To be prosecuted once for obscenity is bad enough, but (to paraphrase Oscar Wilde) twice is simply careless. Not content with declaring Zombie Flesh Eaters obscene, Britains moral watchdogs also took issue with director Lucio Fulcis The House By The Cemetery, much to the puzzlement of the filmmakers fans. Far more explicit than THBTC is City Of The Living Dead, which despite several gruesome sequences never even found its way onto the Video Nasty list. At no point in THBTC, for instance, does anyone throw up their own intestines, tear out a mans brains or thrust a drill through someones cheek. Essentially an Old Dark House gothic tale, albeit one with gory set pieces, THBTC rubbed the censors up the wrong way with its shots of mutilated corpses and scenes where throats are ripped out, which were enough to get the picture banned. In 2001, the film was prosecuted for obscenity a second time following the discovery of bootleg copies of the uncut VHS, meaning that it wouldnt be until 2009 nearly 30 years after it was first shown that the film would be available in its uncut form.
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.'
