Video Nasties and Moral Panic
CW: Mentions of Sexual Violence, Gore, Lot to infer from the Title
The Video Nasties are something that I've had such an interest in for such a long time, and I think they're just a weird example of the sort of moral panic that gets spun around horror films, where people just can't imagine how extreme they get, then they see what's available and they're like "Holy shit." and I guess it's just a very quintessentially British moral panic. Sure it's known internationally but like you look at the origins of it and even just the term "Video Nasty" and you think like "This object [not a film]. This nasty!" sort of thing and it's just yeah. Naturally, you have outraged people and then this entirely other group of people who exclusively seek out so-called 'Nasties' just because of the notoriety surrounding the films and the fact that they've been banned or censored in some capacity. "These are films that are inspiring all this violent crime!" tabloids would go on endlessly about, and in some capacity they were kind of seen as just being the sort of moral rot of society.
I guess it's also just kind of funny like trying to apply a Hayes Code sensibility to some of the movies on this list, because it just clearly doesn't work. Like, what moral lessons would you give some of these movies? Don't raise the dead by opening up an ancient cursed book/inhabiting a voodoo cursed island! Don't open up the portals leading to the gates of hell! Remember to never allow yourself to be cursed by an evil computer that gives you supernatural powers that allow you to murder your classmates etc. Lot of weird stuff like that, but I guess it was just way more of the fact that films had all this transgressive subject matter more than anything else. Even if said context was nonsensical as all hell.
Not that I think the underlying roots of what inspired the Video Nasties moral panic didn't have some legitimacy towards it, but I think the way it spiralled off is certainly very strange. Like anything it became very deeply speculative, and literally the reason why it all kicked off was basically because the British Board of Film Classification didn't oversee this new market of video tapes that came out during the late 1970s/early 1980s, so there were so many tapes that were sold in stores, uncensored and they were uncensored basically just out of virtue that nothing was actually stopping them - often where they wound up being sold to an underaged audience. Films couldn't be cut like with cinemas and what's more, is that the videos themselves weren't classified with any sort of age restriction. Video Nasties themselves just became about as synonymous with the video market as anything else, but then the name did really stick well past the original controversy.
[see also the formation of the ESRB and the targeting of video games such as Mortal Kombat (1992), Night Trap (1992) and Lethal Enforcers (1993)]
Something that's really surprising is the fact that there is an official list of Video Nasties rather than it just kind of existing as a bit of a vibe. Lot of people did see it that way so movies such as, say, Dressed to Kill (1980) were seen under that label (based off of anecdotal evidence). Also worth noting are the Section 3 Video Nasties which weren't liable for prosecution, but wound up being confiscated anyway. Like yeah, it just seems like kind of a vibe you'd expect. Movies like Straw Dogs (1971), The Candy Snatchers (1973) or Salo (1975) aren't included on the list, although they definitely were controversial with the BBFC before, and where The Candy Snatchers was just outright refused a ceritificate (effectively banning in in the UK). Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) is on the list but it was released in cinemas with various cuts attached to it, yet VIPCO (Video Instant Picture Company) decided to release an uncut version of the film on VHS during the early 1980s, which prompted a tonne of controversy, and just with how films could effectively bypass censors just out of virtue that the BBFC weren't overseeing them at the time.
Actually, I think VIPCO was one of those companies that seemed to be brought up a lot and a company that basically did just cash in on the controversy that was going on at the time. Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer (1979) is included on the list, largely because the packaging of the movie featured a very graphic scene that managed to land it onto the list. It's also just kind of hard for me to find anything about VICPO other than they basically just sold VHS and eventually DVDs of horror and exploitation films, doing things like "This film was previously unavailable" (never released on home media... for some reason) or just implying that "This is the uncut version" regardless of whether or not the movies themselves were ever really censored in the first place.
This scene
There are some now-considered horror classics on the list, such as The Evil Dead (1981), Possession (1981) and Tenebre (1982) that probably would just stand up on their own without such a reputation, yet there are definitely movies on there which are so obscure and seem to just really carry a reputation as being a "Video Nasty" and not really much else. I dunno, but I don't think that many people have really heard of Cannibal Terror (1981), Delirium (1979) or I Miss You Hugs and Kisses (1978) outside of the fact that they were, indeed, included on this list. Ironically it meant that some movies which would have been lost to time just got immortalised and then wound up being watched by mad completionists like "I'M GOING TO WATCH ALL THE VIDEO NASTIES!" etc.
But then I also am not entirely too comfortable with all the films being seen as like "cheesy horror films with overinflated reputations." Some of them were downright transgressive as all hell, such as 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, which was so extreme in terms of its violence and cruelty and basically does seem like a film that was designed to piss people off. That film still shocks people to this day, and there's other films on the list, such as the Nazi sexploitation films that I kind of summarised as being like "These are films that you really can't make today anymore, and that's a good thing." You try watching Love Camp 7 (1969) or The Beast in Heat (1977) and see if you come out of it feeling wonderful about humanity.
