Back in the late 1980’s a group of horror/action loving teens- David Wilkinson, his brother Eric, and their friend Joseph Shaughnessy- got together to make their tribute to the slasher & action films they loved- and what came out of it was the first Violence movie, followed shortly by the second. Both films where short- shoot on video affairs- the first coming in at fourteen minutes, and the second at nineteen minutes.  Why you may ask would anyone, aside from friends & family of the group, want to watch a group of teens dicking around with a video camera?!…well, aside from the clear micro-budget of both films- the collective managed to create two eventful & fairly creatively gory short films- which at times are as good as some of the ‘films’ that appeared under the slasher genre in the 80’s.

The first films sees a dangerous/ psychotic prisoner escape- he first puts on a Freddy mask, then later a hockey mask- and attacks a young man in his house. We get some impressive effects-including fingers sliced off, hand hackings, and various slashed chest wounds. The second film starts off with the victim from the first film, having flashbacks to the first film- then once again getting stalked by another( possibly the same) escapee- this time we get the hockey mask from the begin( with a painted on slash!)- and this time we get more lo-fi stunt action, like the killer dragged behind a car, on roof fight, hand through face attack, and lopped of limbs.

For this new presentation of both films, you get new pro looking credits- and of course the  Manfredini scores, which all add a touch of polish to the films. The scores are fairly typical of other Manfredini scores I’ve heard, and in particularly the F13 scores- but that’s really to be expected

Extras wise you get commentaries on both films from the Wilkinson brothers, and Shaughnessy. As well as the abandoned The Violence Movie 3, plus original paper credits, filming off new elements, cutscenes for both parts 1 & 2. 

As a horror loving teen in the 1980’s I always longingly dreamed of making my own film- of course, I never did, but it’s great to see that someone did.  And as I said early-on, both films here are surprisingly good- so if you’re a long-in-tooth slasher fan from the 1980’s, this DVD will certainly bring back fond memories of that time.