10 Video Nasties That Became Horror Classics

Dubbed “the original video nasty”, Abel Ferrara’s black comedy horror The Driller Killer was released in the UK on video in 1982 accompanied by a deliberately provocative and violent rental sleeve and advertising campaign.

Predictably, Mary Whitehouse and her moral minions latched onto the movie eventually prosecuting it under the Obscene Publications Act which resulted in it being banned in Britain for well over a decade. In fact, The Driller Killer stirred up such a fuss that former BBFC examiner Michael Bor claimed it was practically single-handedly responsible for the introduction of the new Video Recordings Act in 1984.

Since its unbanning in 1999, it’s been recognised that Ferrara’s film was nowhere near as gory as many of its video nasty contemporaries nor as gory as its title would suggest. Today, The Driller Killer is considered a cult classic that blurs the line between arthouse and exploitation though Ferrara’s later, more acclaimed career may have something to do with that swerve in popular opinion.