Category: Film Reviews
Tags: Video Nasties

“Only an idiot would be taken in by this nonsense. That’s what the DPP were – idiots.” (Alan Jones)

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide box set is the ultimate 3- disc overview of the scandalous impact that low- budjet, trashy movies had on British society. The first disk includes the essential documentary VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE, which analyses the controversy once again. In the early eighties, a major shift occured in home entertainment in the UK. For the first time, people had the technology to bring movies in their own home. It was the video revolution and VHS was the dominant format. In those pre- torrent, pre- Blockbuster days, you could rent or buy videos from gas stations or small shops. Among the films that were suddenly available, one could find a new breed of horror movie. Those films were far more sadistic and gory than in the past (and the often grainy VHS image quality made them look even more unpleasant) and took full advantage of the lax regulations of the video era to advertise themselves. That meant lurid, gory covers and blurbs that warned of unspeacable violence in the video casette box. For example, you could walk into a corner shop somewhere in the UK and be confronted with this charming image:

As you can imagine, it wasn’t long before the establishement noticed. The Government was swamped with riots, a high crime- rate and the Faulklands mess and needed a clear cause to win voters with. Disreputable horror movies and their effects on children seemed ideal. As a result, a huge campaign took root against these so- called “video nasties”. This moral panic was boosted by various politicians, police chiefs, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) the usual rightwing tabloids (The Daily Mail,etc..) and the tireless moral guardian, Mary Whitehouse. Whitehouse was a personal friend of Margaret Thatcher and- by the time of her deat in 2001- she had spent decades campaigning against various things that she perceived to be damaging to society, such as Doctor Who, pornography, homosexuality in general, etc,etc.. (in fact, she angered a porn publisher so much that they named a porn magazine after her). She attacked horor films with ferocity and lobbied for their banning.

It worked. The media whipped up a storm and, as a result of  the hysteria, a number of films were essentially blacklisted and banned under the Obscene Publications Act. Any outlet that sold or rented them was liable for prosecution, which meant that you could go to jail for renting a copy of The Evil Dead. Shop owners had their whole videotape stock confiscated by the police, who then had to spend countless hours watching the “evidence”, instead of hunting criminals or something. The offending horror films were burned Nazi- style.

The colossal stupidity of those moral guardians cannot be overstated. During the course of Jake West’s documentary, people like author and film critic Kim Newman, Alan Jones, director neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Centurion), the writer Martin Barker (one of the few people who stood against the moral crusaders at the time), human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson and others analyse the debacle. They offer witty observations, explain how the conservatives used non- existant research and faked statistics to prove their point and effectively destroy the argument that banning films should be acceptable in a democracy.

But the most revealing moments are with those who tried to do the banning. Footage of Mary Whitehouse in various talk shows, saying she has never actually watched any of the films she is trying to censor. Former Tory MP Graham Bright, claiming that video nasties were “evil” and that some were probably real snuff films. Priests, reporters and Conservative MPs, scoffing at the concept of civil liberties and spreading missinformation. Scared non- entities. Fascists of the mind.

These days, the whole affair seems like a joke and it’s easy to forget that many people’s lives were destroyed. However, the important thing is to never forget. The question is not whether Last House on the Left is a good film (I find it boring, badly directed and hypocritical). The point is that any adult should have the right to watch it and make up their own mind. It’s always the same arguments with these things. Those who want to control us always approach the issue at hand as a contagion. Something that you need to be protected from for your own good (50s horror comics? Video Nasties? Transgressive art? Pornography?). By the time you fight them on one issue, they ‘ve moved on to their next campaign (immigration, gay rights etc..). Like one of the commentators says, those moral guardians were so clueless that they thought that the content of those films was real. And that is scarier than any horror movie.

The remaining two discs are where all the fun is at. They contain a brief commentary and the trailer for each one of the films that were on the BBFC’s infamous list (we are talking 73 films here, so the whole thing lasts for hours and hours). I cannot stress how awesome this is. Some of the films are cult classics (Inferno, The Evil Dead, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, Driller Killer, Tenebrae, Dead & Buried, The Beyond), some are problematic but important (I Spit On Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, Last House On The Left) and some are gross, sadistic rubbish (eg, anything that involves Nazi camp orgies). The intros by the talking heads of the documentary are splendidly entertaining and informative, eviscerating the bad films and extolling the virtues of the good ones. And the trailers are hilarious. Imagine those trailers that Tarantino, Rodriguez et al., did for their Grindhouse double bill, but for real. If you are a horror or B- movie connoseur, this stuff is the holy grail.

Video Nasties is an awesome piece of work and a reminder of why we should never surrender our civic liberties. It’s also countless hours of fun if you are in the mood. Highly recommended.

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

About the Author: CnB