In the early 1980s, Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers And Listeners Association, backed by the tabloid press, took issue with the availability of such titles as SS Experiment Camp (1976) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), which unlike their theatrical incarnations were uncut, unregulated and could be viewed at home by children. Whitehouse publicly stated that she had never seen a Video Nasty and was probably basing her assumption on the films sensationalistic artwork. SS Experiment Camp, for instance, showed a naked woman on an inverted cross, leered over by a Nazi soldier. In a country with high crime and unemployment, video violence was the perfect scapegoat, and the Conservative government got behind it with a passion, authorizing police to confiscate any videos they thought were in violation of the 1959 Obscene Publications Act. Eventually, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) drew up a list of 72 offending titles, 39 of which were successfully prosecuted. Some Video Nasties were resubmitted and heavily censored, while many others were rejected and remained unavailable for years. You cant keep a movie down forever, though, and some of the most gruesome titles on that list are now available as they were originally meant to be seen...
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