I think the whole point was just how speculative the whole moral panic became, so you got this entire list of movies which ranged from genuinely transgressive and shocking to films that just kind of existed as like horror movies that showed a bit too much blood, I guess. Frozen Scream (1975) is literally like a feature length Garth Marenghi sketch in terms of how ineptly composed it was, but I suppose it just got added to the list because it was a bit too bloody. ["What is the price of immortality if you are revived as a frozen zombie!"] In an ironic twist of fate, a total of 4 of the Video Nasties have been released in their uncut form and now carry 15 ratings. [Contamination (1980), The Funhouse (1981), Don't Go in the Woods (1981) and Don't Look in the Basement (1973); Don't Go in the Woods was also successfully prosecuted at the time for obscenity, for that matter, which is just even more staggering.]
Speaking of which, the inclusion of The Funhouse (1981) on this list is kind of baffling because there's barely any sort of actual explicit violence in it, and I think two theories posited with how that movie was included was that it was directed by Tobe Hooper and that it was a movie that turned a carnival (place of fun) into a place of evil or something like that. Death Trap (1976) is also included on that list [for the record, Death Trap actually kind of rules] but also just the controversy associated with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), which, again, isn't all that gory but I think the atmosphere that movie created really made people think of it as just this extremely violent film. I guess Hooper was targeted just mainly because of his reputation I guess.
Another theory that is posited, however, was that The Funhouse (1981) was merely confused for another movie called The Funhouse which was the 1973/1977 Roger Watkins horror film also known as "The Last House on Dead End Street" which is way, way more gruesome and violent than the Tobe Hooper film. Kind of speculative but again, I think it does kind of makes sense as a theory, considering just how so many of the titles were picked up just based off of lurid sensationalism without ever really checking the veracity of whatever was going on. That seems like a really running throughline with it which I guess does kind of make sense, but who knows. Fight for Your Life (1977) was included on the Video Nasties solely because of its discriminatory/racist language, and was released on video tape after being denied a theatrical release in 1981 and yeah. Central to the moral panic was just fears of a video market that was unregulated and uncensored.
The arbitrariness of the movies included just feels kind of strange. Some of them are genuinely obscene pieces of work and others just kind of feel like standard R-rated horror films that you'd watch, have a bit of fun with, and just kind of forget afterwards. It reminds me a bit of how Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert used to just rail and rail against movies like this during the late 1970s and early-mid 1980s when they just seemed to be shown everywhere with R-rating attached to them. Also weird is how some notable horror movie directors such as Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava, Herschell Gordon Lewis and Joe D'Amato seem to pop up on the lists quite frequently, yet it just seems kind of arbitrary as to what gets put on the lists. Beyond the Darkness (1979) is not a Video Nasty but Anthropophagous (1980) is included. Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) is included but Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) isn't, Blood Feast (1963) is included but Two Thousand Manics (1964) isn't etc.
Worth noting that the Nazi films that I mentioned earlier have still effectively been banned in the United Kingdom, with The Gestapo's Last Orgy having been "deemed as unsuitable for classification - central concept is unacceptable, and the sadistic and sexually abusive material it contains is too pervasive to be effectively addressed by cuts." which yeah, speaks for itself. You can still kind of get these movies with imports from other countries (which is uh, sort of what people did with some of the Video Nasties back in the day anyway) but yeah, just that I think my own personal tastes really just don't vibe with those films, even with my knack for absolute sleaze. I dunno, but sometimes things just really push your boundaries and I guess those Nazi films really cross that line for me. Really weird mixture of obscenity but then also just grotesquely stupid in a way that doesn't match the scathing, lacerating streak of, say, Salo: 120 Days of Sodom - one of my all-time favourite films, but there was something about Salo where it was definitely intelligent in terms of how it composed obscenity. Heck, Salo was outright banned in the UK up until 2000 (released in its uncut form!) because of obscenity laws that existed at the time, even though it technically could have been released if it was heavily cut.
https://www.bbfc.co.uk/education/case-studies/salo-120-days-of-sodom
But yeah, it's weird looking back and seeing people declaring all the Video Nasties to be movies that were "low-budget, cheap, fake-looking" and I guess, but it doesn't precisely reflect the nature of why this moral panic came about to be and why it was such a big deal at the time. Mark Kermode mentioned in the 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003) that "These were people who haven't seen horror movies in absolutely yonks, saw something like The Evil Dead, and it just completely blew their minds." and I guess the whole thing about it was just finally seeing movies like this and speculation over films which just had lurid and sleazy vibes to them or in some way seemed shocking to folk. It's strange though. I mean yeah, you know. I guess if someone really wants to see something like Gestapo's Last Orgy (like me a couple of years ago, apparently) then they're probably just going to seek it out anyway. Literally the opposite happened where these films gained a lot of notoriety and therefore probably way more publicity than they really deserve - probably is one of the strangest paradoxes with controversy where suppressing stuff winds up drawing more attention to it, which uh I guess is something. Very pervasive with some of the movies on the list.
