Video nasty
|
|
Video nasty was a term coined in the United Kingdom in the 1980s that originally applied to a number of films distributed on video that were held by some to be unfit for domestic viewing. Many of these "video nasties" were low-budget horror films produced in Italy and the United States. The furore created by the moral crusade against video nasties led to the introduction of the Video Recordings Act 1984 which imposed a stricter code of censorship on videos than was required for cinema release. Several major studio productions ended up being banned on video, falling foul of legislation that was designed to control the distribution of video nasties.
| Contents |
Obscenity and video
At the time of the introduction of domestic video recorders in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, there was no legislation specifically designed to regulate video content apart from the Obscene Publications Act 1959 which had been amended in 1977 to cover erotic films. Major film distributors were initially reluctant to embrace the new medium of video for fear of piracy and the video market became flooded with low-budget horror films produced by small independent film companies. Whilst some of these films had been passed by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) for cinema release some had been refused certification. The Obscene Publications Act defined obscenity as that which may "tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it". This definition is of course open to wide interpretation. If the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) felt that a certain video might be in breach the Act then a prosecution could be brought against the film's producers, distributors and retailers. Prosecutions had to be fought on a case by case basis and a backlog of prosecutions built up. However, under the terms of the Act the police were empowered to seize videos from retailers if they were of the opinion that the material was in breach of the act. In the early 1980s in certain police constabularies, notably Greater Manchester which was at that time run by the controversial Chief Constable James Anderton, police raids on video hire shops increased. However the choice of titles seized appeared to be completely arbitrary.
The Video Retailers Association were alarmed by the apparently random seizures and asked the DPP to provide a guideline for the industry so that stockists could be made aware of what was liable to be confiscated and what they could legitimately keep on their shelves. The DPP recognised that the current system, where the interpretation of obscenity was down to individual Chief Constables, was inconsistent and decided to publish a list that contained names of films that had already resulted in a successful prosecutions or where the DPP had already filed charges against the video's distributors. This list became known as the DDP list of video nasties. The majority of the films listed were low-quality schlock-horror films, but it included one or two films that are now regarded as classics, most notably The Evil Dead.
The lack of regulation of the domestic video market was in sharp contrast to the regulation of material intended for public screening. The BBFC had been established in 1912 and it was their responsibility to pass films intended for the cinema for certification within the United Kingdom. As part of this process the board could recommend that certain cuts be made to the film in order for it to pass at a certain certification level. Once a film has been passed for certification it was then up to local authorities to decide whether or not to grant cinemas within their jurisdiction permission to conduct public screenings of material passed by the BBFC. Such permission was not always granted and in the case of the release of The Exorcist in 1973, a number of enterprising cinemas that had been granted permission set about provided buses to transport cinema-goers from other localities where permission had not been granted.
Public concern
Public awareness of the availability of these videos began in early 1982, when Vipco (Video Instant Picture Company), the UK distributors of Driller Killer, took out full page advertisements in a number of specialist video magazines, depicting the video's explicit cover; an action which resulted in a large number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency. A few months later the distributors of Cannibal Holocaust, Go Video, in an effort to boost publicity and generate sales that ultimately backfired, wrote to Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association complaining about their own film. Whitehouse sparked off a public campaign and coined the term video nasty. Amid the growing concern, the Sunday Times brought the issue to a wider audience in May of 1982 with an article entitled How high street horror is invading the home. Soon the Daily Mail began their own campaign against the distribution of these films. The exposure of nasties to children began to be blamed for the increase in violent crime amongst youths and all manner of social ills. The growing media frenzy only served to increase the demand for such material among adolescents. At the suggestion of National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, the Conservative MP Graham Bright introduced a Private Members' Bill to the House of Commons in 1983. This was passed as the Video Recordings Act 1984 which came into effect on 1 September 1985.
