Video Violence (1987)
Directed by Gary P. Cohen
Ah, shot on video horror. It is terrible, always, but sometimes it is the right level of bad that you just have a good time. Video Violence is a well sought after tape in the VHS collecting world, probably because of the graphic cover, but man this movie is a ride.
Video Violence is about a movie rental shop owner, that stumbles across a snuff film tape and goes to the police. They do not believe him and his coworker disappears. Soon after more weird things start happening and more snuff films are being left at his rental store. He and his wife set out to figure out what is going on and how to stop them. Will it cost them their lives?
You can tell which shot on video movies had love put into them, and this is one of them. The acting isn’t horrible, its not Tom Hanks levels but its also not Tommy Wiseau levels. The story is intriguing and I really didn’t know where it was going. The ending reall caught me off guard and was pretty well done. I love seeing all the old movie posters and vhs covers on the shelves, man I wish I had a few of those!
The special effects are actually pretty good for a low budget SOV movie. We get to see lots of cutting, stabbing, even a decapitation that is pretty decent. There is a scene where a guy lops off a dude’s arm, then slices it in a deli cutter and it looks like bologna. Not sure what happened to the bones…
Video Violence isn’t going to blow you away, so don’t expect that. If you are looking for a gory, low budget, splatter film then you will enjoy this. There is a sequel, that I now must watch haha. I give Video Violence a B-.
