Videodrome

by Jack Martin, David Cronenberg (original screenplay)

In the world that lies ahead of us all, reality and hallucination will merge and interchange.

So when Max Renn saw the flesh of his stomach swell and redden as though a giant worm was moving beneath the skin, was that imagination—or reality?

And when the skin split and the flesh parted like giant lips, soft and bloodied. When he could sink his fingers, his whole hand, deep inside, feeling and probing through the wall of his own stomach. As the juices, thick and warm, clung and sucked gently at his finger-tips, drawing him in. As the bile rose, hot with revulsion in his throat.... Was that a nightmare—or reality?

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Dystopia, Canon, Film

255 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

A pseudonym used by Dennis Etchison.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly good adaptation of David Cronenberg's twisted and surreal 1983 movie. The main reason I wanted to read this was because it was written by Dennis Etchison, one of my favorite horror writers of the 80s. The other reason was because I wanted to see if Etchison could possibly pull off the seemingly impossible task of translating such an intensely visual film to mere words (yes, I know ALL films are visual, but this one is especially so). He succeeded, imo.

Here's the basic gist of the story for those who don't know: Reality begins to bend and break down for Max Renn, president of a sleazy cable TV station in Canada, once he starts intercepting encoded pirate broadcasts of what seem to be real-life snuff and torture films. There's an addictive quality to these quick little snippets (which are titled 'Videodrome'), and Max soon becomes obsessed, thinking he's come across the new wave in television, and his life slowly turns into a nightmare, unable to separate what's real from hallucination. Is there a conspiracy at work here?

Etchison chooses to describe all the weird, nightmarish imagery in a matter-of-fact, straightforward style as opposed to going a more opaque and surreal route, and this works well, allowing for someone who's never seen the film or, as with me, someone who hasn't seen it in decades, to follow along without feeling totally lost. Just mostly lost, at least towards the end, as was probably intended. There's really no way of knowing exactly what happened, but it never became frustrating, only more and more mysterious.

Etchison also does a good job capturing the skeevy nature of Max, while still making him somewhat relatable and sympathetic. The gradual, growing sense of eerie unreality and paranoia is pulled off nicely as well. Any fans of Etchison or Cronenberg should dig the hell out of this.

4.0 Stars.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh.

[M.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fast, surreal, grim read. I feel like the book adds depth to the movie and was well written.

Naturally, it very closely mirrors the movie, but it was based on an early version of the script and the differences are interesting to observe. In most cases where the book has something that was stricken from the movie, it's clear the movie makers made the right decision. On the other hand, a big plus for the book is that the special effects are left to the reader's imagination which adds impact to many of the surreal scenes in this story. The book was more clear than the movie in portraying what happened when Max Renn shot Barry Convex at the end. I had misinterpreted that from the movie.

Both the movie and the book are a little dated of course. I personally found this rather entertaining. It's clear we're supposed to be impressed by Max's 19 inch television (that's not a typo, a 19" TV was huge back in the day) and that and the VHS tapes are kind of quaint compared to today's tech. I would imagine the pirated signal would have started out as an encrypted internet video if this were written today.

On a side note, each night I was reading this book, after I was done reading, I would put on the movie to the part I had just read and fall asleep to it. It made for a fun combination and some interesting dreams.

I think anyone who likes the movie will enjoy this novelization.

[Casey Kiser]

"After all, there is nothing real outside our perception of reality, is there? You can see that, can't you?"

[Willy Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won't read film tie ins? Some of them are good, especially when the writer is Dennis Etchison under an alias. A hard task to displace the capital-c classic film, but doesn't need to. Based on an early version of the screenplay, so deleted scenes abound. No perfunctory retelling of the movie, a projection of the source material into different dimensions, and a legitimate novel in it's own right, prefaced by Etchison's own dedication: 'For those who feel what they see'.

For those who don't know, David Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker who made several thinly disguised, mildly embellished dramatizations of true events in the late seventies and early eighties. The light dusting of fiction, the fact that he didn't use anyone's real name (and that his films made lots of money relative to budget) meant that he was rewarded with a Stephen King adaptation when he escaped across the border into US in 1983.

[Dimitrije Vojnov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dennis Etchison, cenjeni horor pisac ali i hroničar, tokom osamdesetih je intenzivno sarađivao sa Johnom Carpenterom na scenarijima ali i na novelizacijama filmova iz serijala HALLOWEEN.

