Video Violence

Steven Emory has just moved with his wife from New York to open a small video rental store on in the middle of nowhere. One day his only employee discovers a unlabeled tape in a returned video case. Curiosity gets the better of them, so while the store's empty they choose to pop it in and watch. It's a horrid snuff film so Steven runs to the police station and tries to talk the chief into checking it out. Upon his return to the store, cop in tow, he finds that the video has been switched & his employee missing. How far will he go to find out what really happened? What this extremely low-budget shot on video movie lacks in anything that usually constitutes a 'good' film (acting, production values of any kind, etcetera), it more than makes up for in story and heart. It's funny and for the most part enjoyable. For optimum viewing pleasure enjoy with some alcoholic beverage of your choice and a few like-minded friends. If you liked "pieces" or "2000 Maniacs", you'll more then likely enjoy this too.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Audio commentary by Director/ writer Gary Cohen, Special effects men Mark Dolsom & Mark Kwiatek, and actors Art Neill, Paul Kay, David Christopher, & Uke; 15 minute interview with Cohen; and Trailers for Video Violence 1, Video Violence 2, Cannibal Campout, Woodchipper Massacre, & Ghoul School (the DVD also comes with the sequel to this film on the same disc)

I worked as a video clerk when I was a high school junior and, being the horror junkie that I am, I had access to a ton of movies. Every Saturday night I'd pick up a few obscure titles to bring home for the weekend and gorge myself on popcorn. Video Violence was one such film, and I loved it. Pleasingly cheesy and ultra-low budget, filmed in my homestate, and so horribly acted, it was perfect!! Husband and wife move to small town to run video store, where the locals only rent horror movies and the occasional porno. Someone unseen starts slipping homemade snuff films into the store and the husband investigates. Borrowing some from RACE WITH THE DEVIL aside, I really enjoyed this movie, as well as the sequel. Howard & Eli are over the top and the whole feel of the movie is such camp it's classic. I would say if you haven't seen it check it out.

Alright....so the story was kind of goofy.....so the movie was filmed with a home video camera....so the actors were wooden...WHO CARES??? Did you not see the video box?? I didn't expect much when I rented this...and that is what i got. If you have 90 minutes to spare, than rent this piece of crap. It's really kind of funny. The '80's styles are funny enough...but what really got me was the fact that the main characters were SHOCKED that everyone in town actually OWNED a VCR! The times they are a'changing....

Alright, I hafta give it to you folks straight. This movie is no good. Just plain rotten. Even by my standards, and I've endured 100's of hours of crap films at least. Here goes:

shot on camcorder? check actors recruited from local laundromat? check ketchup gore and mannequin appendages? check. unbearably long? check. takes itself very seriously? check. bad time guaranteed? oh check.

Forget Ed Wood, H.G. Lewis, Joel Reed, all them guys.. Gary Cohen puts em all to shame with this garbage. I can recommend it only for the true cinema masochist. Alternates to watching this film:

give yourslf a thousand paper cuts. on your tongue. and then wash it all down with tobasco.

treat yourself to a corn syrup enema.

shoot yourself in the face.

Any one of these activities is preferable to enduring this wretched, bloated corpse of a video for a second time. The first time was bad enough..

Go rent it.

A couple movies to a strange little town and open up their own video rental. It seems like the whole town only wants to rent horror movies.

The residents of this strange small community always seem to replace the rental tapes with their own homemade snuff films.

It seems the whole town is in on this trend.

I can't say that this is a good film. However having been born in the 1980s I like to see all the old VHS boxes and remember the good old days of going to the video store and browsing numerous titles. Something that was lost in the DVD age and one of the things that lead to the downfall of the video rental.