all of these animals For fucking dying in tar And then there's This sculpture At one of the tar pits Of some elephants

Maybe they're woolly mammoths I think they're elephants Um And it's a mom elephant Stuck in the tar And on the shore Another elephant and a Baby elephant

Seriously screaming Screaming for their mom That's dying Like I wouldn't think you'd know How to make it look like an elephant is screaming in agony. But these elephants are. And it's like, what the fuck? Why would we? Why are we doing this? It's like mostly children coming to these exhibits, correct?

Mostly children running around. Like, I just, I couldn't fucking believe it i remember going as a kid and having a great time because i couldn't conceptualize of the enormity of of that yet and was just like oh like cool animals and like a a mother screaming for her child and a child screaming for their mother and like watching her die slowly and not being able to get at her and maybe wolves come and try to eat her and then they also die and it's just like i couldn't believe i could i like yeah i was really very very shocked that more people aren't upset by this upset about the labrea tar pits and upset about that fucking elephant sculpture i need to find out who did it

send them a strongly worded letter no this is not okay anyway fucking labrea tarpitz man life is scary why do we do this why is all of the art or entertainment that is created for children literally just fetishizing parental death and i didn't say i've noticed that but i could see why you would no it's like every every like disney movie i mean every disney movie starts with a parent dying oh it's everything parents are dying left and right we especially love to see it in animals but it for sure happens in human disney movies too where like they're orphans, the key to success. I think so many orphans. Probably just in a story to a way to get them on their own journey, maybe.

Yeah, I know. Parents really get in the way of having adventures. Yeah. And growth. Yeah. They're real problematic for sure. But it is funny how you're inundated with that as a child and it doesn't really like start to hit home until you're a parent and you're like, wait, this is actually really upsetting. But as a kid, you're like, okay. Yeah. Like, cool. Oh my god.

Yes, you're saying it's good for that baby elephant that its mom died in tar. Now that baby elephant can go on his own journey. It's going to go on a fun little journey. The hero's journey of self-actualization. He's going to make friends with the bear. I'm pretty sure that's like what the Land Before Time is about.

I mean. Were they orphans? I feel like a lot of them probably had tragic, tragic backstories. Absolutely. I can't remember. But anyway. Well, speaking of L.A. landmarks, a newer L.A. landmark, I went to Erewhon yesterday. Not for the first time. Did you spend $800? I don't think I've ever shopped

at an Erewhon. I'm pretty near an Erewhon and I have successfully avoided going there because it's just kind of out of my normal walking path. And so I am able to ignore it. For those of you who don't know, Erewhon is a very expensive, fancy market grocery store type place. It's like it like kind of outlandishly expensive, however expensive you're thinking it is.zier than whole foods like double whole foods you're wrong it's it's yeah it's actually very funny i find it very funny when i'm like 40 on celery water you would get like a gallon of celery water it'd be 45 package nuts are like 37 if you did a regular shopping visit like getting all of your standard groceries that

you needed there, how much do you think it would be? Like $400, 500? Easily. Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably. I think so. Genuinely. So anyways, yeah, I've, I've successfully avoided it because I'm scared of what it means that it's literally like two blocks for me and what that could mean for me in my financial situation. If I am aware of that fact all the time. I do wonder if it's like, I mean, there's a ceiling for how good packaged nuts can be. But I do wonder sometimes I'm like, well, is it going to be the best? Might be worth it. What's the verdict, Tammy?

Yeah, someone got me a gift card for my birthday. So I was like, I better go use that. Check it out. I am going to get a smoothie. They're kind of famous for their smoothies right they're strawberries hayley bieber's strawberry glaze what was the price tag on that smoothie uh 20 it's a 20 smoothie okay okay and honestly not as crazy as it's not as crazy as i thought and herein lies the scary part it was so good yeah it's it's for a reason and now yeah I feel like I've broken the seal in a way that's like now I know now you know that it's there and twenty dollars yeah that's expensive for a smoothie but it's not like it's not gonna kill you if you do it every once in a while but that's how it starts

and it's a slippery slope yeah this is how And, um, I got a smoothie that had some coffee in it and I don't usually drink coffee. And so that was extra, like I was fucking soaring all day long, like on top of the world, just having a beautiful day. Thanks to this delicious smoothie. And I'm just scared for what this means for me well see now i'm like i guess i have to try that smoothie i'm curious activated the activated smoothie now i might go get it i remember it was good also i feel like my brain is broken for what things cost i i don't know what things should cost anymore something about like the pandemic i don't know i just like i did a lot of like ordering in and so now i'm like yeah i mean a pint of ice cream is 25 because you would like order it and be like well that's how much it costs

and there's nothing to be done about it but i there's a smoothie place that i really love in los feliz called punch bowl that makes great smoothies and when i lived in los feliz was a while ago i was in my early 20s and so it was like their smoothies are like 14 like 12 to 12 to 14 and at the time i was like that's insane i would never never get smoothies there even though i love their smoothies so much and the other day joel and i went back and i was like oh only 12 14 that's that's pretty great like i thought i like in my head i had like reframed i don't know and we were both like really honestly pretty reasonable for these smoothies well truly inflation in the past decade has just in the past couple years i was like punchbowl hasn't raised their prices okay

that's a cheap smoothie now. Yeah. And they're really good. But now I'm going to have to try a $20 smoothie. I have no choice in the matter. I'm going to try the fucking Haley Bieber one. And luckily you don't have to say Haley Bieber's name when you order it. Cause that's what I was nervous of. And that's why I didn't order it.

Can I have some Haley Bieber smoothie drink, please? I was like, I'll die before I ask for the Haley Bieber smoothie. That's so funny. But it's called the strawberry glaze. So you can order it like as if you don't even know it's the hayley bieber i'll have the strawberry glaze please the what hayley bieber drinks who's that i'm familiar i'm very rich and i would just like the regular smoothie, please. I just wanted some strawberry with hyaluronic acid in it, please. Oh my God.

That's crazy. Is it good to drink hyaluronic acid? Like, I guess. I don't know. It must be. So yeah. Pray for me. I will.

