13 The Evil Dead (1981)
Banned: Singapore, Finland, UK, Germany, Iceland, Ireland One of greatest horror films of all time, Sam Raimis directorial debut features a group of college students who go to a cabin in the woods and end up the victims of demonic possession. It was a sleeper hit. Made on a minuscule budget, The Evil Dead became a word of mouth phenomenon and ended up grossing eight times what it took to make. The film was to become exceptionally successful in the nascent home video market where it shifted thousands of units in the UK alone becoming the top grossing video of the video boom years. In the UK,The Evil Dead was in the vanguard of the Video Nasty brouhaha one of the titles that was especially persecuted and torn to shreds by the likes of Mary Whitehouse and her morality campaigners. Known as the number one nasty, the UK ban probably boosted the films sales figures even higher. It became THE nasty to watch outstripping Cannibal Holocaust, Driller Killer, I Spit on Your Grave and SS Experiment Camp as the most wanted nasty. There was a ping pong match between the films distributor and the censors, chopping scenes and resubmitting the film only to be told to chop more scenes. Eventually a version that everyone was happy with was released. The film also had severe censorship problems in a range of countries around the world.