Ipak, novelizacija filma VIDEODROME koji je napisao i režirao David Cronenberg predstavljala je poseban izazov jer je reč o filmu koji nudi prvo visok nivo literarnosti jer su sami likovi skloni razmeni teorijskih koncepata a još više je vizuelan jer prikazuje čovek silazak s uma u svet halucinacije i hebafrenije možda indukovane videom a možda i ne.

Dakle, VIDEODROME je u jednom svom segmentu vapio za novelizacijom a opet u jednom drugom je bio jako težak za nju jer proza definiše pojmove bitno drugačije nego film.

Etchison je ovaj prvi zadatak uradio bez hijackovanja filma. Nije pretvorio roman u postmodernu fascinaciju literarnim potencijalima VIDEODROMEa, što sam priželjkivao, ali jeste u dovoljnoj meri ispratio i akcentovao date elemente iz filma, ostavši negde u okvirima onoga što je Cronenberg ispisao. Kada je kasnije napisao svoj roman CONSUMED koji je dosta solidan, bio je po stilu blizak ovome. Dakle, Etchison je bio na liniji.

Kad je reč o halucinatornom delu, u njemu se Etchison snašao prevodeći gubitak razuma u Maxove koordinate, držeći se okvira nečeg što bih definisao kao halucinantni noir gde proza iako nije u Ich-formi dobija noir styling i onu raskoš body horrora i halucinacije koju nudi film.

Etchison je naravno tu morao da pokrije neke elemente koji su u filmu prolazili kao samopodrazumevajući ali to jeste cena noir fokusa na junaka i mogu reći da tu nije pojeftinio Cronenberga.

Etchison je "razumeo" film i preneo ga ali tim neophodnim "razumevanjem" svojstvenim prozi nije pojeftinio njegovu razularenost.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Renn is the president of CivicTV, a station that specialises in edgy adult entertainment. Dissastisfied with what’s being offered - the tame ‘Samurai Dreams’ - he’s very interested in a rogue satellite feed his technician Harlan discovers. Encrypted and coded, Videodrome appears to be nothing more than a series of sex and violence snuff sequences and once Max has seen it, he and radio personality Nikki Brand just can’t seem to get enough of it. Whilst the film, which I first saw in 1985 (because I loved Debbie Harry and the work of Rick Baker), has forever remained in my personal top ten, this is the first time I’ve read the novelisation. Etchison, who is a superb writer and brings every bit of his craft to the book, appears to have been working from a shooting script, since this includes the TeleRanger in the bathtub sequence - long talked about - and brushes over the Convex-cancer sequence in a page or two (where it’s actually a major set-piece in the film). It also provides depth on certain items that brush by quickly in the film, filling in certain gaps and making some plot points clearer - for example, the signal doesn’t work properly on Nikki, which is why Max is so important to Convex. Obviously dated (it was published in 1983), with the videocassettes and signs being lettered in Letraset, this is also alarmingly prescient on the widespread reality-TV rubbish we now all suffer, as well as nodding towards sadistic z-list celeb gameshows. Classy, clinical and bleak, this is a cracking novelisation and if you liked the excellent film, I’d very much recommend it.

[Mikepottz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything looks better on TV Max Renn President of Civic TV thinks. A technician of the company scans the broadcasts looking for transmissions that his viewers would like. They find a video of a partially naked women cuffed to an electrified wall with water all around, screaming in terror. They don't know where this is coming from but Max likes it His station offers softcore porn and hardcore violence, Max wants to give viewers something they can't find elsewhere. These transmissions are torture, perverts only, no camerawork, no editing, reel after reel without a break, known as Videodrome. Max wants violence, no plot, no character development, very realistic, on TV not on the streets. He finds out Videodrome is not for public consumption, its stuff TV. Videodrome gets you to start watching, it seduces, and gets you hooked. It is bioelectronic heroin. Max will tap into Videodrome and start to have hallucinations. He puts on a futuristic helmet, a wet dream, in solid three dimensions. Max's stomach vagina opens up taking a cassette inside his innards. He will take out a pistol from his stomach vagina, the pistol, slimey, veiny, jellied, pnk, his arteries attached to the pistol, his blood connecting it, giving it life. Reality and hallucinations becoming one, splattering his co-workers with his pistol before unloading on himself. TV has become the retina of the mind's eye. Fantastic, visceral, equal parts confusion and beauty.

[Leila Anani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since videodrome is such a visual film its hard to get that across in a novel, but Jack Martin makes a pretty good attempt to "use words to try to come to terms with things for which there are no words"

If you love the film then the novel is a wonderful companion piece, although I'm not sure how much sense it will make if you're unfamiliar with the story. Its based on an earlier draft of the script and so there are some subtle differences, scenes in a slightly different order and certain things fleshed out more especially towards the beginning and end. There's more on Samurai dreams and Max' nightmare which ties in to some of the themes in the story.