I'm praying for you. Pray for your wallet. Henley? Henley? What's up? So I am probably, the scary thing is that i'm probably moving soon um which is going to be so much work not to la not to la unfortunately whatever not to an undisclosed location to an undisclosed location keep a secret

i don't want anyone to know but i am moving it's not that far away but um okay giving clues giving clues it's not that far away. Okay, giving clues, giving clues. It's not that far away. It's still on the East Coast. It could be described as not too far away from the New York metropolitan area. But we are going to be doing that in like six weeks, I suppose. And we had a really serendipitous thing happen where someone we know was living in the same location, had a bunch of furniture available for free. And I was like, oh, great. We definitely want this furniture, this free furniture. Absolutely. However, we can't move into our

new place for a while. So we have to get a storage unit. We like had to figure that out. I was trying to get movers. This was all happening super last minute. Couldn't find movers that would work in the time frame that we needed. So I'm pregnant. And then we also couldn't get child care for Silas. So I was like, how are Tim and I going to move all this furniture with Silas? I don't know how the fuck we're going to do that. So Tim just sends

out a message to his friends being like, is anyone available? Leo, this is really just a big shout out to our friend Leo, who fucking Leo. I don't know how to repay you because Leo woke up I think a podcast shout out I think he just did it he owes you that's pretty huge Leo pay up

he got up at like 6am took the subway up to from Brooklyn all the way up to Washington Heights. Then he drove with us to this place. Silas, let me remind you, gets ferociously carsick. So had to deal with Silas also throwing up a bunch in the car, pulling over, stripping him in a Lowe's parking lot, like spraying him down, cleaning out the car seat this is just our lives now you know it's like we're like but Leo's just Leo's like cleaning out the

car seat too he's like right in there helping us so much and then he helped move all the furniture into oh well first he helped us pick up the U-haul drive the u-haul then move the furniture into the u-haul then go get our storage unit move the furniture into the like the storage location then take it use an elevator to bring it up to our storage like it was a multi-step long process and leo just fucking just what a good guy so happy so positive so like down to do it i mean really i was just so impressed i was really impressed by his like good-natured positive energy flowing into the world thank you leo very nice thank you leo it's friends like these that really just make the world go around you know we wouldn't have been able to do it without him.

And we would have, you know, been totally fucked. So we had lobster rolls afterwards, which were pretty good. And I feel like that was a good, nice little thing. The listeners are doing the math here. Lobster rolls. They have lobster rolls. Some are written there alone. There's a lobster roll option.

It was a big day. It was a big day, but we couldn't have done it without Leo, and Leo, God bless you, truly. God bless you, Leo. God bless you, Leo. To all the Leos out there. To anyone who's ever helped their friends move, thank you. God bless you.

Moving is so hard. It's so hard. It sucks. It sucks so bad, and each time you're dread is so hard. It's so hard. It sucks so bad. And each time you're like dreading it and it's always even worse than you remember it being. It's honestly true. It's so bad. Well, now on to something we're a little less grateful for, or you'll be a little less grateful for, possibly.

Maybe not. I'm grateful for it. But it's this week's movie, which is Videodrome. I can't believe we're finally doing this. I know. We've been talking about it for a long time. It's been a big summer so far. I know. We are like, it's like we got a week off, week right back on, week right back into it. Oh, I will just quickly tell the listeners, people who listen to our checking episode that just came out.

I did order a couple Emily Henry books. I'm excited for them. Real, I might need to start reading one right after this episode. Yeah, that'll be a good palate cleanser. Videodrome came out in 1983.

So this year was its 40th anniversary. It was written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Debbie Harry, Peter Dvorsky and Leslie Carlson. And it's available to rent for $3.99. Is this our second Cronenberg movie? No, third. We did Crimes of the Future and The Fly. Yeah, third, which were pretty benign, all things considered the fly i hated the fly the

fly was not like the fly yeah you're right i guess but i still the fly was the fly is devastating it's absolutely devastating crimes of the future was easy easier henley you're remembering it wrong i just remember thinking that it was i just the future is it was I just remember having a good time doing the fly. So I think that's the only feelings that I have. I don't think that's true. Henley, your memory is wrong. I might not have liked the movie itself, but I had a good time doing the episode. Do you know

what I mean? Okay. Okay. Okay. That's nice. You'll accept that? I think I had a bad time. I'll accept it, but I disagree. Because we talked so much about your experience with what's his name? Goldberg. What's his name? Goldblum. With Goldberg.

What's his name? Jeff Goldblum. And anything, any conversation regarding Jeff Goldblum, I fucking will enjoy. So. I mean, he's the best. I love him a lot. But yeah, listeners, if you've heard those two episodes you'll know that my cronenberg knowledge is uh started pretty slim i haven't seen a ton of

cronenberg movies and um i'm trying to write that wrong and so i'm trying to do a little cronenberg binging i just watched eastern Eastern Promises as well, which was great. And we've done two Brandon Cronenbergs, right? Right. Okay. Keep it in the fam. Possession and Infinity Pool are directed by his... Our possessor.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. Possessor. Possessor. We've done a lot of... Oh my God. Possessor, Possession, and The Possession. The Possession.

So many. What the heck? Give me a break. Find some new letters. Yeah, that's getting confusing But I still have a lot of Cronenberg to watch I'm excited to watch more Especially after this one, which I think Was my favorite one this far

I loved this movie Ooh, okay It's great All I know is that people ask for it a lot and um that always makes me nervous me too yeah i feel like there's certainly stuff you're not going to like but i think overall i feel optimistic that you guys i'll like it better than the fly might also like this one yeah you'll definitely like it better than the fly okay uh videodrome has an 80 on rotten tomatoes 60 on metacritic and a 7.2 on imdb okay okay budget was 5.9 million and it made 2.1 million or should i say lost

yeah we should say what it lost 3.8 million um so yeah it was a flop at the box office. And this was Cronenberg's first studio film. Prior to this, he had done only independent films. I think Scanners is what he had done right before this. And so this was financed by Universal Pictures. And it was not a hit at the box box office but obviously has gone on to be a cult classic it has stood the test of time uh it's in the criterion collection and it's it feels we'll talk about this more at the end i guess but it feels more relevant today than it probably did at the time uh it's got the same special effects artist as an American werewolf in London, Rick Baker. Cronenberg, obviously known for a lot of body horror and practical effects. And when we did American Werewolf in London, that was something we talked about as well, was how good those special effects were. And he brought a lot of the same crew that he worked on American Werewolf in London with onto this film, because that was just a year or two before. And I mean, no surprise.

