I fully expect to be lambasted for enjoying this one, but to quote a famous Hollywood groomer’s wedding vows: “The heart wants what the heart wants.” I already featured an SOV (shot-on-video) flick this year, as is tradition, but that didn’t count because I had no idea it was shot on video until I started watching it. Besides, I prefer it when an SOV flick is shot on consumer grade camcorders. I want to see normal people (as in not in the movie business) shoot a movie that’s simply not fit for polite society.
The original film movie, which director Gary P. Cohen claims had a budget of six dollars, satirized the low budget gore movies which emerged to fill the shelves of budding video rental stores. Like Tobe Hooper, who doubled down on the humor of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in its considerably goofier sequel, Cohen doubles down so that the satire is a little more obvious. Riffing on the fact that so many of these types of movies get off on torturing helpless starlets, Cohen at one point flips the script by having a trio of college girls call a pizza boy to party with them before hacking him up into pieces. It’s a little meta, a little refreshing, but kind of pointless when Cohen still indulges in those scenes in the very same movie.
My favorite kind of horror sequel gives us more of the same style in an entirely different setting. Video Violence 2 is one such example, trading the small town charm of the first movie for a pirate broadcast called The Howard + Eli Show. Howard and Eli, and their dimwitted electronic keyboardist, watch and review snuff tapes sent to them by viewers. The outlaw producers of the show supposedly overpower the local news signal, showing instead their uncensored gore, which includes underground commercials and the kind of punny stand-up comedy that could make even the Cryptkeeper roll his eyes.
So why, then, does the movie open with a vampire slaying that turns out to be a movie within a movie? Is it supposed to be one of the user submitted tapes to the show? I don’t know. Neither do I know why the ending devolves into a series of exceedingly confusing events—confusing not because they’re hard to follow, but hard to see how Cohen (or any human being) could conceive of them.
Though it’s not quite as charming as the original, it’s a worthy sequel, provided you like this kind of shit, and it’s got a bitchin’ box cover. 27 out of 10 stars. Fuck it.
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