Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide Review

• 4th Oct 2010

Many horror fans are aware of the term “video nasty” and will no doubt be also aware that a few films were banned back n the day. This release goes into great detail about the who, what, where, when and whys of it all. Here you are given the option to watch trailers for all 72 banned titles and also watch introductions by some industry specialists.

Disc one focuses on the 39 titles that were prosecuted in UK courts. You get the option of watching just the trailers of these titles, or watching them with introductions from scholars, film-makers and journalists. At a mammoth four hours in total, this feature is a fascinating watch. You get to discover the reasons why these titles were censored in the first place – sometimes they have had some content cut, other times they were pulled by what seems to be just because of the artwork on the box they came in. It’s a mindboggling idea that a film was banned because of its cover sleeve – but then things were different back in the early 80’s.

Disc two focuses on the 33 titles that were banned but then acquitted at a future date. Again, you can watch the trailers by themselves or with introductions. Three and a ½ hours of some of the best know-it-alls talking about titles with loving glee, or with full on contempt and disdain for quality of some of the films.

The first two discs come with an introduction by the Horror Chanel’s Emily Booth. She covers a couple of the titles herself as well and it’s funny watching her reading from an autocue as opposed to addressing the camera (teehee sorry Emily!) Other notable inclusions come from horror journalists and critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman (always funny and informative) who really know their shit and are never afraid to point it out when it is just that.

Some of the titles you may be very surprised to learn were on the list at all. We are perhaps much more tolerant to what we see on screen at this time, but it is always worth remember what the industry here had to go through in order to help get us where we are – and always worth noting that even today we can’t take the censors for granted.

Most important is the inclusion of Jake West’s documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape that is the main feature for the third disc in the set. This doc premiered at the London FrightFest this year to an enthusiastic response. Coinciding with this, the documentary was even clever enough to see into the future with films like A Serbian Film coming under the scissors of the censors (which was promptly pulled from the FrightFest line up as a result).

There are inclusions from British film makers such as Christopher Smith & Neil Marshall who talk about the effect the genre had on them growing upon them, but the real meat comes from those who were politically involved in the situation from both sides of the argument and is tied at the end with some important commentary by Martin Barker who fought what must have seemed like a one man fight against the censorship.

On the first two discs you also get artwork galleries, and interestingly enough, on the third disc there is almost an hours worth of production company logos. Many of these were created just for specific releases. It’s a giggle watching some of the crude graphics and synthesized music each of them has. There is also a great gallery featuring cover art for these titles – which in itself is a subject a book has been written about.

If you are a horror fan then this is a must have title and shouldn’t be mistaken for an excuse to release a “bits” and “best of footage” video. This is highly entertaining and hugely enlightening. If you are not a horror fan, but thrive on film history and politics then this is also essential viewing.

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide is out 18th October.