Hype & Hysteria: The Gory Story Of Video Nasties
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What's a "Video Nasty"? Well according to the British MP Graham Bright who introduced the Bill that became the Video Recordings Act (VRA) in British law, a video nasty is "Mutilations of bodies. Cannibalism. Gang rape. That is what a video nasty is." Awesome! An average horror and exploitation cinema fan might say, where do get one? Well over 30 years ago in the UK after the bill was introduced into law, the only way to get a video nasty was illicitly through under-the-counter deals or via the black market, as the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) propelled by tabloid press hysteria, started banning movie after movie. Many were banned out-right, others were hacked and slashed by the censors before they were given certification for release.
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In total there were 72 what have for better or worse have become cult classics, often purely because of their addition to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) list. Many of the movies put on the list were just bad, not because they contained anything that could "morally corrupt" the nation, just that in retrospect many are just laughable low-budget cash-in trash. Some of the movies on the list have become seminal classics of horror cinema, others have all but disappeared into obscurity, sought out by only hardcore fans of horror. There are those of us in horror fandom that have managed to collect together all 72 of the movies that were placed on the list. (Holds hand up!) The history of the hysteria and hype that surrounded the "video nasties" is as bizarre as many of the movies themselves. As certain elements of the British press went on a frenzied campaign against these videos that were flooding the newly popular home video market in the UK.
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By the late 70s and early 80s, video machines were becoming a regular feature in many British homes, video shops were springing up on every street corner, and previously unavailable movies were pouring onto the shelves. Among them, among them were a number of low-budget titles with evocative names and provocatively over-the-top cover-art, like The Exterminator (1980), Driller Killer (1979), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), I Spit On Your Grave (1978), Human Experiments (1979), Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) and the infamous movie that brought a new word into the lexicon of the English language Snuff (1976).
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Daily Express, December 1980, an early article on the dangers of the movie The Exterminator.
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Daily Express, May 1982, makes reference to the now classic "video nasty" from 1976 Snuff being released in the UK on video. A movie that it was claimed, and not denied by the makers, featured "real" on-screen scenes of murder.
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In some ways the distributors of these movies sparked the fire that would soon spread across the country. In the tradition of exploitation promoters like William Castle they used grisly gimmicks , to promote their movies. In 1979 Vipco who had the distributions rights to the splatter-fest Driller Killer, took out a full page adverts in video magazines showing the cover of the video of a victim with a drill being embedded in their forehead. This resulted in a number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency. The distributors of Cannibal Holocaust, pulled an outlandish stunt that backfired, by writing a letter of complaint about their own movie to Mary Whitehouse, the lunatic Christian crusader, and president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.
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All this caught the attention of the conservative middle-class right, who along with uptight maniacs like Mary Whitehouse saw themselves as the moral guardians of British civil society. They were up in arms. Fuelled by lurid tabloid headlines, that helped to fan the flames of moral outrage. By 1982, there was an all out campaign by some quarters of the press, to have these "video nasties" as they began to be called, banned. It was the Daily Mail, an infamously right-wing reactionary daily newspaper that spear-headed the campaign to bring about legislation to stop these morally corrupting videos finding their way into people's home, and especially into the hands of the country's youth. Their campaign tag-line was "Ban The Sadist Videos". Stories started to appear almost everyday, often relating despicable crimes directly to the influence of watching video nasties. Headline after lurid headline, one salacious, sensationalised story after another, describing crimes of violence, rape and murder.
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Daily Mail, June 1983, the story claimed a teenager raped a woman after "an unremitting diet of horror videos".
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Daily Mail, July 1983, as the hysteria goes into over-drive.
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Each and everyone blamed on the corrupting influence of the perpetrator having watched video nasties before going on their criminal rampage. Utterly unsubstantiated, the claims became more and more sensationalised, as unstoppable media furore over these movies picked up pace. All without the vast majority of the morally outraged ever having bothered to rent one of these movies, and take the time to sit down and see how ridiculously stupid and laughably bad many of them were. With their buckets of gaudy gore and pathetic prosthetics, they were more slapstick than slasher.
