Video Nasties: An A-Z Guide

By Clare Simpson / January 30, 2013

Y - Young Women Being Killed

When accused of misogyny due to the high body count of members of the female sex in his films, Herschell Gordon Lewis famously retorted that we would just as quickly kill men if he thought there was any money in it. Let's face it. In real life, most psychopaths, sadists and perverts are men, and the vast majority of murders committed in real life are men killing women - movies merely reflect this. Things are becoming a bit more egalitarian in the 21st century, but back in video nasty times (especially with so many chauvinist Italian directors around), women in peril was the predominant flavour of the day. The New York Ripper - possibly the most upsetting example of young women being killed - features multiple crotch stabbings and led to widespread accusations that director Fulci was a woman hater. Don't Go in the House features a sick, socially inept pervert torching young women to death. In SS Experiment Camp, the nasty experiments and violence are doled out mainly to the women. The Beast in Heat throws young women to be raped and killed into the cage with the Beast like pieces of meat. Scavolini's Nightmares in a Damaged Brain features a pervert madman who attacks young women with all sorts of savage modus operandi. And then there's The Toolbox Murders! The less said of that piece of scuzz, the better...

Z - Zombies

Zombies! Zombies! The ubiquitous zombies. They are everywhere and coming to a Video Nasty list near you. It is easy to see how our undead friends angered the censors. Their flesh eating antics usually involved a great deal of nasty neck bites and disembowelment, followed by the chewing of animal viscera. Num! Num! Num! Zombie Creeping Flesh is to silly to mention in our celebration of zombies. The most masterful zombie films on the DPP 72 list are Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue. Zombie Flesh Eaters is skilled in its nastiness and gore scenes. The eyeball gouging sequence is enough to have you protectively shielding your peepers for some time lest a random spike of wood come near them. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue - helmed by Spanish director Jorge Grau - is much more sinister and scary. Zombies haunting the lush English countryside dole out shocks which make the skin crawl. Both films have downbeat endings which make them all the more effective because zombies equal the apocalypse don't they? I don't think I can remember a case of zombies being successfully contained. To end this list, there is one gripe I have about zombies. That is the ease with which they are able to rip a person's stomach open and pull out their guts. This seems to me quite a difficult feat to achieve but zombies can magically rip open abdomens like Christmas wrapping paper. Just an observation! Like this guide? Let us know in the comments section below.