How to Survive is now on Patreon! Support us at Patreon.com/HowtoSurvivePod to get every episode one week early, plus monthly bonus episodes and more.
It's episode 265...and the television screen is the retina of the mind's eye.
Videodrome (1983) tells the story of slimy TV executive Max Renn, who specialises in digging up obscure softcore pornography and bloody violence to broadcast to the feverish masses on his cable TV station. But, when Max comes into contact with the extreme and nightmarish violence of Videodrome, things begin to unravel, leading to hallucinations, BDSM-infused re-enactments and the transference of violent media into violent reality.
We discuss chest wound gun holsters, a prescient depiction of the anxieties and effects of violent media, dig into the most thematically-packed 90 minute movies we’ve ever seen, unpick a gory special effects masterclass and ponder whether, if you want to stop someone investigating something, whether it’s a good idea to give them loads of information to help them do just that.
All of which leads to one question: How would you survive?
Whatever happens, one thing's for sure: Death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh!
Next time, it’s exploding heads o’clock as David Cronenberg Season continues with Scanners (1981).
How to Survive is now on Patreon! Support us at Patreon.com/HowtoSurvivePod to get every episode one week early, plus monthly bonus episodes and more.
It's episode 264...and it's your coffin, my love. Enjoy it. Most of us never get to know what it feels like.
Interview With The Vampire (1994) spins a century-spanning yarn of epic proportions, following the listless slave plantation owner Louis de Pointe du Lac, as he is bitten and transformed into an immortal creature by vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Much like a new parent, an apparently endless future of night feeds causes Louis to have an existential crisis lasting decades as he stands and morosely observes various comings and goings across New Orleans, Paris and San Francisco, eventually relating this to a journalist in the modern day for our pleasure(?).
It’s a bloody diet of ham and mince as Brad Pitt sulks, Tom Cruise camps it up and a 10-year old Kirsten Dunst steals the show, in what is an unusual and somewhat misguided and often boring Vampiric fable pondering the meaning of life. We discuss blatant homoeroticism, outline the unique qualities of the vampire interviewees, question the reasoning of an exclusively rat-based diet and ponder whether we’ve already passed the best time in our lives to be made eternal beings. What other dark gifts might we find? There’s only one way to find out.
All of which leads to one question: How would you survive?
Whatever happens, one thing's for sure: I was mortal until you gave me your immortal kiss.
Next time, it’s the start of David Cronenberg Season with Videodrome (1983).
How to Survive is now on Patreon! Support us at Patreon.com/HowtoSurvivePod to get every episode one week early, plus monthly bonus episodes and more.
It's episode 264...and it's your coffin, my love. Enjoy it. Most of us never get to know what it feels like.
Interview With The Vampire (1994) spins a century-spanning yarn of epic proportions, following the listless slave plantation owner Louis de Pointe du Lac, as he is bitten and transformed into an immortal creature by vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Much like a new parent, an apparently endless future of night feeds causes Louis to have an existential crisis lasting decades as he stands and morosely observes various comings and goings across New Orleans, Paris and San Francisco, eventually relating this to a journalist in the modern day for our pleasure(?).
It’s a bloody diet of ham and mince as Brad Pitt sulks, Tom Cruise camps it up and a 10-year old Kirsten Dunst steals the show, in what is an unusual and somewhat misguided and often boring Vampiric fable pondering the meaning of life. We discuss blatant homoeroticism, outline the unique qualities of the vampire interviewees, question the reasoning of an exclusively rat-based diet and ponder whether we’ve already passed the best time in our lives to be made eternal beings. What other dark gifts might we find? There’s only one way to find out.
All of which leads to one question: How would you survive?
Whatever happens, one thing's for sure: I was mortal until you gave me your immortal kiss.
Next time, it’s the start of David Cronenberg Season with Videodrome (1983).