It looks fucking great. These practical effects. Absolutely incredible. credible um and again after scanners his movie before this george lucas had actually offered david cronenberg the chance to direct star wars the return of the jedi oh my god and cronenberg was getting ready to make this movie and so he turned it down which i love that is a really fun fact yeah it is a fun fact alternate history what would that movie have been like I know I'm curious to see a Cronenberg Star Wars movie

But also I like that He's he knows his He knows his vibe He's like I want to make video True to himself yeah I think I'm going to make video drum I think I'm going to lose video drum? Yeah. I think I'm going to lose $3.8 billion. A million.

Yeah, exactly. A million. And the initial concept of video drum came to David Cronenberg when he was a child. His TV would pick up signals from Buffalo, New York. Cronenberg is Canadian. And, oh, it says it says yeah would pick up signals from Buffalo New York in the middle of the night after The Canadian station stopped broadcasting For the day and he used to worry that The airwaves would pick up something that he Wasn't meant to see

Oh wow scary That is scary it would be very Scary if your TV started just like Coming on with things right Things that you weren't expecting to see. It's like when I was sleeping over at a friend's house and I didn't know where her remote was and we fell asleep with the TV on

and I woke up in the middle of the night and it was MTV's True Life and it was True Life I'm Into S&M and I was so scared and I couldn't fall asleep and there was nothing I could do. There was nothing I could do about it. That's really funny. And it was like a scary house. She was really rich and her house't fall asleep and there was nothing i could do about it that's really funny and it was like a scary house she was really rich and her house was really big and so i also didn't

want to like leave the room because i was scared so kind of the same i mean that sound that it is kind of i guess i could have written video drum i was gonna say it is kind of 10 5th 20 years after it came out. Yeah. Videodrome 2. Videodrome 2. Because this is also horny, obviously. I feel like Cronenberg likes a little sex and violence, horniness, mixing of the two. I feel like that's pretty on brand for him. So a little S&M late night video could easily be in this movie.

Could have done it. Kind of is. So on that note, should we take a peek at this trailer? Yes. Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max? Business reasons. Sure.

What about the other reasons? Max Ren is a victim. I woke up with a headache. He has been exposed to Videodrome. I've been hallucinating for a while, ever since... What? Since I first saw Videodrome. His brain is already receiving

video images i think that massive doses of videodrome signal will ultimately produce and control hallucination to the point that it will change human reality. Electro-slave! It's what I crave! I want to be a slave! Soon, his visions will coalesce and become uncontrollable flesh. Videodrome is seducing Max Wren. Please, come to me now. Come to Nikki.

And Max Ren can do nothing to stop it. What makes you think I need help? None of our test subjects has returned to normality. Television can change your mind. Videodrome will change your body. Long live the new flesh. Videodrome. Videodrome will change your body long left the new flesh videodrome videodrome starring deborah harry and james woods coming soon to a theater near you that was the slowest paced trailer i've ever watched really i think it's so crazy i i is, but I just found myself being like, okay, and then? And the voiceover, the narrator guy is so 80s.

Yeah, 80s. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers.

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The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers.

The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers.

The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers.

The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers. The stricklers.

The stricklers. The strick Yeah, this feels, Sammy, to your point earlier, definitely more relevant now. Our technology just keeps inching closer to it being inside of our heads instead of outside of our heads. What's the thing that was, have you guys been looking at this? What was just released by, was it Facebook or that? Oh, the new glasses? Yeah, the new glasses or you just sit at home and you put the headset on and it's like a huge... I don't understand it. I don't either. I saw pictures of it and didn't read further into it, except that people are talking about it, that it's the perfect entertainment for the next pandemic.

When everyone's just stuck at home and you want full immersive entertainment. I mean, we have VR headsets that does exist. That's why I'm confused why this is a big deal. It's because I'm like, doesn't this already exist? I was going to buy one and I got nervous that I would never do anything else. They're really fun. And they are really fun. And it's really engaging.

Like it actually genuinely feels like you can be anywhere else. I did one that sorry emily you're gonna really hate this but it was at in the ocean like surrounded by sharks but it's like it was like a learning thing and so it wasn't like scary it would have been scary for you but it was like as if you're diving with sharks and you just like it to look at them swimming above you it was so cool i really loved it wow i mean it look it doesn't sound far off from like i love to put on a like ambiance youtube video and sit in my home and pretend like if i could actually be like i would love to just be like in the woods right now and i

could just yeah feel like i was in the woods on the vr things one of the reasons or one of the apps i looked into as i was like researching if I wanted to get it was a meditation app where you can be literally like in on a mountain top um and it's like playing soothing sounds to you and you get to like sit as if you're meditating on the top of a mountain like that's very cool but also kind of counter it's awesome although I do feel like definitely your brain isn't getting the meditative benefits if you're like surrounded by i'm not sure but i know that when i did one i did a vr game where you walk a plank on the top of a building like a high-rise building and your brain for sure i at least like for sure registered it as i was in danger like mortal danger yeah i did the same thing i did the exact i did um it was uh uh i went to this really weird

vr um convention kind of by accident one time and um i did all these demos and one of the demos was someone running across the top of a building and then jumping off of a high-rise building and i felt like i was jumping off of a high-rise building and I felt like I was jumping off of a high-rise building. My body completely just believed it. I had like a full like, yeah, like I was like trembling. It's wild because your brain just like makes those images real.

This reminded me of season three of I Think You Should Leave which on the whole isn't a great, isn't my favorite of the seasons but there is one where he puts on a VR headset and stops breathing because he doesn't know how to make the body move. So he's like dying while wearing his VR headset because he stops breathing in real life. God, it was funny. It's a funny one.

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Don't forget, that's HelloBello.com slash TooScary. Um, interesting. So shall we get into it? Let's do it. it let's do it so we start with a very 80s looking tv logo it's civic tv not to be confused with court cop tv uh and its tagline for this tv station is the one you take to bed with you so already it's like this getting a little too close to our TVs and our protagonist, Max Wren, this is James Woods, basically uses the TV as an alarm clock. And so something pops on to wake him up in the morning. It's a prerecorded video that his secretary makes for him basically saying, good morning uh your meeting is at this time and

here's what your day looks like and it's like dark and his appointment is just illuminated by the light like bright light of the tv feels really gross like already i'm in like a gross like his apartment's really messy too he wakes up and eats pizza which is fine and that's great but it's like i don't know just like it's it feels cronenberg it feels like the set design is feeling unpleasant like maybe we don't want to be in this real world all the time and maybe a tv world looks a little more appealing yes so he goes to his first meeting of the day we find out he is the the head of Civic TV or a TV station on Civic TV. Now, I can't remember, but he basically is the president of choosing programming for a specific channel.

