10 Infamous Video Nasties

6. The Burning (1981)

Last House On The Left
Filmways

If your film featured gore effects by the legendary Tom Savini, it likely had trouble with the UK censors.

Tony Maylam's 1981 slasher tells of a group of camping teens set upon by the maniacal Cropsy. After being horrifically burned years before, Cropsy is out for very bloody revenge.

Like others on this list, The Burning was approved for a UK cinema release. Some 19 seconds of cuts were ordered and every death scene in the movie felt the wrath of the censors. The main offender here was the infamous "raft massacre," wherein 5 characters are brutally dispatched within a frenzied 30 seconds.

However, due to error, Thorn EMI released an uncut print of The Burning to the home video market. Despite the company attempting to remedy this with updated cassettes, it was impossible to recall every uncut print.

Subsequently both cuts of The Burning were culled from UK shelves in 1984 and the film was successfully prosecuted and banned. This measure remained in place until 1992, when VIPCO Entertainment reissued the censored print on VHS with an 18 certificate.

Since then The Burning has received at least 2 fully uncut releases in the United Kingdom on DVD and Blu-ray, both proudly advertising the film's link to infamy. Now we are free to see a young Fisher Stevens lose his fingers in all it's uncut glory.

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