Cinema Shock

With 1986’s THE FLY, David Cronenberg achieved something rare: a brutal, grotesque body horror film that was also a deeply emotional, tragic love story. A remake in name only of the 1958 sci-fi classic, THE FLY stars Jeff Goldblum as eccentric scientist Seth Brundle, whose teleportation experiments go horribly wrong. What follows is a horrifying — and oddly beautiful — descent into mutation, madne...

After the hallucinatory violence of VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg took a sharp turn into more restrained territory with THE DEAD ZONE, a 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s best-selling novel. Starring Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith — a schoolteacher who awakens from a coma with psychic abilities — THE DEAD ZONE trades visceral body horror for emotional devastation, political paranoia, and questi...

With VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg pushed his signature blend of body horror and cerebral sci-fi to new heights. Released in 1983, the film stars James Woods as Max Renn, a sleazy cable-TV exec who stumbles onto a pirated broadcast called “Videodrome” — and promptly begins to lose his grip on reality. A nightmarish meditation on technology, surveillance, sex, and media addiction, VIDEODROME was dis...

After the deeply personal horror of THE BROOD, David Cronenberg returned with a more commercial effort — and a bigger budget — in what would become his breakout film: SCANNERS. Released in 1981, SCANNERS blends science fiction, espionage, and psychic body horror into a film that’s perhaps best remembered for one legendary moment of practical effects: the infamous exploding head. But there’s more t...

In this bonus episode, our own Mr. Todd A. Davis sits down with legendary character actor Spencer Garrett. Throughout the interview, they discuss Garrett's entire career, working on everything from STAR TREK to STAR WARS, and with directors like Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bay and, most recently, Adam McKay on the new HBO series WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY. Enjoy this bonus episode...

After two successful low-budget horror films, David Cronenberg was suddenly one of Canada’s most bankable directors. But rather than immediately dive into another body horror spectacle, he took a detour with FAST COMPANY, a drag racing drama that would ultimately serve as a stepping stone to one of his most acclaimed early films: THE BROOD. Released in 1979, THE BROOD is widely considered to be Cr...

  In the second episode of our series David Cronenberg: The New Flesh, we continue exploring the director’s early years with 1977’s RABID—a film that pushed the boundaries of body horror even further than its predecessor. Starring adult film icon Marilyn Chambers in her first major mainstream role, RABID tells the story of a woman who undergoes radical surgery after a motorcycle accident… and wake...

Our latest Cinema Shock series, David Cronenberg: The New Flesh, takes a deep dive into the early films of the Canadian auteur that helped define the genre of body horror.   We begin with 1975’s SHIVERS, Cronenberg’s first commercial feature and a landmark in Canadian cinema. A film about a parasitic STD that turns a luxury high-rise into a sex-crazed nightmare, SHIVERS shocked audiences and criti...

  Our first pick in the new Cinema Shock Roulette series is a movie that needs no introduction—but it’s getting one anyway. Released in 2000, Kinji Fukasaku’s BATTLE ROYALE shocked audiences with its graphic depiction of schoolchildren forced into a government-run deathmatch. Based on the controversial novel by Koushun Takami, the film was instantly polarizing—banned in multiple countries, attacke...

As we reach the end of our journey through the filmography of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, we return to the world that made them household names—only this time, it’s a little different. Released nearly two decades after the original trilogy, THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS was helmed by Lana Wachowski alone, marking the first solo directorial effort by either sibling. The result? A film that’s not just a se...

Throughout this series, we've explored the films of Lana and Lilly Wachowski—but we couldn't ignore the one project that might be the purest expression of their creative voice: the Netflix original series SENSE8. Originally intended as a quick sidebar in our upcoming MATRIX RESURRECTIONS episode, our conversation about SENSE8 quickly outgrew those confines. It’s more than just a side note in their...

In the penultimate episode of our Wachowski retrospective, we take on the wildest and most maligned film in their catalog: JUPITER ASCENDING. Released in 2015, the film was intended to launch a new sci-fi franchise for Warner Bros.—a space opera that might do for the 2010s what THE MATRIX did for the turn of the millennium. Instead, it became the Wachowskis’ biggest critical and commercial failure...

If there's one constant in the careers of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, it's that their work tends to split audiences down the middle. And few of their films illustrate that better than CLOUD ATLAS. Released in 2012 and co-directed with Tom Tykwer, CLOUD ATLAS was called everything from a transcendent masterpiece to an overindulgent mess. But one thing’s certain—it was a passion project, powered into...

