Intravenous Video

By definition (my own), Intravenous Video causes a
physical change in the viewer, whether real or perceived.

By this definition I would include any film that makes
you vomit. Certain horror movies can give you an intense, drug-like
rush. Or pornography. Little doses of sex. Popping a tape into the
VCR instead of a pill into your mouth.

It all started when we were kids, this dependence.
We didn’t have access to real drugs (unless we were Drew Barrymore),
so cartoons were our drug substitute. Cartoons are like a bong that
kids take hits off when they come home from school. Short, intense
tokes of film experience. So as children, we’re pretty much in awe
of everything. But once we watch a few cartoons, especially Road
Runner, we crave increasingly intense cinematic experiences. Like
pot smokers, we move on up to something stronger: H.R. Puffinstuff.
Liddsville. A Pippi Longstocking movie.   Then we
discover Willie Wonka.

Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (based
on the book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory) is a psychedelic
experience for children. Fantasy merges with sensory overload when
children indulge in vice and face their worst fears. The movie is
not only a drug-like experience for children, but is perhaps the
most honest film ever made about drugs. Which brings us to Ken Russell.

Ken Russell makes cinematic drug trips. Even a dumb
movie like Lair Of The White Worm has good drug-like sequences.
Like in Altered States when a body turns to stone, then dissolves
into dust as the wind blows it away. It’s mind bending, like dropping
acid. Besides the TV-addicted boy in Willie Wonka, the most
truthful depiction I’ve seen of the addictive effects of television
is in a shot-on-video feature called Vampire Trailer Park. In it,
the vampire lures his victims with his

TV set which places them in a trance, leaving their
necks wide open for a bite. Afterward, the vampire vomits, blood
splattering against the TV screen. 1 guess independent moviemakers
aren’t afraid to tell it like it is. A Ken Russell movie is an hallucinogenic.

I’ve been reading You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This
Town Again by Julia Phillips. It confirms my suspicion that
everyone in Hollywood is making movies while under the influence
of drugs. Phillips produced Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
Is it mere coincidence this was the most mind – blowing movie of
its kind since 2001: A Space Odyssey? Drug users beget druggy
movies beget addicted moviegoers.

So, what’s the solution? There is none, except to
accept the truth. Movies are drugs and the moviemaker who can give
us the greatest high wins. MM