VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE

We Britlander’s think we’re pretty hot shit, what with our tea and our Beatles and such. And while we might seem pretty sophisticated to the untrained eye, there’s a nasty, pervasive, puritanical streak running through our culture which was never more apparent than during the VIDEO NASTY scandal of the early 1980’s. Keen fans of more cerebral horror will likely have already tracked down PRANO BAILEY BOND’s really rather splendid debut feature CENSOR, which provides something of a potted insight into the cultural climate of the time.

The term “Nasty” was first coined in response to a series of lurid horror novels in the 70’s and early 80’s (books such as JAMES HERBERT’s THE RATS, SHAUN HUTSON’s SLUGS etc.), however it also extended to a host of other, non-horror genre novels which had been influenced by everything from LEONE’s westerns to pulp, Nazi nightmares.

All, however, had one thing in common; they were brutal in their depictions of sex and violence. As ever, the stuffy, up-tight whites, self-proclaimed moral bastions of society that they are, had one thought in mind; THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

When videotape first became widely available in the country, Britain was met with an influx of foreign media. Movies such as BLOODY MOON, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, EVIL DEAD, THE BEYOND, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT etc., which had, at least in the case of some, graced cinema screens up to a decade prior, albeit in heavily edited form, were suddenly available unedited. Crucially, these tapes were also utterly unregulated. Now, believe it or not, there was a time when little Johnny Cartwright from the flats could pop into the corner shop and rent ZOMBIE CANNIBAL TITS MASSACRE without issue, and while I don’t necessarily think that he should be able to do that, what followed was more deeply disturbing than the content of the films themselves…

VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE (and its follow-up; DRACONIAN DAYS), a documentary from director JAKE WEST examines the whole, sorry affair that led to the implementation of the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), the unjust incarceration of video store owners, and the mass panic which was proliferated by the British news media and Conservative politicians. There are contributions from British directors such as NEIL MARSHALL and CHRISTOPHER SMITH as well as film critic, journalist, and author KIM NEWMAN. It is full of truly shocking revelations, and questionable ethical decisions carried out by persons who were more interested in imposing their puritanical beliefs than they were with what was right.