Video Violence 2

This film is among the thousands of B horror films that I have collected over the years. It has to be one of my favorites in my collection. In order to appreciate what this movie has to offer, you have to be a die hard gore fan. It centers around two guys, Howard and Eli, who form their own talk show with no subject other than splattering innocent victims on national television. In between segments they show cheesy commercials and homemade splatter films sent in from fans. My favorite segment has to be the retired cop and his homemade electric chair because it was funny as well as gory. In fact, most of the film has a deep sense of humor to it. True, there are plenty of gore scenes (very imaginitive but not very convincing)but the movie will make audiences laugh more than anything. If you're looking for academy awards and oscar nominations, this film is not for you. On the other hand, if you just want to see a fun film then I highly recommend this one. It will definitely be a different movie experience for you.

The original 'Video Violence' was a campy and trashy, yet somehow likable little horror film. I guess the filmmakers must have had some film stock left over and a bunch of actors with a few days to spare so they decided to come up with this patched together 'sequel'. I suppose they have to be given some credit; the original didn't exactly leave the door open for a sequel, and they could easily have just done something similar to the first one and slapped a '2' on the end of the title. The film is similar to the first film, but it goes off in a completely different direction; and this is both refreshing and works well. The film once again focuses on the two maniacal antagonists from the first film; Howard and Eli. Their violence has won them a lot of fans and this had lead to them getting their own TV show ("The Howard & Eli Show") in which they torture and kill people live on the air. There isn't really a plot to speak of; the film is made up of different segments all revolving around snuff films and the TV show at the centre of the movie.

Staying true to the original, all the action featured in this film is very silly and trashy and the special effects haven't got any better either so the film still looks like it was made for a sum of money in double figures. While this doesn't exactly give it a lot of credibility, it does at least add to the charm. One of the few good things about the original film was its ham-fisted commentary on how film watchers love to see violence. This film once again takes that ball and runs with it but unfortunately this time it's all just too over the top and while the original wasn't very poignant, this one isn't at all. The original film also harked back to the old 'video rental' tradition with the focus being on a video store. This one doesn't have that going for it and the TV show idea isn't as good because (as far as I know) there isn't a show that is anything like this one. Still, the film is at least fun to watch and at just seventy five minutes, it doesn't drag like the original did. Fans of the original will probably enjoy this one too.

Video Violence has some hilarious scenes and a great premise, but it largely fails to deliver. Although a lot of enthusiasm clearly went into it, it suffers from significant problems with its pacing and writing. However, it benefits from some energetic performances.

The film consists of an episode of a new show by Howard and Eli, murderers who like to broadcast their killings, and tapes of killings sent in. The film does not have a plot so much as it goes from one kill scene to another. This is not all bad, as there are some interesting kills.

The problem is that the film also have a large amount of filler to get it up to barely feature length. Some of the murders drag out with too much dialogue, and not very good dialogue at that. The only thing that keeps this from a lower score is the enthusiasm of some of the performers, particularly the guys who play Howard and Eli. They know not to take this too seriously and ham it up.

Man the plot and acting for this movie absolutely suck. However, I can say that the acting is so bad its funny, in a campy sort of way. However, the saving point of this film is the kills, which are actually somewhat creative and extremely gory (as well as fairly realistic). Not bad work for a film with what looks like a $2,000 budget.

In the prologue, a woman enters a vampire's tomb to stake him in the heart. After she does, she withdraws the stake, with the bloody beating heart on it. She's about to lick or bite it when she says she can't - she's on a movie set. The director and crew are annoyed and stake her in the heart for real, drawing her heart out of her body.

That's right, this is a black comedy about snuff films!

A newscaster explains that pirate broadcasts of "The Howard & Eli Show" have been interrupting regular broadcasts. He is interrupted by one of these broadcasts. The show is a cable-access level show in which Howard and Eli tell bad jokes, show snuff films sent in by their viewers, and torture their guests. In "Wilbur," a boy gets bitten by his toy while his mother looks on, smiling. In "Electric Chair," an ex-sheriff who felt cheated by the fact he'd never witnessed an execution electrocutes someone he kidnapped. In "Pizza Boy," three friends who enjoy the Howard & Eli Show are annoyed by how only kills of women by men are shown. They decide a killing of a man by women would be nice. This segment definitely drags, with some odd slow-motion video effects of dancing. In "The Best Of" an announcer lists the scenes that will be available in Video Violence 2 (they're not available in this movie, which is actually titled Video Violence Two). As he does this, scenes of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Norman Bates entering a woman's shower to kill a woman are shown. Norman doesn't fare as well, since the woman that time has a handgun with her in the shower. In "The Video Studio," an out-of-town woman wants to rent three horror movies (including Funeral Home, and the first Video Violence). They'd rather show her how well their shrink-wrap machine works. In "Deli Dick's", the host displays how a certain slicer works on a woman who's come for a job.

Interspersed with this, a woman has come to Howard and Eli's studio under the impression that she's auditioning for a horror movie. They tie her up and mutilate her, to their great amusement. There's a bit of a twist on this towards the end. There are also station IDs for "W.G.O.R.!... yuck!" under which other short scenes of bondage or torture appear that are fairly creepy.

Finally, Howard and Eli receive a tape that appears to be from two of their victims from the first movie, that threatens that they will come to the studio and kill everyone. After the end credits a Video Violence 3 is promised, but that does not seem to have ever happened.

The movie was shot with a very poor video camera, and the picture quality is fairly bad. This actually works in its favor, since it is supposed to be a pirate broadcast of homemade movies. It does manage to be fairly unpleasant.

Both this and the first VV bear the grinning picture of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs and the note "Approved by Bob Dobbs - Used by permission of The Church of the SubGenius" I don't know if anyone associated with the Church was actually affiliated with the movie, but of course SubGenii do appreciate Great Badfilm.