Its 1984! Thatcherism, strikes, riots, football hooliganism and a crunch down on an evil far worse than all of these things video! The 1980s saw the advent of video, which allowed people to bring the joy of cinema into their own homes. Newsagents were quickly stocked with hundreds of titles of all genres that members of the public could rent; and because it was a new medium there were no laws to govern what could and could not be released. It wasnt long before religious and public concern groups took an issue with the form and started to put pressure on the government to investigate the filthy, lewd, degrading, obscene, foul, corrupting smut that was invading the homes of unassuming members of the public and corrupting the minds of the youth. It was the greatest evil since Rock and Roll. The result was a number of prosecutions under the Obscene Publications Act of what were called video nasties, which eventually lead to the cementing of an act that would govern video The Video Recordings Act 1984.
Split over three discs, the collection does very much as it says on the tin or, er box it provides a definitive guide to all the 72 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions; disc one covers the 39 that were successfully prosecuted and banned, and disc 2 covers the 33 that got away. Disc 3 contains a documentary that covers the period: the background, the cases and the impact they had on the future of video and film. The documentary on disc 3 is an engaging and thoroughly interesting view, filled with great insights from learned academics and journalists, as well as superb, comedic and at time geeks input from filmmakers of the day and those who were inspired by the films of the period, the latter including
Neil Marshall of The Descent and Dog Soldiers, and
Christopher Smith of Creep and The Black Death. It not only covers the time period but really captures a sense of the era and sucks you into a time of complete and utter disarray and paranoia, with footage of super conservative Mary Whitehouse and MP Graham Bright.
As a piece of informative viewing, discs 1 and 2 are extremely satisfying. All of the commentators present detailed, learned, articulate analysis of each title, peppered with sharp wit and candour. As someone who wrote a dissertation on the VRA 1984 and the video nasties, I lament the fact this documentary was not available several years sooner because it would have been an invaluable tool; it is an in-depth analysis of intensely interesting time in the development of home entertainment in Britain and Britain on the whole. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCgq-fkH09w However, I question the entertainment value in these two discs. They take a very simple form; a title card, followed by an analysis, followed by a trailer. It is their greatest strength from an educational point of view, but at the same time, stops it from being anything more than a rather repetitive, formulaic collection of talking heads. Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide is available on
2-Disc DVD from today.