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Released by: Camp Motion Pictures
Released on: 4/10/2007
Director: Gary P. Cohen
Cast: Steve Emory, Paul Kaye, David Christopher
Year: 1980-something
The Movies:
Continuing to mine the bottom of the shot on video eighties horror-boom barrel, Pop Cinema unearths two moldy oldies that maybe should have stayed dead. Gary P. Cohen's Video Violence films try to mix comedy with low budget gore effects and shock value, but time has not been kind to this material and sadly it feels more than a little past its expiration date.
VIDEO VIOLENCE:
A young married couple named Rachel and Steve decide to say goodbye to the Big Apple and move from inner New York to a nice, quiet suburb across the river in the lovely state of New Jersey where they intend to open up a video rental store. Things are going just swimmingly until they start receiving mysterious videotapes which appear to be snuff films, or something akin to snuff films. These disturbing recordings of actual murders unnerve the couple enough that they logically go to the police to report what's happening.
For reasons that will soon be made clear to the young couple, the cops aren't all that interested in what they have to say. Before you know it, Rachel and Steve come face to face with a pair of locals named Eli and Howard, a pair of sinister maniacs that are intent on creating their own snuff film ring. If that weren't enough, it looks like everyone in town is in on it….
VIDEO VIOLENCE II:
Picking up shortly after the events portrayed in the first movie, this second film finds our two killing machines, Eli and Howard, starring in their very own cable access show. The premise? Essentially, they kill people. They encourage home viewers to play along and send in their own home movies of death and depravity, which the pair gleefully exhibit on the air. That's about it, really.
Shot on VHS with next to no budget and a cast of obvious amateurs, the Video Violence films are pretty horrible. They show some creativity in a few of the murder set pieces but most of the film they feel like poorly made knock offs of better H. G. Lewis movies, 2000 Maniacs in particular. Although the pacing is fairly quick the effects aren't very well done and the acting is about as bad as it can get. The filmmakers earn a few points for some inspired kills but that's about the nicest thing that can be levied against this pair of turkeys. They're not scary, they're not disturbing, and they're not funny - they're just bad. The very premise of the first film and its sequel is implausible enough on its own but when you throw the poorly sketched out characters into the mix and couple that with the poorly written dialogue (Was it written? Could have been improvised…) you've got a recipe for disaster. The films have their fans and there is a small but loyal audience out there for them - sadly their supposed charm was completely lost on this reviewer, these films are tedious.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.33.1 fullscreen transfer presents this shot on video bad boy in its original aspect ratio and it looks about as good as a two decade old low budget cheapie has any right to look. The picture is soft, as is the cast with most 'camcorder' productions of the era, and everything is a bit on the fuzzy side but it's perfectly watchable. Not a reference quality disc by any stretch but it's doubtful it looked any better in 1988 than it does on this DVD.
The audio is on par with the video, in terms of quality, in that it's far from perfect but it's acceptable enough when you take into account the low budget nature of the production. Dialogue is always clear and the score and effects don't sound half bad. Don't expect any alternate language dubs, subtitles or surround mixes here, all we get is the plain vanilla mono track, but it does the trick even if it's rather unremarkable.
The main supplements on this release arrive in the form of a pair of audio commentary tracks, one for each film, with director Gary P. Cohen and a few of his moviemaking cohorts. He covers the production history, casting and effects and it's reasonably interesting as there is a fair bit of jovial interplay between the participants. They all seem to have had a good time working on the project and if you dug the films, you'll probably find these two tracks worthwhile.
Aside from the commentary tracks, there's also an on camera video interview with director Gary P. Cohen entitled Violence On Video. Cohen talks very highly of his strange little movies and who doesn't seem to appreciate the criticism that these two movies have received over the years. It's moderately interesting if you're a fan of the films, and if you're not, neither the commentary tracks nor this interview will do anything to change your mind.
A few trailers and some menus round out the disc's extra features. Inside the keepcase is a booklet containing some genuinely interesting liner notes courtesy of Joseph A. Ziemba of Bleed Skull.
The Final Word:
Fans of the Video Violence films will be happy to have a respectable DVD presentation of the films in their collection. This release won't change anyone's opinions of the films or their merits but it does the best it can with some very dodgy source material.