Appendix - Some Video Nasties reviewed
Okay, obviously the above was meant as a summary of the moral panic at the time, but I don't think I can really end this piece without at least giving a quick few reviews of some of the Video Nasties and what I think about them. In any order really.
AXE (1974)
God, this is one of those films that gets casually disregarded as "cheap, bad" which is kind of how I saw it for a while, then I saw it mentioned in a video essay by Hazel (aka. afewbruises/hhhazel) where she mentions it as being "horrible but one of her favourite films" that made me check it out again and uh... yeah. Actually do kind of appreciate it, but this is one of those films where it's like "slow, melancholic, languishing pacing" and either that's something you enjoy with looking past the technical faults of it, or you don't. Cinematography in it is actually quite nice though, and it is the kind of movie that made me wish that Frederick R. Friedel did more films. Date with a Kidnapper (1976) is actually a really solid film though, in my view.
https://youtu.be/G4XcGHX3EHY?t=302 - The part in the Hazel Video
The Boogeyman/The Boogeyman II (1980/1983)
These films kind of suck (especially the second one) but Ulli Lommel was one of those directors who did horror movies that were sporadically effective but then eventually wound up doing a bunch of DTV stuff and Boogeyman II is literally just self-plagiarism honestly. Most of it is just the first one but presented in a way more boring light. Bizarrely, Lommel was also a protege of none other than German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, however I think Olivia (1983) and Tenderness of the Wolves (1973), the latter of which Fassbinder produced, are actually pretty solid.
The Beast in Heat (1977), Snuff (1975), Faces of Death (1978), Cannibal Terror (1980)
THE WORST! Felt like just grouping them together as such. Snuff is kind of interesting though because the cinematography of it was by the director Michael Findlay's wife Roberta Findlay, who did exploitation films such as A Woman's Torment (1977) and Tenement (1985), both of which are quite good. Snuff is just a great example of the jarring contrast between how luridly and sleazy it tries to present itself as like a "showcase into the dark underbelly of snuff" but then the actual movie is so hokey and inept. Really, really strange. To be honest, I think a lot of it just came from the fact that it was taken from the director's hands and cut to ribbons - so the film as a whole is incomprehensible. Also think it was kind of worth the experience because sometimes you can find something that just outright sucks, and then you find movies which rule when you explore the peripherals of it.
Faces of Death (1978) does feature genuine snuff footage though which is uh... yeah I hate that film. Also surprises me that there are no other mondo films on this list other than that, like Mondo Cane (1962) and Africa Addio (1966) were not included here. Cannibal Terror (1980) is just really, really inept and hokey and The Beast in Heat (1977) just crosses boundaries for me and is also just poorly made in general.
Butcher, Baker Nightmare Maker (1982)
I've been more and more interested in movies that kind of capture that sort of psychological torment with regards to being in the closet, and this one definitely does capture something with me. Deals with a seventeen year old Billy who deals with an intensely homophobic police officer who targets him, and also a very imposing and psychotic aunt who feels possessive over him which then spirals off into homicidal tendencies and where Billy gets falsely implicated in a string of homicides. Very, very twisty in terms of its plot but weirdly I thought the way it piled on psychological horror struck me way more than the actual gore (which this film is quite gory, mind you!)
What's weird is how Billy just gets targeted by homophobia despite never really making anything clear about his sexuality, which I guess really did resonate with me in some respect, and I guess if you are a queer person in general. Who needs 'nice' queer representation anyway? Give me that messy, conflicted shit. Stick it in my veins!
Cannibal Holocaust/Ferox/Apocalypse (1980, 1981, 1980)
Cannibal Holocaust is one of those movies where it just feels so extreme in terms of its content and presentation, both in terms of depicting violence and just about depicting the ugly depths of the evil of humanity that it just feels unpleasant to think about. Both is weirdly effective but at the same time it's also one of those movies where it also feels a bit smarmy and pretentious in terms of its presentation - notably with a lot of the background with how this movie was made (namely the animal cruelty and the mistreatment of natives), and also where the tone is just set quite succinctly with that scene involving an impaled woman where the character Alan Yates starts laughing at it, is told "Watch it, Alan. I'm shooting." before immediately shifting gears into this smarmy, speculative tirade about the "cruelty proliferated by the natives." Just is such an unforgettable movie in terms of how shocking it is and I guess it's one of those movies that a lot of people hate or find some sort of appeal in it. Simply put, this movie wasn't made to be enjoyed. Cut and Run (1985), by the same director, is actually more enjoyable than this film.
