10 Video Nasties That Shouldn’t Have Been Banned

The Funhouse is an old-school slasher movie created by Tobe Hooper in his career heyday. Released seven years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Funhouse is a forgotten little movie that wasn’t anywhere near as popular as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was, but it was just as controversial.

Whilst Tobe Hooper had already graced the ‘Video Nasty’ list with Death Trap, which was rather violent and perverse, The Funhouse was none of those things. It was a toned down and minimally violent slasher set in an American carnival. Blood in this movie is a rarity, and all the kills happen offscreen, thus it was released uncut for cinema and also released uncut in 1987. However, it shouldn’t have been banned in the first place. The Funhouse was put on the list because of a genuine mistake: it was confused for another film called The Last House On Dead End Street.

The Last House On Dead End Street was a cheap, dirty, and nasty film made by a few drug-addled young people with too much money on their hands. However, it was originally released under the title ‘The Fun House’ in 1979. In 1984, although this film was known, it had renamed itself to The Last House On Dead End Street on store shelves. Thus, instead of seizing copies of this movie, Tobe Hooper’s harmless horror flick The Funhouse was grabbed by confused officials instead.