The Films (2/5 - Average Score)

     I first came across the Violent Shit films 20 years ago, when ordering the first 2 films via postal money order from the back of a Fangoria Magazine.  The films came through on their promise of well...Violent Shit, and being 14 at the time all I needed in a film was scenes of random violence, occasional nudity, and a killer in a memorable mask. Violent Shit, and it's sequel delivered on all 3, and put its director Andreas Schnaas on my personal cinematic map.

     A few years later when I was a film student in college I was surprised to have Schnaas' Nikos The Impaler shown at my school with FX artist Marcus Koch doing a Q &A afterward. Aside from that, it has been about 15 years since my last Violent Shit (film) experience, and now the folks at Synapse Films have chosen to bring the 4 films in the sequence to DVD (They shot on an SD format, making Blu-ray unnecessary). As a bonus to Schnaas fans they also included the directors 1990 film Zombie '90: Extreme Pestilence.

    The films are fairly straightforward. The first sees Karl the Butcher Shitter escape from the cops 20 years after killing his Mother, and go on a woodlands killing spree. After his spree reaches his climax, he dies. The 2nd film (Violent Shit II: Mother Hold My Hand, these titles are great) takes place 20 years later and features Karl the Butcher Jr. who looks remarkably like Karl The Butcher (they're both played by Schnaas himself). Jr. goes on a killing spree in honor of his Father after receiving a birthday machete from his Mother, who he has an incestual relationship with. The third film (Violent Shit 3: Infantry of Doom) sees Father and Son go on an island based killing spree. The fourth film (Karl the Butcher vs. Axe) is co-directed by Timo Rose who also plays Axe. It sees Karl the Butcher Jr. return from Hell to take on a serial killing nemesis and show him who is boss.

   The first 3 films share the same basic problems. They are as low budget, as low budget gore films get. They are slow and clunky, and exist to show off cheap gore, and occasional extreme nudity (there is a whole sequence in VS: II where Jr stares directly at a woman's genitalia for well over a minute).  They have bad dialogue, and are hampered by ridiculous attempts at occasional humor.

    That being said I do understand why the films exist. Censorship laws in Germany in the 80's and 90's were some of the most strict in the world, and as such horror fans were not able to watch the films they loved. In response they created their own. Sometimes this worked out and created some truly classic work (I will defend the Buttgereit films to my grave), and some times it created stuff like Violent Shit, which are exactly what they advertise. The films do fortunately improve both in style, and flow with each entry. The gore FX also improve so while normally the first entry in a series is considered the best, each respective Violent Shit could almost be considered a more refined version of the concept improving on what the last did. We also get Zombie '90: Extreme Pestilence made between Violent Shit 1 and 2. This film feels like what if Lucio Fulci made his films on video, without any style or imagination.

Audio/Video (2/5 - Average Score)

    The first and fourth films are presented 1:78:1, Zombie '90 is 1:33:1, and the second and third are presented in 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen where applicable. The fourth film shot digitally in 2009 obviously looks the best with decent flesh tones, solid blacks and colors that are mostly stable. Detail for  the fourth film are alright. The rest of the films were shot on VHS and look it. The image for these vary greatly, and are mostly flat with very little depth, colors are muted, and the image is at times blocky.

    Audio is presented in Germany 2.0 Stereo for 4 of the films (including Zombie '90), and English 2.0 for VS 4. The tracks for VS 1-3 and Zombie '90 are pretty subpar with dialogue barley audible and muddy, so I'm thankful for the subs. VS 4 fares a bit better, but doesn't have an optional subtitles option.

Extras (2/5)

   Extras include Zombie '90, a booklet of liner notes by Ted Geohegan (We Are Still Here), BTS footage from VS IV, Premiere footage from VS IV, a teaser and trailer for that film as well.

Overall

    Well, with Violent Shit what you get is all in the title. Unfortunately, there is not much more to them than that. If Violent Shit is what you're looking for you get 4 films in one 3 disc set, plus an extra Andreas Schnaas film in Zombie '90. There are some light extras pertaining to Violent Shit IV, but that is all. This one is rental material, if you can find a place to rent it.