And the channel that he is in charge of plays mostly soft core porn or like extremely violent media. So he's going to a meeting to with someone, a potential person who has a show for the channel. They're pitching, they have tapes that they're showing him and it's like a pornographic. And he's kind of saying that it's not pornographic enough. It's too soft, But he takes it and he's pitching it to his other partners at his company. And they're all kind of saying the same thing. Like they want something gnarlier, something to break through, something tough. Uh-oh. So he goes to this guy Harlan who works for him.

And Harlan works as a someone who pirates media. So he's like using satellites to try to pick up any other signals to see if they can rip anything salacious from from somewhere else. And he does pick up a signal and he says i got something for you i've got 53 seconds of this footage from i think malaysia i'm not sure but like based on uh where i think the signal's coming from it could be there and he plays it and it essentially looks like a snuff film it's like a naked woman being murdered it doesn't show the murder but she it's it looks like a like a torture uh type film like she's being held up against a wall and sprayed with water and she's screaming and he's max is like nodding his head like yeah this is

looking more like like the kind of programming i'm like, really, this is really edgy, pushing the limits, pushing the boundaries. So he's happy with this, that they found this. And he's like, OK, record this. Let's see. He's maybe going to pitch it to the rest of the heads of the company to see if they can play this on their channel. And then we cut to him on a talk show. He's been booked as a guest on a talk show, the Reena King talk show. And the other guests on the panel are radio personality Nikki Brand. This is Debbie Harry and media prophet Brian Oblivion. And they're basically having a discussion about the state

of media today. Rina King, the host, is asking Max, like she seems somewhat disgusted by him and his channel and is saying, you know, your station offers soft core porn and hardcore violence. Like, why would you want to do that? Why would you ever choose this to be broadcast to the world? And he basically says it's, it's economic. It's a business decision. You know, people are watching. There is demand for it. And she's asking about the potential dangers of this. And what if seeing violent images makes people do violent things, a conversation we're all very familiar with. And his take on it is that he's offering a place, like an outlet for people to release those types of violent thoughts. And he's

like, it's actually keeping society safer, having something that can contain those thoughts. Again, like a debate that's like still relevant today. And we've all heard that debate over and over. But I'm assuming at the time, this was kind of a newer conversation. So Nikki Brand is asked to respond to this to his views. And she says, says you know we live in a state of over stimulation and we always want more more more and we're pushing it further and further and further and i personally think that that's bad and max says well uh why did you wear that dress what the fuck and uh she says excuse me and he basically says that's a very over stimulating dress uh it's red you know what freud would say about that oh my god get yourself under control

it's very aggressive and she actually kind of smiles and she says, I'll admit it. Uh, I also, uh, seek overstimulation and I'm, I'm a part of this society as well. And I feel those urges as well. And he says, well, I'd love to take you out to dinner tonight. And they start kind of flirting camera pans away from them. The host now asks Mr. Brian oblivion the media prophet uh his thoughts and or she asks do erotic and violent tv shows lead to desensitization and dehumanization and he basically says the television screen has become the retina and he's basically talking about a world, he's like saying it's inevitable and the world, the lines are blurring between

TV and reality. And it's just important that we like stay on the front lines type of thing. And he says, for example, Oblivion is not my real name, obviously. And he's like, it's my real name obviously and he's like it's my tv name and soon we will all have names that we go by for like specific to the screen and this really this line just really stuck out to me because of um you know like usernames and screen names which were after this and so just feels very it's like predicting some things here accurately uh then the host turns back to nikki and says is max ren a menace to society as he's like relentlessly hitting on her and she says well he's certainly a menace to me great and then hard cut back to Max is with Harlan again. There's been a new broadcast of this signal that they've picked up on and they've they've see a title card and it says Videodrome. So they are watching. They're now referring to this program as Videodrome. And he's watching it again. It's looking the same. It's a new new person now. Another woman being killed. watching it again it's looking the same it's a new new person now another woman being killed and uh max is looking at it saying oh my god it's like so realistic where where the hell did they

get these actors and oh yeah we're obviously like actors yeah sure sure actors of course of course uh harlan has now pinpointed the location a little further and he's like, he's not from Malaysia. I was wrong. It's from Pittsburgh. So after after that, he goes to pick up Nikki for their date because she's agreed to the date. And they go back to his place and she's thumbing through his VHS tapes and asks if he's got any porno. He's laughing and she's like, what? It turns me on. Like, that's what I want to watch. And she finds Videodrome, a tape labeled Videodrome.

This is the first thing they're doing on their date. Yeah. But it kind of seems like they've known each other before. It would be my guess was that they've probably have some sort of a history that we weren't aware of since they're in the same industry and seems like they're both pretty big in the industry. That's kind of how I read it. I'm not positive, but I would guess that this isn't actually their very first date. So she puts it, she pops in Videodrome and he's like, oh, that's like torture and murder. It's not exactly sex. She looks at him. She says, says who? Oh my God. And let's remember, let's remember Crimes of the Future, which is obviously a later film, but it's kind of giving me that vibe as well,

where David Cronenberg likes to tie this pain and sexual pleasure together in that way. And so just like the sadomasochist from hell. That's right. Oh, my God. If Pinhead, the little crossover. I would love a crossover here. If Pinhead just showed up. Perfect. Yep. Yep. I'd love that. She they're sitting on the couch together watching Videodrome and she's saying it's turning her on and she asks him to cut on her shoulder. And we see that there are already some cuts there. And he basically says somebody's beat me to it. And it's sexy there.

But they're like flirting with the idea of hurting each other, but both like very into it. She, she asks him if he wants to try a few things and we cut to them rolling around on the floor and he is piercing her ears with a needle as they're being intimate. I don't know if they're having sex, but they're getting off on the ear piercing is the main thing.

And as they're doing this, he looks up and it seems as if they're in the room of Videodrome for a moment, like the setting that we've seen on the TV where people are being tortured. It's this red, reddish room. And it seems like we're in there as he tortured. It's this red, reddish room. And it seems like we're in there as he's like moaning in pleasure, piercing her ears. Great. Next day, he's back in the office at work. And this woman named Masha comes in. That's again, pitching some porn for the channel. Seems like someone he works with a lot that sources various shows for him to potentially play. And he again is like, it's not intense enough. I don't know. This is too vanilla. And basically asks her if she's heard about Videodrome. she hasn't. And so he asks her if she can track it down.

