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.

dagon256 this movie is one of the worst low budget films ever spawn from the void. I going to review by going into 3 categories, plot, effects, and finally sound, Plot= let me tell you something, if your plot is worse then Mano's the hands of fate then one you have no skills at all or two you need help. their is no plot to really discuss because its so badly writing that a semi-brain dead hamster would do better then this crap.Effects= the effects in this movie are dreadful, the blood is funny looking like a grade school kid whipped it up, the gory is distasteful,not that I don't like cheap gory its just this is worst then a high school version of hamlet, its really laughable.Sound= not much for sound really, but the score is nonexistent, literary! so if you see this spawn of Satan on a video store rack, please do as all a good deed and burn it with a flamethrower!

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.

Woodyanders Steven Emory (the affable Art Neill) runs a video rental outlet in a sleepy small New Jersey town. The unfriendly locals frequently watch gruesome horror movies. One day a customer leaves behind a videocassette with what appears to be an actual real filmed murder on it. When Steven decides to investigate matters on his own, he finds both himself and his loyal wife Rachel (the charming Jackie Neill) in considerable jeopardy. Director/co-writer Gary Cohen concocts a novel and involving story which puts a fresh and disturbing 80's VHS mania spin on the ever creepy and effective snuff movie premise. Moreover, Cohen does a good job of creating a bleak, mean-spirited tone and pours on the hideously nasty graphic gore with unflinching abandon. Philip Gary's competent cinematography likewise does the trick. The game no-name cast all give decent performances; Bart Sumner and Uke ham it up with infectiously depraved aplomb as joyfully deranged wackos Howard and Eli. The surprise bummer ending concludes things on a pleasingly nihilistic note. Only the often plodding pace and one of those irritating overbearing and monotonous synthesizer scores detract a bit from this otherwise solid and satisfying micro-budget shot-on-video splatter winner.