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They claimed children as young as "six" were being damaged irreversibly by seeing the on-screen gore and sickening violence of video nasties. Why they picked on six-year-old's I'll never know, but having read article after article, six seemed to be the popular age to target. Eventually the moralising middle-England media machine got its way, and the government began to listen. And by September 1985, due the Video Recordings Act, all new releases had to be submitted for "classification", and all old releases had to be re-submitted for classification with 3 years. Before that they had to be prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, and this is where the DPP list comes into play. Since these movies first started hitting the video shops shelves, various police authorities had been making raids, under the pretext of seizing obscene material. Famously one over zealous police raid netted copies of Dolly Parton's The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (1982), in the belief that it was a porn movie. The initially secret list of movies being considered for prosecution was made public in June of 1983, at the height of the hype and hysteria over video nasties. With new movies being added every month, by the end the list ran to 72, 39 of which were prosecuted.
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Daily Mail, July 1983, claiming that the killer murdered his friend because he'd watch Zombie Flesh-Eaters and The Wanderers!!!
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Daily Mail, August 1983, the story claimed that video nasties were giving children under ten, night terrors!
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By this point most reasonable people were sick to death of the censorship circus. Even if they weren't necessarily fans of low-budget, often straight-to-video horror movies, they'd had enough of being told what they could and couldn't watch on their brand new video machine they'd just spent a small fortune on. The legislation hadn't stooped anyone who wanted to watch one of these movies getting their hands on them. Their was a very active underground pirate video network, where you could get any of the movies on the list that you wanted. Movies just for being on the list, and no other reason gained small cult followings, as the rarer (and often worst in production values) videos became the most sort after. Whispered school-yard rumours and urban legends built around others. As an adolescent growing-up in the 80s, you weren't a cool kid on the block if you hadn't at least seen Cannibal Ferox (1981), Evil Dead (1981) or Nightmares In A Damaged Brain (1981). There were always the rumours going around of someone in another class who'd seen I Spit On Your Grave (1978), as they described the infamous cock cutting scene. No one believed anyone had seen Snuff (1976), but we all believed that "snuff" films really existed. And that Face Of Death (1978) really did show scenes of torture, execution and the eating of live monkey brains.
It was a glorious moment for any kid growing up in the 80s to get a VHS tape, often devoid of labels, pass through their hands. Rushing home, hiding it under your bed, until your parents went out. Calling your mates, closing the curtains and all gathering round the TV. Slotting the tape into the machine and pressing play. The screen flickered, you adjusted the tracking, and the movie began to crackle into life. The excitement was too much to handle as you tried to make out what was going in through the snowy interference. |
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Were we "video junkies"? I most certainly was. During the 80s, apart from the odd illicit "video nasty" that passed through my hands, I avariciously consumed every top shelf horror and sci-fi title I could lay my hands on. Easily watching 3 or 4 in a session and then taking them back to next day to get more. Most of the movies and their titles are long forgotten, they were that bad. But still at the time, I relished each new title that appeared. If anything, it was the media frenzy around video nasties that came at the right time for me. And turned me for a fan of classic b-movies and Hammer Horror, to an all out lover of low-budget horror. Seeking out more and more movies that could shock and surprise me. To the point now here I will admit to being utterly desensitised, and that nothing shocks me any more.
What was once the sneaky passing of pirated tapes around your mates, has become the "torrent". Authorities still try to censor or ban the odd movie that tries to push the boundaries of taste, and fans still consumer them with glee. Remember the controversy around The Human Centipede (2011)? And then actually seeing it, and laughing at rather than being a serious straight horror it could well have been called Carry On Centipede, it was so funny. Or the hype around art-house twaddle, that was the experimental horror shocker from Lars Trier, Antichrist (2009). I guess the only movie that I've seen in recent years that really did come close to being a modern "video nasty" would be A Serbian Film (2010). |
Daily Mail, August 1983, claiming the "videoholics" were getting "real snuff videos" from South America.
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Daily Mail, November 1983, hysteria had reached such a level of mania that schoolchildren were being surveyed on their video nasty consumption.
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One of the few film-makers that is constantly pushing the boundaries of taste these days I would say is Marian Dora. With his movies Cannibal (2006), Melancholie der Engel (2009) and Reise nach Agatis (2010), he has played with the concept of what "shocking" is, by producing pieces of extreme cinema, that cleverly nod towards the tradition of exploitation horror of the late 1970s and 1980s. And long may it continue. As long as there are film-makers will to step outside the mainstream and make god horror for horror fans, there will always be an audience to watch them.
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Special Discretion Required: The Controversial Channel 4 Film Season - Between 1986 and 1987 Channel 4 screened the "red triangle" season of controversial films. Here's the list.
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What Makes A Horror Movie Scary? - Or what makes horror scary to some, and wonderfully enjoyable entertainment for others? What is the psychology of horror movie fans?
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