Cannibal Ferox is quite strange but I really think this is a prime example of something that kicked in because of the lurid advertisement of the whole thing, and I sort of got something from it. Very grisly but the plotline kind of feels like a dark joke about "Oh, we're going to try to disprove cannibalism." sort of thing. Cannibal Apocalypse is like a bait-and-switch film where it's like "Vietnam Veterans in the jungles with savage cannibals" and then it turns sort of into a contagion film where the cannibalism spreads and turns people sort of into zombies. John Saxon is in it an John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) plays a cannibal named "Charles Bukowski" for whatever reason. Oh, also Morghen was in Cannibal Ferox as well.
The Driller Killer (1979)
Abel Ferrara's first movie before Ms .45 (1981) [not Ms. 45!] and uh yeah, really do seem to like this one. People kind of use this and 9 Lives of a Wet Pussycat (1976) as kind of this punchline to Ferrara's later films, but actually do think there's something about this film that works. Kind of just a scathing, often darkly funny and lacerating portrait of an artist who can barely pay his bills, with the looming threat of poverty and deteriorating relationships hanging over his head, who takes out a lot of his rage by power drilling random homeless people to death. Takes a certain type of mood to enjoy this film but it's surprisingly good.
Well worth listening to Ferrara's commentary on this film. Also worth just watching his commentaries on anything, I think.
Night School (1981) [aka. TERROR EYES]
This is so tame and they just cut away from a lot of the killings anyway, but I think this really just got on the list because of the way it was advertised basically. Worth noting how this film was also directed by Ken Hughes who did none other than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and I dunno, but I did actually quite like this one for whatever reason. Less gory and way more just brooding and atmospheric but I guess it's another case of the ads featuring bloody decapitations and what not that might have put it on the list. Stars a young Rachel Ward and also has a... uh... pretty memorable ending. Weird when you find horror movies that turn out to be decent (not great!) but then also where I feel they just outright don't deserve their "nasty" reputation. Great example of what I mean by "interchangeable, standard R-rated horror movies" taking up a large part of the list.
Night of the Demon (1980)
I fucking love this movie. It's so bad but like what other movie out there exists where it's a slasher film and the slasher villain is FUCKING BIGFOOT, who kills people in various inventive and unique ways including... uh... making two people stab each other to death, impaling people with pitchforks, burning people on a hot stove, and probably my favourite of the movie, a bit where a guy pisses in Bigfoot's woods and pays the ultimate price by having his dick snatched away from him (you actually see a hairy hand grabbing a hold of this person's dick and then him walking away with blood pouring down where his penis should be.)
It rules. More movies should explore the Bigfoot myth this way (nobody lives to tell the tale!)
The Evil Dead (1981)
Enough has been said about this, but it's a really strange example something that starts off like a cheesy horror film (ala Night of the Living Dead (1968)) that then escalates and also is unusually inventive and also very frightening in terms of how grisly and even absurd that it can really get. Entirely different atmosphere from the later films that favoured the more absurd aspects of it and eventually just outright slapstick comedy with Army of Darkness, but there's definitely people out there who literally only know about the original film and its "nasty" reputation that they probably might not believe you when you show what the later films are like. Series as a whole is weird because it does bounce a lot between the grisly atmosphere of the first one, and then the absurd atmosphere of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.
Also the very first Video Nasty that I saw (at the tender age of 8!) My childhood was weird. Sam Raimi was also 20 years old when he made this movie. Orson Welles was 25 when he did Citizen Kane. Go figure.
Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) [aka. Zombie/Zombi 2]
LOVE THIS FILM so much. God, fucking, this is one of those movies where it's just carried so heavily by mood, atmosphere and a heavy dose of gore, but I also think it's genuinely quite creepy with how they turn a tropical island into this desolate wasteland that's just filled with the undead, and this whole central theme of an apocalypse that people try to inhibit or prevent but then it winds up spreading, taking over the island etc. I love and have listened to Fabio Frizzi's soundtrack to this movie over and over again. Such a weirdly beautiful yet haunting soundtrack for a gore-fest.
Weirdly was also titled Zombi 2 as a way to cash in on Dawn of the Dead [titled Zombi in Italy] despite having nothing to do with the film. Lot of Italian films are like that, see also the La Casa series (starting off with Evil Dead I and II then Ghosthouse, Witchery etc.) and also Demoni and the Troll series. Again, this was cut for UK cinemas but then the 'Video Nasty' reputation came from the uncut version which also featured the infamous "eye splinter" scene which, if you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about.
Of course also followed up by endless Zombi sequels such as Zombi 3, 4, 5. Good luck figuring out what I mean by Zombi 3, 4, 5 though. Could be any movie.
That's about it really. Go watch a Video Nasty. Piss off hypothetical 1980s era Tories who don't want you to watch these films.
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