Video Violence (1987)- Gary Schwartz

Director: Gary P. Cohen

Stars: Gary Schwartz, Chick Kaplan and Robin Leeds

Genre: Horror

MPAA Rating:

Running Time: 90 Mins

Tagline: "When renting is not enough"

It all began last week Friday when I had the urge to watch a cheesy horror movie. I checked my collection to fulfill this weird urge I had , and In the process I noticed I hadn’t opened my box set of “The Basement”. This boxset which resembled an oversized VHS tape box included a collection of long forgotten and unknown horror flicks on DVD. Of all the movies in the set, I ended up watching a flick titled Video Violence. To my amaze I actually enjoyed this movie, at least I took it for it was: an over the top/corny/and satirical horror movie about excessive violence on films.

The central plot of Video Violence is of a video store owner and his wife trying to convince authorities that gruesome acts of violence are being committed by local residents.  It all commences when the owner of the store receives a tape depicting how one of his employees got brutally murdered while being recorded on camera. The owner attempts to contact the police and demonstrate the evidence of the horrific act. Curiously something always happens along the way that prevents him from proving his claims. I will only mention one the things that happnens, in one of instances, the local sherriff accidentally erases the content in the tape leaving the owner without any proof. Incidentally, the police don’t take him seriously and belive his story is made up do to the lack of evidence. So he is left with little choice but take matters into his own hands.

Along with the owner is his wife, who tries to help her husband prove the validity of his claims.  She notices a trend in the town’s residents: they all come to the video store to rent graphic horror movies instead of a comedy or a drama. This leads her to believe that there is a connection between the movies and the gruesome acts of violence being committed. Without ruining the rest of the movie, the owners eventually get the answers they want…and I will say that the end result is hysterical/satirical/ and exaggerated conclusion. But, curiously enough it works quite well in this movie….in a bizarre sort of way.

In it's totality, this is by no means a great movie; it’s actually very silly and over-the-top. What makes the film work is the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The director of this movie knew exactly what he wanted to do and it works in that bizarre/satirical sort of way. If you are interested in viewing the film I will leave a video below with the full movie along with the trailer. However, if you want to purchase the actual movie you can do so by clicking the link above in the introductory paragraph. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this review, and please don’t forget to comment below.