After the completion of the MATRIX trilogy, the Wachowskis took a short break from directing to write and produce V FOR VENDETTA for James McTeigue, but it wouldn't be long before they were back directing again, for their much-anticipated follow-up to their groundbreaking franchise. Their choice for a follow-up was a surprising one. In 2008, the Lana and Lilly Wachowskis released SPEED RACER, a ki...

This week, our journey through the career of Lana and Lilly Wachowski takes a detour behind the camera—but not out of creative control. In 2006’s V FOR VENDETTA, the Wachowskis took on writing and producing duties, handing the directorial reins to their long-time assistant director James McTeigue. The result? A politically charged, visually striking adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s cult-...

We've been promising it for months and Halloween finally seemed like a good time to let Todd "Horror Guy" Davis tell us his favorite horror movies of all time! In this special bonus episode, Todd and Justin sit down to discuss the picks, just in time for spooky season!

After the groundbreaking success of THE MATRIX, all eyes were on the Wachowskis to deliver the next chapter. What they delivered was not one but two sequels—released just six months apart in 2003—that attempted to expand the universe, deepen the lore, and blow audiences’ minds all over again. In this episode, we explore the creation of THE MATRIX RELOADED and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS—from the Wachow...

In the lead-up to the release of THE MATRIX RELOADED and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, the Wachowskis made a bold and unprecedented move: they collaborated with some of the most acclaimed Japanese animation studios and directors to expand the MATRIX universe beyond live action. The result was THE ANIMATRIX, a groundbreaking anthology of short films that deepened the mythology, explored side stories and...

In 1999, THE MATRIX hit theaters like a digital lightning bolt. Combining cutting-edge special effects, philosophical depth, and next-level action, it wasn’t just a blockbuster—it was a paradigm shift. In this episode, we trace the origin and creation of THE MATRIX, from the Wachowskis’ early worldbuilding ideas to their battles to get the film made their way. We explore its Hong Kong action influ...

Before they reinvented cinema with THE MATRIX, Lana and Lilly Wachowski exploded onto the indie film scene with a lean, stylish, and unabashedly queer neo-noir: BOUND. In the first episode of our new series, The Wachowskis' Cinema of Fluidity, we dive into the siblings' early years—how they went from house painters and comic book nerds to Hollywood screenwriters, and how a bad experience on their...

For the final entry in our Sex + Violence: The Films of Paul Verhoeven series, we’re examining the director’s last film made within the Hollywood system: HOLLOW MAN (2000). Often dismissed by critics—and even by Verhoeven himself—HOLLOW MAN is rarely given the credit it deserves. While its story of invisibility and unchecked power may not have landed in its own time, the film’s special effects wor...

After the critical and commercial disaster of SHOWGIRLS, Paul Verhoeven returned to familiar territory: big-budget science fiction. This time, he re-teamed with ROBOCOP screenwriter Ed Neumeier to adapt Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers—but not in the way anyone expected. What Verhoeven delivered was less a straightforward adaptation and more a brutal, satirical takedown of militarism...

After the smash success of BASIC INSTINCT, Paul Verhoeven had the Hollywood clout to push boundaries like never before. For his next film, he wanted total freedom—no rating compromises, no MPAA edits. What he made was one of the most notorious movies of the 1990s. SHOWGIRLS. Written by Joe Eszterhas and pitched (literally) on a cocktail napkin, SHOWGIRLS was meant to be Verhoeven’s ultimate statem...

After back-to-back sci-fi hits with ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL, Paul Verhoeven took a surprising left turn. Instead of another effects-heavy blockbuster, he chose a smaller, more intimate (but no less explosive) project—a sexually charged neo-noir thriller that would push American taboos to the brink. That film was BASIC INSTINCT. In this episode, we trace the origin of BASIC INSTINCT, from Joe Eszt...

After the surprise success of ROBOCOP, Paul Verhoeven had officially made it to the A-list—and so it wasn’t long before Hollywood’s biggest star came knocking. Arnold Schwarzenegger, impressed by ROBOCOP’s mix of action and intelligence, personally recruited Verhoeven to direct his next film: TOTAL RECALL. But the story of TOTAL RECALL doesn’t start there. In this episode, we trace the film’s comp...