One of my favorite memories of pre-Internet movie scavenging was catching the last 15 minutes of Scanners on the Independent Film Channel sometime early in high school. I was able to find the title by checking the TV guide but our small-town video store didn’t have it. After three more partial viewings of the film I finally wound up seeing the whole thing, though it would be years before I saw it from start to finish in and in the right order. Soon after that I saw Videodrome, albeit heavily edited, on the Sci-Fi channel. From then on I was hooked on David Cronenberg’s films.

It wasn’t a surprise to learn that my dad was also a fan of his films but unfortunately we didn’t have any at home. It wasn’t until college and the advent of good old fashioned movie piracy that I got to see a bulk of Cronenberg’s earlier work. Film like Shivers, Rabid, and The Brood captivated me with their grotesque special effects, powerful soundtracks, and entrancing plots. There’s been enough written about Cronenberg’s fascination and fixation on the human body in favor of supernatural themes, and the idea that the most dangerous things come from within humans deeply appealed to me.

While I greatly enjoy the subsequent films, it’s his work in horror that most appeals to me. Videodrome is my absolute favorite piece of his and it’s films like these which show his vision as a filmmaker. I won’t argue that A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, and A Dangerous Method are brilliant films. I feel that he made them the best films they possibly could be, but they aren’t ultimately unique to his style of filmmaking.

Perhaps one day we’ll see another Cronenberg horror film. Until that day, however, I’m content having those early films to re-watch.