I reviewed the first Video Violence a while back for my collection of horror movie reviews, Bloody Book of Horror. (Available on Amazon as we speak.) That flick was all about a video store employee who found snuff movies returned in the overnight drop box. Part 2 is a natural progression of that idea. In addition, we get lots of T & A and blood and guts. Heck, there’s even a few legitimate laughs this time around. Overall, it’s a marked improvement over the original in just about every way. As low budget, shot-on-video horror films go, this is one of the best.
Two sickos jam a local cable access channel and broadcast their own demented talk show over a pirate signal. They encourage viewers to make their own snuff tapes and send them into the show with a chance of watching their videos on live TV. They also lure unsuspecting actresses on the show to “audition” for a movie, unaware that they’re actually auditioning for a snuff flick.
If Herschell Gordon Lewis was making movies in the ‘80s, I have a feeling the results would’ve looked something like Video Violence Part 2. (I mean that as a sincere compliment.) The flick opens with a great sequence where an actress working on a vampire movie complains to the director that the heart she just staked doesn’t look realistic. He then stakes her to show her what a real heart looks like.
Along the way, the film is peppered with amusing commercial breaks that deftly parody the low budget local commercials of the era. My favorite was for a pet named “Wilbur” (he looks like the love child of the Grinch and a Ghoulie) who eats a kid under the tree on Christmas morning while his mother looks on approvingly. There’s also a Ron Popeil-inspired guy who demonstrates handy kitchen implements that will help you off unwanted dinner guests.
The snuff videos themselves are really enjoyable too. An ex-cop and his ditzy wife make a homemade electric chair to fry a mugger. A group of college girls grow weary of watching horror movies where the women are helpless victims, so they decide to lure an unsuspecting pizza boy to his death. There’s also a fun sequence where an out-of-towner realizes just how hard it is to rent from a locally owned mom and pop video store. (Titles like I Spit on Your Grave, The Gore Gore Girls, and the original Video Violence are proudly on display on the shelves.)
One of the college girls gets the best line of the movie when she says the snuff TV show is, “The best thing to hit cable since Fraggle Rock!”
AKA: Video Violence Part 2: The Exploitation!
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