Video Violence 2

Video Violence has some hilarious scenes and a great premise, but it largely fails to deliver. Although a lot of enthusiasm clearly went into it, it suffers from significant problems with its pacing and writing. However, it benefits from some energetic performances.

The film consists of an episode of a new show by Howard and Eli, murderers who like to broadcast their killings, and tapes of killings sent in. The film does not have a plot so much as it goes from one kill scene to another. This is not all bad, as there are some interesting kills.

The problem is that the film also have a large amount of filler to get it up to barely feature length. Some of the murders drag out with too much dialogue, and not very good dialogue at that. The only thing that keeps this from a lower score is the enthusiasm of some of the performers, particularly the guys who play Howard and Eli. They know not to take this too seriously and ham it up.

Man the plot and acting for this movie absolutely suck. However, I can say that the acting is so bad its funny, in a campy sort of way. However, the saving point of this film is the kills, which are actually somewhat creative and extremely gory (as well as fairly realistic). Not bad work for a film with what looks like a $2,000 budget.

The main murdering duo of the first film, Howard and Eli, now seem to have a pirate public access show filmed from a hidden location which is just the device they need to showcase bloody kills, without having to deal with the pesky little thing called plot (yea the first one's was stenuas at best, but it DID have one). Still that's not really a detriment of a movie like this & with a running time shorter then the first by almost half an hour (more if you subtract the time this one spends on clips from the first), it's not hard to sit through. And this film is a mild improvement to the first in regards to the acting as well as the special effects. However it just doesn't all jibe as well as the original. A movie full of black humor that I enjoyed a lot more. This one is still worth a view though, i guess.

My Grade: D+

DVD Extras: Audio commentary by Director/ writer Gary Cohen, Special effects men Mark Dolsom & Mark Kwiatek, and actors Art Neill, Paul Kay, David Christopher, & Uke; 15 minute interview with Cohen; and Trailers for Video Violence 1, Video Violence 2, Cannibal Campout, Woodchipper Massacre, & Ghoul School (the DVD also comes with the first video Volence film on the same disc)

In the prologue, a woman enters a vampire's tomb to stake him in the heart. After she does, she withdraws the stake, with the bloody beating heart on it. She's about to lick or bite it when she says she can't - she's on a movie set. The director and crew are annoyed and stake her in the heart for real, drawing her heart out of her body.

That's right, this is a black comedy about snuff films!

A newscaster explains that pirate broadcasts of "The Howard & Eli Show" have been interrupting regular broadcasts. He is interrupted by one of these broadcasts. The show is a cable-access level show in which Howard and Eli tell bad jokes, show snuff films sent in by their viewers, and torture their guests. In "Wilbur," a boy gets bitten by his toy while his mother looks on, smiling. In "Electric Chair," an ex-sheriff who felt cheated by the fact he'd never witnessed an execution electrocutes someone he kidnapped. In "Pizza Boy," three friends who enjoy the Howard & Eli Show are annoyed by how only kills of women by men are shown. They decide a killing of a man by women would be nice. This segment definitely drags, with some odd slow-motion video effects of dancing. In "The Best Of" an announcer lists the scenes that will be available in Video Violence 2 (they're not available in this movie, which is actually titled Video Violence Two). As he does this, scenes of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Norman Bates entering a woman's shower to kill a woman are shown. Norman doesn't fare as well, since the woman that time has a handgun with her in the shower. In "The Video Studio," an out-of-town woman wants to rent three horror movies (including Funeral Home, and the first Video Violence). They'd rather show her how well their shrink-wrap machine works. In "Deli Dick's", the host displays how a certain slicer works on a woman who's come for a job.

Interspersed with this, a woman has come to Howard and Eli's studio under the impression that she's auditioning for a horror movie. They tie her up and mutilate her, to their great amusement. There's a bit of a twist on this towards the end. There are also station IDs for "W.G.O.R.!... yuck!" under which other short scenes of bondage or torture appear that are fairly creepy.

Finally, Howard and Eli receive a tape that appears to be from two of their victims from the first movie, that threatens that they will come to the studio and kill everyone. After the end credits a Video Violence 3 is promised, but that does not seem to have ever happened.

The movie was shot with a very poor video camera, and the picture quality is fairly bad. This actually works in its favor, since it is supposed to be a pirate broadcast of homemade movies. It does manage to be fairly unpleasant.

Both this and the first VV bear the grinning picture of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs and the note "Approved by Bob Dobbs - Used by permission of The Church of the SubGenius" I don't know if anyone associated with the Church was actually affiliated with the movie, but of course SubGenii do appreciate Great Badfilm.

This video, shot on camcorder is a lot of good campy fun. It's not for the weak of heart or the easily offended but is a fun bad movie.

It features a couple guys who host a late night pirated tv show featuring snuff videos their fans send in (they even have an in-studio band). Kind of America's Funniest Home Videos on crack.

I loved it, my wife was offended, so I guess it's one of those videos you either love or hate...if you're looking for something different and totally sick, check this out...if you want acting, production values and plot, go rent "Titanic" for the 100th time...