Scarecrow-88 Satire on our desire for the closest form of graphic bloodletting and violent carnage as possible has a NYC couple, Steven and Rachel Emory(real life married actors Art & Jackie Neill) discovering that their new town is a haven for snuff connoisseurs. These psychos, mainly loonies Eli(Uke) who grinningly hosts and camera-operator Howard(Bart Sumner), often leave their video recordings of the live murders of innocent travelers in the rental store of Steven's and as he(..and a frightened Rachel) seeks to put an end to such sickening shenanigans, finds that almost everyone(..if not everyone)is in on the sadistic misdeeds.You know perhaps video is a proper medium for a tale on the creation of snuff films, with director Gary Cohen, who is actually a pleasant and charming enough fellow on his interview for this film's DVD release, exploring the joyous nature of those who partake in slowly killing hitchhikers or lost traveling innocents just passing through. The violent gore effects are cheap and cheesy, but rather impressive if one considers the limited funds available. Head and arm sliced from the body. An ice pick slowly inserted in a victim's breast. A woman's near-entire leg being hacked from her body. You know if one really thinks about the plot, it can kind of provide an unsettling feeling..that idea that you happen to come across such deranged people as Eli and Howard who know jack squat about you, but are willing to stab you with a knife or remove your legs slowly with a machete just for the hell of it, laughing their asses off with such glee at your horror and torment. Cohen uses his film as a vehicle to explore such sadism and how seemingly normal citizens(..perhaps representing the kind of rental customers he himself had when Cohen was renting videos in the 80's)could enjoy such evil antics on screen. I think fans of horror who recall renting videos back in the 80's will have a time warp trip seeing the movie posters and VHS tape boxes lining the shelves in 1987. Disregarding the acting, performed by no-names, amateur production values, and rather poor camera-work(..and the loud piano used producing the score), horror fans with tastes for such an unpleasant storyline might dig "Video Violence." There's an especially disturbing film sent to the Emory's titled, The Vampire and his Bride, which depicts an unfortunate actress suckered into a video production not knowing that her stomach would be torn open by a knife with her guts removed by a local would-be actor portraying a blood-sucker.

The_Void Snuff movies are a proved source of interesting horror plot lines and many successful horror movies have used that basis; The Last House on Dead-End Street and Tesis are good examples. Video Violence certainly has the capacity to be another excellent snuff movie based film; but down to a lack of budget and a lack of talent, the film is unfortunately little more than a nostalgic slice of eighties kitsch. It's completely obvious what the filmmakers were trying to do here and despite the fact that the points the film tries to make never really get across; the filmmakers do get some credit for at least trying to make a movie with a point. The plot focuses on a video store ran by a man named Steven. Steven is disturbed by the fact that all the locals seem to want to watch is gory horror movies (though that's all he has in stock judging by the shelves). One day, he finds a blank tape in the drop box and after being convinced to watch it by his employee, he discovers that the tape contains a "real" snuff film and naturally decides to take it to the police...It would seem that the makers of Video Violence set out to make the film as long as it could be possibly be; and ninety six minutes is quite a long time for this film to be on for; especially considering that most of the running time is used by completely pointless filler scenes. The pace of the film is very slow indeed and there is literally no suspense at all throughout the whole film. The characters are impossible to care and that is mostly down to the atrocious script and acting. You would expect bad acting in a film like this; but I can't understand why they clearly went out to cast the worst actors possible. I'm pretty sure you could drag a load of random people off the street and end up with a better cast. However, despite the many flaws; there is something good about Video Violence, and that is the nostalgia value of it all. The idea of walking into a video store and coming out with a tape is practically unthinkable now and it's good to see a film focus on something that was once an institution; seeing the films on the store's shelves and the posters on the wall is fun too. Anyone going into this film expecting a gory horror is liable to be disappointed as there's not much gore on display and what there is just looks cheap; but if you can look past the catalogue of flaws, Video Violence is almost worth a look.

MovieManiac42 I came across this film while on one of my movie hunts and decided to buy this flick because I had read it was very rare to come across. Boy am I glad I did! The film follows a couple as they are settling into a new town. The husband opens a video store and hires an assistant to work with him. As the days pass he starts to realize that all the locals in the area are only renting from the horror section. This makes him start questioning his surroundings, and to make matters worse he begins finding tapes on his desk that aren't part of his video collection. After having viewed one of the films he realizes that one, or a group, of the locals are killing tourists and video taping the murders. Our store owner takes the tapes to the police only to find that they have no interest in investigating these murders. Now he is on his own and begins to investigate the situation himself.This is probably one of the most original films I have seen in a long time. It is very low budget, but surprisingly the acting is very good. The film has a really good feel to it and you will find yourself smiling all the way through. Great piece of work.

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.