Keeping violence off the street and on the screen, where it belongs.

There’s a small video store in Brooklyn that used to get a lot of business. It’s not so popular now that everyone has Netflix, but back in its prime, there were always people there to grab a few videos and flirt with Ilsa behind the counter.

Lefty ran the store, an old British man with buttons on his jacket for American exploitation movies. He was known for recommending movies to his patrons, and being so persuasive that they’d generally end up renting what he was pushing. This was especially strange since what he was pushing was generally Cannibal Holocaust or I Spit On Your Grave.

Lefty (and Ilsa) were strong believers in the power of cinematic catharsis. Their blood boiled whenever someone blamed an act of violence on a movie, or tried to ban one to protect the children. Violent movies helped people, they argued, letting them work out their frustrations on screen in stead of in the real world.

I’m not sure which of them cast the ritual, or what exactly it was. All I know is that anyone who watched one of their favorite gore flicks was one hell of a lot less likely to think of violence in their daily lives. When they opened, the store was in the worst part of Brooklyn. Now it’s still shitty, but you don’t see the kind of crimes of passion you used to get, and there aren’t quite as many gangs.

The Video Nasties (as they called themselves) didn’t have the things Mak Attax had to keep them going- a large network, hundreds of workers, or a product that would never go out of demand. Ilsa’s at graduate school now, and the store is fighting bankruptcy. But if you go there, say hi to Lefty for me. He changed my life just by giving me a copy of Blood Feast.