Does the alienation fear of 1983 correspond to the cyber crisis of 2021?

When it comes to director Cronenberg, every time a fragmentary grotesque horror film comes to mind, he is a grotesque director who is very good at combining the cruelty of the imaginary world with real life. In most of his works, he has been touching the gray areas of the human psyche, the dark side, and the edge of human nature. In general, a cult movie is a cult movie that can get a score of 7.4 on Douban. Now, turn off the TV, and let us go into this "videotape murder".

In 1983 a science fiction thriller and suspense film directed by Cronenberg, "The Videotape Murders" came out of nowhere. It took all viewers to a world where it was difficult to identify reality, images, and psychedelia. The story begins with a mysterious videotape called Videodrome, the protagonist Max is a television station director to search for attractive hunting episodes, since watching the videotape of the Videodrome program is not interested in going to his program, he began to hallucinate, switching back and forth between reality and fantasy, the television showing the videotape gradually swallowed him He began to hallucinate, switching back and forth between reality and fantasy, and the TV with the tape gradually swallowed him up, as if the tape had swallowed up his vision and his soul, and finally, between everything real and nothing real, he pulled out a gun from his stomach and ended his life.

This surreal "murder" cult film is filled with virtual violence and media control, but by tearing away these trappings to seriously consider the core of this film we will find that it is a very reflective film, because its elements in 1983 are surprisingly close to our life in 2021, like an exaggerated version of the surreal entertainment It's like an exaggerated version of a surreal entertainment to death heavy documentary, some of this being controlled and controlled by a film from 1983 predicted. The most discussed part of the film is the positive and negative aspects of modern media freedom, even if the film is perverse, it is based on life.

In the film, the media, the medium, and television play the role of gods, guiding viewers to do what they need to do, whether it is the secularization of vulgar programming or the evangelization of religious and philosophical ideas, their ultimate goal is to control and be completely controlled. And the general public, as the recipient, whose brain will be subconsciously influenced and controlled by the medium, these controlling elements are very emotional thinking, sexuality, abuse, etc., all hammering the general audience in the movie, are noise, are numb.

The role of media and technology as a medium is hypnotic and controlling, as if a narcotic drug hits deep into the heart of the protagonist, while like a mirror reflecting the modern society controlled by the network It is like a mirror reflecting the modern society controlled by the Internet, being anesthetized and dominated. It is not difficult to control a person, just as easy as taming an animal. And, in the end, how useless is the bondage of self and social perception?

Ironically, when the television is used as a tool, it continues to consume both the transmitter and the receiver. At the end of the film, when the living is destroyed, who will remain there forever are television and the media. This movie is frightening because it is part of reality.

As technology advances faster and faster, we have to consciously spend more time facing reality and the real problems of life, and escape from reality to escape the so-called comfort zone of human beings just to tap into the anesthesia brought to us by the internet, media, and mediums, but the anesthesia is only temporary. Please temporarily put down these media, we can only temporarily escape from technology and entertainment. The funny thing is that human beings have created media and networks, but are controlled by media and networks, but at the same time these two can not be separated from each other.

The movie poster for "Murder on Tape" contains the phrase: First, it controls your mind, then it destroys your body, which translates to First it controls your mind, then it controls your body. So this movie is not a thriller, but a movie that touches the audience and the current state of society at the edge.

Maybe it's not really about the media controlling the mind, it's about the fall of humanity, so to speak, and all the violence, brutality, and pornographic elements may be Cronenberg's true portrayal of the dark side of human nature. Nature may be chaotic, and in this open-ended horror film, maybe we can learn something.