Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape

Video Nasties: Moral Panic Censorship and Videotape (2010)
Directed by: Jake West

Starring: Andy Nyman, Julian Petley, Kim Newman, Marc Morris, Neil Marshall

Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape
Directed by Jake West

Directed by Jake West, Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape is a must-see for any horror fan, curious or not about the history of video nasties.

The documentary explains how once upon a time there used to be a format called VHS and every shop owner and his dog used to stock VHS video tapes with films  on in their store. These films came from all sorts of independent producers, as the films at that time and era, never had to go through the rigourous classifications that they do now. As you can imagine, all sorts of films were on display, ready to be rented or sold. For those of you fortunate to remember these days, it will be a nostalgic look at how great life used to be in comparison with the restricted controlled world we live in today, where the glorious artwork of VHS is gone and in it’s place shiny DVDs and Blu-Rays with identical uninspiring covers. You’ll recall where, as kids, you’d rent out the most gruesome sounding and looking title as possible and brag to your friends about it. Unfortunately, there’s some people who were born after this wondrous era and will forever be unaware at how great we had it.

This documentary, with it’s interviews from many different people involved with film and the events at the time (politicians, lecturers), will give you an insight into how the events unfolded to lead to the video nasties list and the introduction of film classification by the BBFC. The film-makers decide to have a little fun with the documentary and mimic visual aspects of the inferior quality of VHS, with it’s tracking lines and occassional blurriness.

This is a real intriguing watch and features some of the beloved ‘video nasties’ more indepth such as Cannibal Holocaust, Driller Killer and The Evil Dead, as well as listing each of the official ‘video nasties’.