I don't think this quite conveys the sense of paranoia that the film manages to evoke, but its still filled with menacing characters with disturbing surnames like Brand, O'Blivion, Convex and a fascinating story ultimately about the effect of sex and violence on television have on the human psyche.

This has so much philosophy packed in you can sit there dissecting it for years.

Long live the new flesh!

[Horror Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novelization for Videodrome is not what I expected. Most novelizations (both old and current!) read as just summaries. If readers are lucky, the author is not too lazy and may give us more character building moments, but I never expect much more as a reader.

This vintage novelization of Cronenberg's classic body horror film is that rare gem. The whole thing reads like an extended cut of Videodrome. Some parts happen slightly different, some new scenes are added. Max Renn's inner monologue gives a fuller picture of what is happening from his point of view. It doesn't completely redeem him, he still acts just as he does in the movie, but he acts more kind to supporting characters like Bridey.

The novel starts off right way with bizarre and dreamlike imagery. While the film plays around with the fact that we're never sure if what is show is real or is a hallucination, the novelization makes it clear that the Videodrome signal is indeed creating/changing the physical body.

Nicki Brand's connection to Barry Convex & to Bianca O'Blivion is another new addition that I loved. In the movie, it looks like she's unwillingly drawn into the whole Videodrome business, while the novel shows she knew much more than she let on to Max.

If you loved the movie, definitely read the novelization by Jack Martin (aka Dennis Etchison).

[James Caterino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange, erotic, hallucinatory, visionary, hypnotic, and just plain insanely brilliant—those are just of few the words that come to mind when trying to describe David Cronenberg’s 1983 masterpiece “Videodrome”. Quite simply, it is an addictive work art, shockingly prophetic when you watch it today, and more affecting than ever. This is a movie that foresaw virtual reality, the internet, reality TV, video blogging (vlogging) and YouTube—back in 1983!

While it is impossible for a novelization to capture Cronenberg’s relentlessly harrowing atmosphere of paranoia, James Woods killer performance, and Debra Harry’s haunting presence—Jack Martin Dennis Etchison (writing as Jack Martin) comes about as close as possible in this crisp, fast-moving, very readable and mostly faithful adaption of a revolutionary piece of avant-garde cinema.

[Ah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality novelization.Dunno what sense it would make if you have not seen film, dunno if film makes sense I like them both anyway DEATH TO GOODREADS haha Jk

[Jon Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a scanned paperback book on the Internet Archive. Ah, Videodrome, the 1983 film by David Cronenberg that screws with your mind on many levels. There's the hallucinatory parts, like when an orifice resembling a wet, red mouth opens up in James Woods' abdomen. There's the videocassette tape that breathes and wriggles. There's Debbie Harry, burning herself with a cigarette while moaning with pleasure. Definitely not a family film. I remember watching the film while in college in 1984 late at night at the house of a friend that had HBO on his TV. The book, based on an early version of the film's screenplay, is trippy as well. The origin of the Videodrome technology is explained in the book (unlike the movie): it started as a military project, a helmet intended to boost a soldier's night vision and other perceptions, but it caused some test subjects to experience hallucinations. The hallucinatory signal was isolated and weaponized, and a shadowy group is preparing to broadcast it to the public, for reasons that were murky to me, but doubtless nefarious. The character of Max Renn, head of Channel 83, in the book is much sleazier than James Woods' portrayal in the film, at least based on what I remember from 40 years ago. If you enjoyed or were intrigued by the Cronenberg film, then by all means check out the book. Four out of five stars.

[Midas68 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A low 3 rating, Which isn't bad at all.
There was a couple extra scenes not in the movie, A good weird one with a TV coming up from the bathtub being the one of note. Yeah not bad.

3 video nasties for this long lived flesh.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of impressed by how much more I understood of the book than the movie. I'm clearly not a visual person.

[Andrew Overbye · Rating 4 out of 5]

See you in Pittsburgh.

Look for us covering this on an upcoming Authorized Novelizations Podcast. Listen: http://shorturl.at/lDZ45

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good novelization. A mutated synthesis of J.G. Ballard and Philip Dick.

[Jon Y. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into the foggier aspects of the film, especially in terms of character motivation; adapted from an earlier draft of the script. The literary value is so-so, but Jack Martin (Dennis Etchison) has his moments.