DVD Review: The Violence Movie (1988)

A deranged, shades sportin’, killer (David Wilkinson) on the lam walks right on into the home of a teen named Joey (Joseph Shaughnessy) like the mother fuckin’ cool breeze he is. While there he dons a Freddy Kruger mask and waits for J-man to get home…which when said event occurs leads to a full on WWE style brawl that nothing can stop (the sound effects alone are worth whatever you pay for this DVD)…not even the arrival of Joey’s friend (How do we know he’s our hero’s friend? Why he announces “Hey Joe, it’s me your best friend!” before he gets his throat slashed). Will Joey survive this epic confrontation? (Actually this shit is going to be spoiled for you in like another paragraph or so, so you have been warned)
Running a stately 14 minutes, The Violence Movie is a bargain basement gore packed de-fuckin’-light! It’s shot right on a VHS camcorder, and is nothing more than some slasher obsessed teenagers assing around, but man-oh-man does it ever entertain…and seeing as it runs so short, it’s all killer (literally) no filler!
But wait…you say a 14 minute feature won’t provide enough bang for your buck? Well, fret not my faithful fiends, ‘cuz those heroes at MVD have included a second pulse pounding feature, and this bad bitch runs 19 minutes! Of course it’s the inevitable The Violence Movie 2!
Joey returns, and he is plagued by nightmares of the events of The Violence Movie. Of course the nightmare becomes reality as the killer from Joey’s dreams escapes his confinement and begins pursuing our hero once again. But this time things are different…the killer dons a hockey mask this go around (to be fair, he did this as well in the finale of the first frightful feature), and the battle rages for an extra 5 minutes…it’s like night and day I tells ya! Also of note, they film makers really upped their ante with the use of the dummy killer stand in this go around, and the news caster’s (played by Writer/Director Eric Wilkinson…who also essayed the role of the best friend in the previous effort) mullet has to be seen to be believed…
Still not satisfied? Well feast your putrid peepers on the bonus content included along with our monstrous main events! First up you get uproarious commentary from Eric Wilkinson, Actor David Wilkinson (The Killer) and Michael Kahn (Actor and Motivator?!!) that really emphasizes the immense heart and humor these folks put into these features. Following that we get deleted scenes and outtakes for both features, a featurette about filming new inserts in 2003, footage from an abandoned Violence sequel (with optional commentary), the original opening credits sequences to both films, a photo gallery, and the film’s trailer.
To put a beastly bow on it; The Violence Movie is one of my favorite releases of the year…I had a smile on my face a fucking mile wide through the entire viewing, as not only was it S.O.V. fried gold (including all of the technical gaffs that entails), but it was a great time capsule of true horror hounds celebrating their love of the genre while trying to add their own contribution to it!