H - Hysteria
The good old Daily Mail! Where would we be without it to protect us from moral bankruptcy and all out hedonism? Still chuntering about violent films to this day, the Daily Mail was surely the most guilty newspaper of stirring up hysteria during the Video Nasty era - influencing the censors and politicians and driving the public into complete panic. Thank you Daily Mail! Your efforts helped to create the Video Nasty List and enlivened my teenage years searching for banned films. Without your outrage, they would have faded into oblivion, I wouldn't be having a blast writing this and I would never have been introduced to Killer Nun. So cheers. The press got it all wrong about video nasties. I think in the majority of cases, they just took a look at the front cover of the video and went nuts solely based upon that. Now the covers for SS Experiment Camp, Cannibal Holocaust and Driller Killer looked particularly obnoxious, but gauging the level of hysteria coming from the press, they couldn't have actually sat down and watched the damn films. Titles were banned just because of their covers or titles. Everything was blown out of proportion. Video Nasties were to blame for the state of the nation. This went on and on.... But as I said, at least it enlivened our teenage years trying to get hold of the Nasties. The list was like a Holy Grail to me and my friends. There was further press controversy over other non-Nasty films. Child's Play 3, Reservoir Dogs, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, Crash and others have got the press into hysteria, and I'm sure there is plenty more of that to come.
I - Italians
Our Italian friends were especially prolific in churning out dodgy films in the 1970s and 1980s, and they deserve their own entry to celebrate the fabulous (in most cases) contribution that they made to the library of Video Nasties. Notable entries include: the Master of Italian horror - Dario Argento for Tenebrae, a clever Giallo that soars above its Nasty brethren. We have already celebrated Italian gore guru Lucio Fulci's outstanding contribution to the Video Nasties. Sleaze Maestro Joe D'Amato makes an inevitable appearance with Anthropophagous The Beast. Antonio Margheriti, an incredibly versatile director, had some involvement with Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Oops! I nearly forgot Mario Bava! The problem with Italian low budget cinema around this time was that it was full of hack directors. They had no ideas of their own and only wanted to exploit the better fresh ideas of talented directors who had scored a hit. This led to cycles of exploitation cinema in Italy, with crappy directors ripping off other crappy director's crappy films. This resulted in some pretty bad Italian rip off films in the Nasty list including: all of the Nazi films (except Love Camp 7), Luigi Cozzi's Contamination (poor attempt to make an Alienesque film). Bruno Mattei's Zombie Creeping Flesh (actively rips off Dawn of the Dead and pretends it is a prequel to that movie). Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox (lame pretensions to Cannibal Holocaust). Romano Scavolini's half assed slasher Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (good title but doesn't deliver the goods) Nevertheless, even the lame Italian films are sometimes fun to watch if you are in a goofy state of mind. For delivering class and sleaze to us Nasty hounds, I propose a toast to Italy. Evviva!