She says, OK, I'll see. I'll talk to my contacts. That night, Nikki comes over again and they're hooking up again. And she's seductively burning herself with cigarettes. He's trying to tell her to stop, but she's clearly enjoying herself. And she tells him that she's going out of town tomorrow and that she's going to go to Pittsburgh. People love Pittsburgh. Well, she's, she knows that Videodrome is made there. And so she says, she feels like she was made for Videodrome. She's like,

I'm an audition. I want to be on Videodrome. What? So she leaves. And then the next day, Masha comes back with some new information. She's asked around about Videodrome and she now seems scared. And she tells Max, like, you got to leave Videodrome alone. It's dangerous. It's not acting. It's for real. These are basically, yes, it's snuff TV. And he doesn't know what she's talking about. He's asking more questions. And she says, he says, is it mafia or something? And she says, no, but it's political and they have a philosophy and that's what makes it dangerous. And so she's telling him to stay away and we kind of get the sense that he's still going to poke around a bit. He's still curious. Yeah, especially now that his like girl, he's a woman he's dating has gone to audition for a real. He has that personal stake in it now as well, that he needs to know what the hell is going on with Videodrome. And he says, who did you talk to?

Like, give me some sort of person I can find out more from. And she gives him the name Brian Oblivion. And she says he knows more about it you can ask him so he tracks down uh a location that he thinks brian oblivion is at but instead meets his daughter there uh bianca oblivion and so he goes to her office upstairs and she basically tells him that she's trying to help run her father's, enact his vision, which was to completely replace every aspect of real life with TV. He says he needs to speak to her father. And she says he only communicates through videotapes now. Like, you'll have to give me a message and I'll give

you a videotape in whatever your format is. His preferred monologue, his preferred communication is monologuing through videotapes. And so what format do you want yours on? And he says Videodrome. And she says she's not heard of that. And he says, no, just tell him Videodrome. He's going to want to have an actual conversation with me about that. And leaves her with that. He goes home and he gets a gun out. So it's clear he knows he's in some dark territory now it could be dangerous he's been told it's dangerous and so so he's getting his gun out getting prepared his secretary arrives at his apartment with the videotape that she makes for his morning alarm uh to give to him for the next day. And as she's setting the tapes down,

she sees Videodrome and she goes, oh, Videodrome, what's this? And is going to pick it up. And he lunges at her and grabs it from her hand. He's like, don't touch that. Like way, gets really scary really quickly and then slaps her. And then as it's, as he slaps her, it turns into Nikki and he slaps her again and it turns back into the secretary and he's like shaking her and he's like, ah, it's just like so bad, so bad. You can't watch that. And she looks scared, but not as if she's just been hit. Like she's, she's like, are you okay? Like he's everything. Okay. And he's shaking his head and looking all confused. And she's, she's like, are you okay? Like, is everything okay? And he's shaking his head and looking all confused. And he says, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

I don't know what's happening. Like, I didn't mean to hit you. And she looks at him confused. She's like, you didn't hit me. And he's like, no, no, of course I didn't hit you. I would never hit you. Like, that's crazy. Like, of course. Um, so again, we're seeing now the line, the lines between reality and it's blurring a bit. And she tells him she brought a tape straight from Brian Oblivion and was told to give it to him directly. So that's another tape she's delivering is Brian Oblivion's response. She leaves, and he pulls out the tape that Brian gave him, and he's holding it in his hand, and as he looks at it, it starts pulsing as if it's breathing, and it scares him. He drops it, and then it returns back to a normal videotape. He pops it in, and we get a little monologue again from Brian Oblivion,

where he's saying the battle for the mind of North America will be fought on the television in the videodrome. He's basically saying how we'll spend more and more time watching TV. And when your mind sees images, they become your reality. So therefore, television is reality. And he's saying, your reality is already half video hallucination. And it could become total video hallucination. He explains that he had a brain tumor, and he had visions, and the visions became flesh. visions and the visions became flesh. And as he's saying this ominous speech, we see someone moving behind him in like a black hood. We can't see their face behind Brian Oblivion in the tape. And it looks like an executioner, like they have like a black bag over their head and they look like they're preparing weapons basically brian says the tumor was videodrome i was videodrome's first victim and as he says that the figure behind him starts

strangling him killing him and uh he collapses dead and the person takes the bag off their head. And, or as right before that, um, Max says, what do these people want? What is a video drone people want? And person takes the bag over off of their head and it's Nikki. And she says,

I want you come to me, Max. And now the whole TV set starts breathing the same way the tape was. It's a really cool effect. And the screen zooms into her lips as she's seductively calling out to him. And then the screen starts protruding from the TV set as if it's a balloon. He leans in to kiss the lips and touch the screen and it looks soft. And it was actually the material it's made from is a dental dam. But yeah, so this is the kind of famous image from the movie where he sticks his head and hands into the screen and it's like he's kissing the screen and being swallowed by it at the same time and then we cut away and

cut back to bianca's office max storms in and he's saying now videodrome is, is dangerous. Like what the hell's going on? I've, I've been having hallucinations since I first saw Videodrome. And she explains to him again, this is kind of what her father was saying on the tape was it, the signal creates a tumor in the viewer and causes the hallucinations. And so when you, when you expose yourself to or when you're exposed to videodrome it's perpetuating these kind of violent hallucinations and so he says i need to talk to your father and she says he's in he's in this room back here and he starts walking towards and she says you're going to be disappointed and sure, he opens the door to the room and it's just thousands of videotapes. And she explains that he actually died 11 months ago from the tumor from Videodrome.

She further explains that he helped create Videodrome because this blurring of the lines of reality. And obviously that was something he was passionate about and thought was important. And that's where we were headed, but he wanted to do it in kind of a, a nice way, a metaverse type way, but you know, it's a slippery slope. And so when he realized that the partners who he was creating it with wanted to do it or wanted to use it for more malevolent purposes. He tried to stop them and then they killed him or basically used Videodrome to kill him. So after this, Max goes to Harlan, who he's

first saw the Videodrome tapes from. And he's like, Harlan, have you been hallucinating? Harlan says no. And he's like, OK, good. Like, this this is like i don't know what's going on he goes home and he's sitting on his couch with just a gun gun holster on he's got pants and a gun holster shirtless nice and he's got his gun in his hand and he's scratching his stomach he like scratching a spot over and over and it's got this like long red line forming uh between his like below his belly button and oh god we see brian oblivion on the tv again and brian is explaining that you know our reality is changing and there's really there's nothing real outside of our perception of reality and as he's saying this we see max using his gun now to scratch the the line on his stomach and the line on his stomach opens up into this big slit it's very vaginal

and it's he sticks the gun inside of it like it's itchy inside and so he's using the gun to like scratch inside of this gash in his stomach and then it seems like he's like getting his hand stuck in there and he's trying to pull it out now. And he's wrestling around and finally pulls it out. And we see his hand, his hand is empty. The gun is gone. And he looks down and his stomach is back to normal. And he immediately starts looking for the gun in his apartment. Like, what just happened? Did I drop the gun? Where is the gun? Can't find the gun anywhere. So, possibly lost the gun inside of his body. Inside of his stomach. Great, great. I also noticed, I just wanted to call out, he's wearing these very cool leather ballet flats in this scene that I've not seen. Oh, that's surprising.

