Video Violence

Video violence is an American horror film co-written by Gay Cohen and Paul Kaye. It was produced in 1987 by Gary Cohen and distributed by Camp Video. The video was filmed using Video Home System camera and it featured Gary Schwarz and Chick Kaplan.

The Inspiration for the Violence Video

The film essentially was inspired by the experience a couple had while trying to set up and run a video rental shop in a town made up of mostly psychopaths. The psychopaths has an obsession with self-produced horror films of actual violent killings. The victims are predominantly non-residents of the city or any citizen who had run afoul of their warped but unwritten rules. These unfortunate ones usually were citizens who were trying to escape the sickening horror of psychopathic violence in the town by leaving the close-tied killer groups. The town in question is Frenchtown, a rural community located along the banks of the Delaware River in New Jersey.

The Plot of the Video Violence

A couple, Steve and Rachel Emory, relocated from New York to this town hoping to build a new life for themselves only to be confronted with the horror of the psychopathic violence of a town plagued by sick gangs of killers. Steve had left his position of managing a movie theatre while his wife resigned her position in a law firm. Steven opened a video rental shop while Rachel joined a local courthouse in the town. The story begins when Steve discovers a tape that wasn’t properly positioned on the drop box.

Along with his assistant they decide to watch the film only to discover that it was a videotaped killing of the recently retired village postman. The retired postman was identified by Steve’s assistant who swore to the identity of the victim. The postman had been gaged, tied and then slashed to death. The retired postman was not even supposed to be in the town. According to reports, he had moved to Florida after his retirement.

The homicidal madmen were actually two apparently good natured residents of the village; Howard and Eli. Meanwhile this gory video tape is the same tape that was supposedly returned by a car owner some time ago. Steve decides to report the matter to the police. He asks the assistant to hide, locks up the store with a closed sign and heads off on foot to the police station. On hearing the story, the police chief seems sceptical of the veracity of Steve’s story but decides to go with him to check but the assistant had left with the video but left the money behind.