When the first British video stores opened for business, the tapes they rented didnt fall under the jurisdiction of the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), which meant that films the BBFC had denied a cinema certificate such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - could be viewed at home. Moreover, the tapes usually sported sensational artwork, so if you were a child in the early 80s you could wander into a video store and gaze at a crude rendering of a native eating intestines (Cannibal Holocaust) or see a drill boring into a mans skull (The Driller Killer). It wasnt long before Mary Whitehouse, who had previously rallied against such TV shows as Benny Hill and Doctor Who, campaigned to ban such Video Nasties. She had an ally in Conservative MP Graham Bright, who said in an on-camera interview, I believe there is research taking place and it will show that these films not only affect young people but I believe they affect dogs as well. Bright sponsored a Bill that amended the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 to include movies, and a list of 72 offending titles was drawn up by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), 39 of which were successfully prosecuted. Even though most of the films were chosen at random, anyone who owned or distributed them faced fines and imprisonment. As movie lists go, this ones more attractive than the AFIs Top 100.
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.'