Yeah, I really liked them. These are cool shoes. So if anyone knows uh where he got those shoes let me know that's great and as he's panicking and searching for the gun he gets a call from a mystery voice saying barry convex would like to talk to you about videodrome there's a car outside so kind of he's just looking following clues now at this point and just wants to know more. So he says, OK, goes downstairs, gets in this car that plays a video, a prerecorded message from Barry Convex, who explains that his company, he's one of the other creators of Videodrome. one of the other creators of Videodrome. And he arrives at the office that the front is like a glasses store, but it's just a front for his, the true operation of Videodrome and other bad things. Like they sell, I think weapons illegally and, uh and uh but they and now i kind of can't remember why max is not scared of this person um but he's more just curious about what's going on

and i don't know why he's not like scared but he's more just following the the trail and goes to talk to barry convex to find out what he knows barry convex says that they he helped create videodrome and that they have a machine that will record max's hallucinations to help him i guess differentiate what's a hallucination and what's real. And so I think it's presented under the guise of like, we're going to try to help you get back to reality. But really, it's a thing that's going to be more in his head. Right. It like seems like a bad idea to me. But he puts on this big helmet thing that looks like a little, well, big VR headset. And they leave him in a room alone and says, okay, it's going to just record your hallucinations.

And we see Nikki walks in through the screen within his helmet thing, his glasses. He sees her walking in and they're basically saying like, okay, act out your, your fantasy, your hallucination. And so now they're in the videodrome red room again. And it's another like sexual setting.

And Nikki, um, Oh God, it's looking really hot and hands him a whip and he starts whipping her. And it's done in this way where it's kind of it's just hard to tell what's real, what's not and even what's happening. And he's whipping and then Nikki's not there and he's whipping a TV. But on the TV is Masha. And as he's whipping, he gasps awake in his own bed.

There's just TV static playing in his room. And he kind of smiles like, oh, it's just a, just a dream, I guess. But he rolls over and Masha's dead body is in bed next to him. Oh, my God. Oh, no. Like having been whipped to death? With lots of, yes, lashes, scars on her backs, wounds on her back. Oh.

And he panics and he calls Harlan and he says, Harlan, come over quick. I need your help. Oh, poor Harlan. I know. And, and so Harlan arrives as fast as he can. And he had told him to bring a camera and he's like, I need you to take a photo of what's in my bed. And he points him to the bedroom and Harlan thinks it's like a sex, sexual thing. And he's like, Oh my God, like you wake me up in the middle of the night to do your porn,no photo shoot and he's like

just look just go in there harlan goes in there's nothing in here what are you talking about oh this would be even just like watching it and not knowing what's real i'm like this would be so infuriating and horrifying and just like yeah i'm stressed yeah and because you never see the recording of the hallucinations and i'm like is he still in that room you just don't know what's real at all and so he's it tells harlan to meet him at the lab uh he wants to see if there was a videodrome broadcast last night if he's now on videodrome because he knows that that was recorded and maybe him and nicky are going to be on the latest broadcast so they go there and harlan says there was no videodrome broadcast last night and max seems confused by this and then harlan says there's never a videodrome broadcast

what what that's exactly that's exactly what max says what are you talking about? And there's a knock on the door. In walks Barry Convex. And Harlan explains they've always been playing pre-recorded cassettes. Videodrome has never been transmitted on any, like, airwaves. That these have all been pre-recorded things and that they've been targeting Max and Harlan has been basically undercover working for Barry this whole time. And because they wanted to get, um,

Max involved in this project, which is they basically want to stream videodrome on max's like nasty channel um because they think that they can cleanse the world of people with those types of impulses because eventually video the videodrome tumor will like kill you and so if they can get everybody it'll get everybody who wants that shit to die to die exactly oh my god got it got it okay so they're actually all about they're like puritanical yes they're against violence yes and sex and i guess these characters one of these characters i think very convex is based on like a mega church guy they're like all based on evangelical type of people yeah they say that this tv station is rotting the world and you're gonna help us like clean up the filth basically and they have some sort of control over

him i think barry says i want you to open up to me and seems like max has no control over this but the gash in his stomach opens up oh no not that again he's got in there we don't see the gun get get the gun get the gun but um they put a videotape in the gash as if it's like a VCR player. They're putting a tape in there and it looks like he's now under a spell of theirs. Like he's not in control of his own actions anymore. It seems.

And he's hearing their voices in his head, presumably from the tape that they've put in his body that's playing now within him. And it's saying, kill your partners and give us channel 83, kill your partners and give us channel 83. And so he's stumbling out into an alleyway now on the way to his office. And then he reaches into his jacket. I don't think we actually see him reach into the gash, but he pulls out the gun now. And we see him staring at the gun in his hand and drills. These like screws come out of the back of the gun and start screwing through his thumb and into his veins.

As if the gun is basically melding itself to be part of his arm, drilling into him and fusing with him. And he walks into his office building and we see his hand is normal. He is holding the gun, but, you know, that's just showing us that that's a hallucination that's happening just for him. And he walks into his office building. He, he opens the door to the boardroom where his two partners are and he kills them both. Shoots them. Oh my God. And everybody in the office, obviously screaming and it's chaos.

