Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

MisterWhiplash This is some kind of schlock madterpiece. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the wild entertainment and at the same time genuine raw power on display is that Gary Cohen has a real satirical point to make. We do live in an American hyper-violent culture, and there is less and less real cinephilia among regular "folks" in towns like the quasi-suburban Jersey place that the main characters (one a former movie theater owent the other with a good office job in New York City). Why get the Woody Allen or a classic Abbot & Costello when you can watch some hapless transients (or, yknow, people that just want to leave and do other things with their lives) get tortured and slaughtered in disgusting displays of carnage? At its core, it's not just about violence but about what kind of society we want to live in.But one must not discount the schlock part, at least to the extent that Cohen is trying for it. What I mean is he has his cast of people who may or may not have limited acting experience or training, but as far as local people available it has that same realism one might see in The Florida Project. You believe without question that guy works at the deli or even the local sheriff or deputy or whoever the discount M Emmett Walsh is who discounts everything the video store owner claims as BS. So when people do make really ridiculous and over the top facial expressions, you can't help but laugh. It's hard to say how much of this is genuinely funny or unintentionally so, but I was pleased by how much was in the former category. Cohen is after the overvlown and even silly in some of these violent set pieces... Other times, in partucular the female hitchhiker, the violence is shocking more for the lead up and how it's first about sexual humiliation and that the objects of the slicing and stabbing involve breasts. It's also that, unlike say Meir Zarchi in I Spit on Your Grave (or dare I say Craven with Last House on the Left), Cohen is an effective filmmaker who knows how to use time and pacing to draw out suspense and eerie foreboding. I even got into the musical score, all in synth but all done for an approximate, chilling effect in scene after scene.And I'm not arguing this is some great piece of art. It's what Brad Jones would call a "Shot on S***eo" product, where's it's totally crude and proud of it. Matter of fact. I'm not sure if by the end it finds more to say than 'eh, screw it, let go and accept how violent as hell this is." But I really appreciate that there *is* thought put into it, that Cohen's protagonist is someone that isn't completely again st all violence in movies but just when it is ALL people watch (with the occasional porn of course). He is even I found kind of a sympathetic guy, one who we know will have to meet a tragic fate but is only, oh, 20 to 25% deserving of it. Of course for some that may vary. The point I'm making is a movie called Video Violence shot with a budget that was likely literally from the change one finds under the car seats, didnt have to try this hard as far as attention to staging and characters and even damn mis en scene, but it did. For what it set out to do, it's a miracle it works and has such a potent sense of how everyone is shaped by that filter of "it's only a movie." It's like a less polished Twilight Zone episode at its best, and high grade trash at its worst.

HumanoidOfFlesh Steve and Rachel move from New York to a small town.Steve runs a movie rental store and noticed the people in the town are obsessed with violent slasher flicks.One day someone accidentally returns a video of a real life murder.Can it be real or is someone just playing a joke on the towns new residents.They will soon find out and the blood will be shed.It seems that the entire town is involved with psychotic serial killers Howard and Eli in a craven conspiracy to create and distribute their own snuff films.When I was a kid I loved renting tons of gory horror from various rental palaces.Horror is still my life and I'm damn proud of it."Video Violence" is loaded with cheesy gore,crappy acting and nudity.It brings sweet memories of my gore-soaked childhood.6 out of 10.

gorehoundscrimm 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.

djnrg Yes, this movie is _very_ low budget, and probably was filmed with a regular video camera, the movie was great. Very bloody and senseless killing was the plot, but the characters with no personality made you laugh when you saw them act. Seems like someone wanted to make a movie and used their friends and relatives.I was the manager of a video store at the time when a traveling distributor asked to me buy this movie. He described the plot and since I have had so many different tapes accidentally switched when they dropped them off, I thought it would be a great reality check. I bought it for the store, it rented maybe 10 times, and then I pulled it and kept it for myself. Truly a cult classic. Could it happen in your store?? Keep an eye on that nightdrop!!