Effects of the Video Recordings Act 1984
Under the 1984 act, the BBFC was renamed the 'British Board of Film Classification' and became responsible for the certification of both cinema and video releases. All video releases after 1 September 1985 had to comply with the act and be submitted for classification by the BBFC. Films released on video before that date had to be re-submitted for classification within the following three years. The increased possibility of videos falling into the hands of children required that film classification for video was a separate process from cinema classification. Films that had passed uncut for cinema release were often cut for video. The supply of unclassified videos became a criminal offence, as did supplying 15 and 18 certificate videos under aged people. As well as the low-budget horror films the act was originally intended to curb, a number of high profile films which has passed cinema certification fell foul of the act. In particular The Exorcist, which was made available by Warner Home Video in December of 1981, was not granted a video certification by the BBFC and was withdrawn from shelves in 1986. Similarly Straw Dogs was also denied video certification and removed from video stores.
Relaxation of censorship
In recent years, there has been a relaxation in film censorship and many of the films that were initially not granted certificates by the BBFC for video release have now been passed for certification uncut. The Exorcist was granted an uncut 18 certificate on 10 June 1999.
The DPP list
The DPP list of 'video nasties' was first made public in June of 1983. With monthly updates of the list was modified as prosecutions failed or were dropped. In total 74 separate films appeared on the list at one time or another. Thirty nine films were successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act but some of these have been subsequently cut and approved for release by the BBFC. The remaining 35 were either not prosecuted or had unsuccessful prosecutions. A number of films spent a short time on this list because their prosecutions failed shortly after publication or because it was decided that it was not worth pursuing. Ultimately the list became obsolete when the Video Recordings Act came into force, and since 2001 several of them have also been released uncut.
- Absurd/The Anthropophagous Beast
- Axe
- The Beast In Heat
- The Beyond (released uncut in 2001)
- Bloodbath
- Blood Feast
- Blood Rites
- Bloody Moon
- The Bogeyman (released uncut in 2000)
- The Burning (released uncut in 2001)
- Cannibal Apocalypse
- Cannibal Ferox
- Cannibal Holocaust
- Cannibal Man
- Cannibal Terror (released uncut in 2001)
- Contamination (released uncut in 2003, rated 15)
- Dead And Buried (released uncut in 1999)
- Death Trap (released uncut in 2000)
- Deep River Savages
- Delirium
- The Devil Hunter
- Don't go on the House
- Don't go In the Woods ... Alone
- Don't go In the Park
- Don't look in the Basement (released uncut in 2005, rated 15)
- Driller Killer (released uncut in 2002)
- The Evil Dead (released uncut in 2001)
- Evilspeak
- Expose
- Faces Of Death
- Fight For Your Life
- Flesh For Frankenstein
- Forest Of Fear
- Frozen Scream
- The Funhouse (released uncut in 1987)
- Gestapo's Last Orgy
- The House By The Cemetery
- House On The Edge Of The Park
- Human Experiments
- Inferno
- Island of Death
- I Miss You. Hugs and Kisses
- I Spit On Your Grave
- Killer Nun
- The Last House on the Left
- Last Night Trains
- Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (released uncut in 2002)
- Love Camp 7
- Madhouse (released uncut in 2002)
- Mardi Gras Massacre
- Night Of The Bloody Apes
- Night Of The Demon
- Nightmare Maker
- Nightmares In A Damaged Brain
- Possession (released uncut in 1999)
- Pranks
- Prisoner Of The Cannibal God
- Revenge Of The Bogey Man
- Shogun Assassin (released uncut in 1999)
- The Slayer (released uncut in 2001)
- Snuff(released uncut in 2003)
- SS Experiment Camp
- Tenebrae (released uncut in 2002)
- Terror Eyes
- The Toolbox Murders
- Unhinged (released uncut in 2004)
- Visiting Hours
- The Werewolf And The Yeti
- The Witch Who Came From The Sea
- Women Behind Bars
- Xtro
- Zombie Creeping Flesh (released uncut in 2003)
- Zombie Flesh Eaters