And he's able to run downstairs and he's back in the alleyway and now he's hearing their voices again saying kill bianca oblivion she knows too much and so he goes back to the uh her office and finds her in there and we see his hand holding the gun is now the flesh is like really fusing with the gun and it's getting huge. It's looking really like the like the fly and it's very nasty looking. And Bianca says, I assume you're here to kill me. And he says, I don't kill people. I run a TV station. He looks like genuinely confused by what

she said. And she said, she says, you do now you're an assassin for Videodrome. They can program you. They can make you do what they, what they want. And again, he he's looking like he's about to kill her, but also like he doesn't want to be, but he's just flat going back and forth between kind of being on a mission against his will and little flashes of him being like, what was happening? And she pops in a tape in a VCR of a TV there. And on TV, we see Nikki being killed. And she says they killed Nikki. Nikki being killed and she says they killed

Nikki and this is her attempt to kind of bring him back to her side by showing him this really emotional thing that you know someone he cares about we see her being killed she says they killed her a while ago like as soon as

she got there but then they've been able to use her image to manipulate you since then he's pointing the gun at the tv now doesn't know what to do and then from the tv uh looks like a hand holding a gun protrudes from the tv pushes out of the tv again through that dental dam now looking very phallic and that gun shoots him through the chest four times. And then on the TV now is his chest looking real, like a fleshy TV bleeding from bullet holes.

And Bianca reaches in somewhere and pulls the tape out. Basically, like she was able to get the tape that's been controlling him out of him. Deprogram him. Okay. So now she's telling him, you know what you have to do now. You need to destroy Videodrome. you need to destroy Videodrome. It seems like she's kind of just reprogramming him for her causes now, her,

what she wants. And she wants to destroy Videodrome. She says, death to Videodrome, long live the new flesh. And he runs out now with a new mission to kill, you know, the people that created Videodrome. And as he does, he stops by this TV store that all has the news playing all with his mugshot on it.

Max Ren wanted for murder and Max Ren 34. That kind of stopped me in my tracks. Same age. Oh, my. That's how old I am. It doesn't make any sense. Hold on, hold on. Am I in the movie?

Does he seem a lot older? I feel like older movies, the actors always seem older. Yeah. Yes, and just because I'm familiar with James Woods as an old... As being an old man. Yeah, so it was just jarring. I mean, truly, I associate James Woods with being Hades

in my favorite movie, Hercules. Oh, of course. Where you don't see him because it's animated. But... He has really upsetting political views now. Oh, yeah? He has a huge Twitter presence. Yeah, that's what he's known for now.

As being a big old Trump supporter. Yikes. Yeah, no thanks. James. What the F? Why'd you do that, huh? Why'd you do that, James? Why'd you have to do that, James?

So now he goes back to Barry Convex's office with gun in hand. Or no, I think he's hidden the gun. His plan is to seem like he's still under their influence so he can get in. And so he goes up to Harlan, basically says, I killed my partners. I killed Bianca. I've done everything you've asked. Like, what's next? And Harlan pulls out

another videotape. He's like, great, I've got another tape for you. Open up. And the gash opens up. Harlan goes to put a new tape in and the gash closes. And Harlan is pulling his hand, looking scared, like, what, what, what?

And rips it out and all of the flesh has come off of harlan's arms that's just a bone just bone just bone just a bloody bone and he's screaming are we to presume then the rest of his flesh is inside yeah i guess ate it up it's somewhere in the gun um but also the tape that he was trying to put in him was like a fleshy tape now. It looks like on. It looked like funnel cake to me. And Harlan is running away from Max now screaming in pain. And Harlan just explodes.

Max looks at him as if he wants him to explode and then he does so not exactly sure what happened there but harlan's dead okay uh now could it be a hallucination or is that not happening to him it's really hard to say really hard to say yeah okay and so now Max goes to find Barry. Barry's giving a presentation at this big fancy gala. Max struts onto the stage with his gun, shoots Barry a bunch of times. Barry basically is like torn in half. Like his insides are pushing their way out of him. And he's it's really it looks really good. I mean, it's very gross, but it kind of reminded me of in The Matrix when Agent Smith splits in half, except practical and looks like really good.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so now Barry's dead. Max flees that crime scene as well and finds a kind of abandoned looking shipyard and goes on to a condemned vessel. Love that. Oh, vessel. And he wasn't expecting a vessel in this movie. Pleasantly surprised.

I know. It's like a little tugboat and he's sitting there looking very distressed what the fuck is happening what do we what do we do now and there's a tv in there and it turns on we see nikki's face and i think he kind of turns her like i don't know what to do i i don't know what to do and she says of course like you've you've done as much as you can. At this point, you've hurt them. But you haven't destroyed them. Videodrome is big. Videodrome is a lot more than just two people. It's going to take more than that. You're going to have to move on to the next phase. And she tells him your body has begun to change the beginning of the new flesh. But now you need to go all the way.

Total transformation to become the new flesh. You have to release the old flesh. Don't be afraid to let your body die. She says, let me show you. And she shows him a video of him shooting himself in the head and he sees that and he says we see back down on his hand now it's like nasty gun is fused with his hand again all big monsterystery looking, pulsing and gross. And he raises it to his head and he says, death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh. Shoots himself in the head.

And that's the end of the movie. What? What? So I think Videodrome 2 could happen. Yeah, there's definitely room There's room for a sequel There's room for a sequel for sure Oh I'm full of ideas

Wait okay Oh let me at it Let me at it What? Yeah it's definitely What happened? It's really surreal and hard to say What It feels to me like between a David Lynch movie and a and a regular studio film, because I was reminded of David Lynch kind of the whole time because you don't know what's real and it feels very dreamlike and it's doing that on purpose. This feels slightly more anchored in reality, but then obviously, as it goes further, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish reality, which I think, you know,

is the point that he's trying to make of the danger of technology and living our lives in other screens and how that does blur the lines of reality. And so I think, you know, that's very intentional. And again, I was just really struck by how relevant this movie felt to today. Like, I wonder at the time, people were probably even more like, what the fuck? Like, that's, this is fucking crazy. Whereas now I'm kind of like, yeah, I get it. Like that. I feel that. Yeah. I feel it. now I'm kind of like, yeah, I get it. Like that's, I feel that. Yeah. I feel it. All of the, especially where they're, they basically in this movie, they invent deep fakes,

which I don't know if it's invented here, but I mean, that's predicted deep fakes, which now fool me. I I'm fooled by a deep fake when it pops up on Tik TOK at first. And then I'm like, wait a minute, that's not, that's not Tom Cruise or cruise or whatever um and just the fact that you can use technology to if you have enough recording of someone's like someone could you just use this podcast and then make it sound like make it sound like we're saying that it's true it's true make it sound like we're saying anything and and you know generate videos generate photos that are and i mean it's a conversation we're gonna have to keep having over and over with with ai and and anything and, and, you know, generate videos, generate photos that are fake. And I mean, it's a conversation we're going to have to keep having over and over with, with AI and, and, and I think about it a lot in documentary because, you know,

recently there was that Anthony Bourdain documentary where they did recreate his voice and make it, make him say things he had never said. And that technology does already exist. And that's super's super i mean tempting as a documentary editor who spends so much time trying to like piece things together like i don't know you know maybe this is frowned upon but it's super super normal that you frankenbite things to like make it seem like someone said something that they didn't necessarily say even just like the little versions of that on like reality tv of of like making it look like someone's facial reaction is based on a thing that happened when it's like not related to that whatsoever. And we like create a full narrative based on disparate moments.

Yeah. And I think in reality TV will be the first on the lines to be making use of that technology. I'm sure they'll create some contract to be like, anything you say, we can pump into a little machine so that we can make you say anything else you want, anything else we want. Because there's already contracts that anything that you say or do can be edited to

in any order. Yeah, exactly. That's why people have such terrible mental health crises after being on The Bachelor and stuff. Because they get turned into full villains. And you just have no way of knowing if that's going to be you. Things get taken out of context all the time. And that's just based on things that actually happened in theory.

And then now it's a whole other universe. They really need to figure out a way to make that strictly... We just need to regulate this. Like as the technology becomes more precise and harder to distinguish from as like a viewer, whether it's real or not. Well, those are the kind of conversations that are happening now, like with the writer's strike and writers wanting guarantees that studios won't use ai to write scripts and that sort of thing it's certainly based off because the whole thing we've talked about this is like ai needs information in order to to do it and so if if we can find a way to be like you cannot put things i've created into ai AI and like to make that

illegal somehow as opposed to just you know please don't right which I'll just say it right now please don't take this podcast and use it to do other things unless you make us look and sound and seem

really cool and smart and and awesome you can use my voice and likeness to make me awesome unless it leads to a p-body if we get a p-body out of it you can do it you can get us a p short That's a really good time Peabody peabody peabody You know take take take what you will Best of luck to you Give us some awards

But no it really is I was I have to write cover letters For job applications and I was talking to my dad today and he was like Let's use AI and I was like I know I'm so I started a chat GPT account and I mean yeah that's the thing and I get it there's shit I don't want to have to do right and cover letters especially are so stupid like is anyone even reading a cover letter like does that even happen so you're telling me I should use it honestly yes I think of all things I support chat chat GPT writing your cover letters.

Okay. But I think, yeah, this is like, this movie will stay relevant forever because technology just increases and evolves further and further down the same path. And I'm sure 40 years from now, we'll live in an even more saturated time and fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. It's better than the alternative. I have been saying the, you know, the midsummer thing of 72, that is 40 years from now for me. So see ya. Yep. Bye. Jumping off that cliff. I'll release Videodrome 2 and jump off perfect

oh but yeah um how tell me how you guys feel versus other cronenberg movies and other movies in general did you like it was i right that you don't feel horrible you're right that i don't feel horrible i thought it was i don't know if i would say i that I don't feel horrible. I thought it was going to be way worse than this. I liked it, but I didn't it didn't upset me in the same way. In ways I expected it might. Yeah.

Especially considering that it involves so much like sexual violence. I thought that would be more upsetting. But it's done in a way that's pretty I'm sure it'd be much more upsetting to see. It's not, it's not great to see, but it does feel so like disconnected from anything real.

No, I think it's like, because it's so integral to the point that he's making, it feels like necessary. Yeah. Less exploitative. And it's like, no,

that's literally the point that he's making. And so it's not like a flourish in another film where it's like, Ooh, isn't point that he's making and so it's not like a flourish in another film where it's like oh isn't this wild it doesn't feel like gratuitous and it's very much commenting on that and so it feels more necessary to um show it and i wouldn't i i it's not it's not extremely gratuitous you don't actually see anybody on videodrome die it's not extremely gratuitous. You don't actually see anybody on Videodrome die. It's just, it is pretty, pretty quick images of it, but it, yeah, I think it, it works well. It's, it's a good, a good balance of torture. Love a good balance.

Nice little nuggets. Love it when torture is balanced. But yeah, I think it's my favorite Cronenberg film I've seen so far but I'm excited to keep watching them it's also fun just seeing a director's

how their like little trademarks change and things that they do similarly through each film so it's just kind of fun seeing someone's like full body of work, pun intended, bodies, body working. Work on the bodies. Because this felt super familiar in terms of like,

this felt very close to Crimes of the Future to me at times. But then, you know, I watched Eastern Promises, which feels way different. But I don't know. That's with Viggo Mortensen? Is that right? I think so, right? Viggo's in Crimes of the Future as well. I think I've seen Eastern Promises.

Yeah, it's... Oh, no, I'm thinking of history. Oh, that's the one I really don't want to see. I think I've seen History of Violence. That's next on my list. I don't want to do it. No, I don't think it's horror. We won't do it. Okay,

great. And then enjoy yourself. I will. Wow. Okay. So, Hey, we did it.

We did it. Off the list. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. No, no, I loved it. I really enjoyed it. And yeah,

I mean, I'd say if you're scared of horror movies, as usual, the biggest thing with this one is the gore. Certainly a lot of very explicit effects, gross practical effects that look look great. Look great. If you can just think of the artistry behind them, Rick Baker, and the work that went into it, I feel like maybe that makes it a little more enjoyable. But otherwise, if gore is not your thing, probably want to skip this one. Yeah. I will be skipping. Yep.

But we did it. And I think that's all we got for today, folks. That's it. Thank you, Sammy. We love it. And. We did. I think that's all. I think that's all we got for today, folks. That's it. Thank you, Sammy. That's all we got. We love you. Oh, my God. A voice.

I didn't even think about a voice. Should I try to do the trailer voice? Yeah. 1980s trailer voice. 1986 trailer voice. Well, I kind of liked at the end of the trailer where they go, Videodrome, Videodrome. So I'll do that. From all of us here at Too Scary, Didn't Watch,

Goodbye. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Too Scary, Didn't Watch. If you like the show, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating, a on apple podcasts or spotify you can follow us on social media at tsdw podcast on instagram and twitter and if one episode a week just is not enough for you head on over to patreon.com slash tsdw podcast to become a patron and receive all sorts of extra goodies from us, including bonus episodes, trailer reactions,

and more. And no matter what, we will see you right here next week for another episode. We love you so much. Bye. That was a hate gun podcast.