The Evil Dead, The Living Dead and the dead wrong

New DVD celebrates the 80s heyday of video nasties - a genre that didn't quite corrupt the nation's youth … or its dogs
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Bogey Man
Lurid artwork made the likes of The Bogey man appear far scarier than they actually were

Hard to believe now, but back in the early 1980s Britain was under attack. A sustained attack from a foe more insidious and corrupting than anything that had assailed our shores before; a demonic force that destroyed our mental health, that could deprave all who came into contact with it. Highly scientific studies proved beyond all doubt the peril we were all in, especially our children and even our pets. This was the menace that came from something called a "Video Nasty".

There are two things you should know about that opening paragraph: firstly, everything in it was at one time believed by our leaders of the day (yes, even the bit about pets). And second, they were completely wrong on every count. It was a shameful period in our recent history, but not for the reasons they would have you think. Now, with the release of the incredibly informative and entertaining DVD Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide, for the first time the complete gory story can be told.

So what was a video nasty? In a nutshell, it was most likely to be a low-budget horror film, produced in the US or Italy, that exploited the lack of a rigorous regulatory system for how rental video cassettes were circulated in the UK. The home video market had just exploded, almost everyone, in the space of a few years, had a video recorder in their home and as far as retailers and distributors were concerned, it was frontier territory. There was no censorship, classification or regulation. Videos could be bought or rented from almost anywhere: newsagents, garages, even butchers and barbers. They were everywhere, and the most popular (thanks to some incredibly lurid and wonderfully provocative cover artwork), and conspicuous were the horror films.

There had been vague murmurings in the press, echoing the ban on children's horror comics in the late 1950s, that these videos, such as I Spit On Your Grave and The Evil Dead, were harmful to children; murmurings based on opinion rather than fact. But it wasn't until well-known busybody and very vocal self-appointed mouthpiece for the moral minority Mary Whitehouse CBE was sent a copy of Cannibal Holocaust ("Eaten Alive! The Ultimate Terror Movie!") that the video nasty ball really started rolling.

Whitehouse had previously and largely ineffectively railed against such TV shows as Doctor Who, Benny Hill and the works of the great television dramatist Dennis Potter. Here, however, was a new campaign: on a topic most people knew even less about than she did. "I have never seen a video nasty … I actually don't need to see visually what I know is in that film," she proudly proclaimed to Nick Owen on TV-am. Most people refused to take her seriously, but that was a big mistake. Before long, others had joined Whitehouse's crusade or taken up a similar, self-righteous path. Conservative MP Sir Graham Bright was another key player. Here was a man who said, on camera, "I believe there is research taking place and it will show that these films not only affect young people but I believe they affect dogs as well." It's a statement more shocking and horrifying than anything you'll find in any of the 72 films decreed by the government to be officially "nasty".

This was a time when completely spurious figures ("40% of all six-year-olds have seen a video nasty"), were bandied around parliament as fact, alongside emotive words like "evil" and, indeed, "nasty". Soon Bright had a bill pushed through parliament, amending the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 to include movies. The director of public prosecutions and the police got in on the act, seizing and destroying thousands of tapes and ruining countless businesses and lives. Distributor David Hamilton-Grant was given an 18-month sentence for releasing a version of Nightmares In A Damaged Brain that was a few seconds longer than the version passed by the BBFC. It turned everyone who watched or passed around these movies, many horror fans, into criminals. Or did it?

Last year it came to light that the bill was never correctly put before the European Commission, effectively negating it. While the situation was quickly rectified, it showed that the law had been ignored by the lawmakers, the very people who were supposed to be protecting us from this stuff.

And what of the films themselves? Well, today, the original 1983 list of 72 "nasty" movies put together by the department of public prosecutions (39 of them prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act) provides a handy list of must-see titles for the horror connoisseur, more attractive than any "best of" list from the BFI or AFI.

As the films were chosen almost at random, there's a huge variety in terms of quality; in fact it was generally the poor quality, rather than any "shocking" content that prevented film critics standing up to defend video nasties at the time. Today, watching a video nasty can still be a harrowing experience: there are some films you really don't ever need to see. So here's a handy rundown of the essentials, and the ones that are still best avoided.

Video nasties: the good

The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead Outright classic first movie from the director of Spider-Man, now out on Blu-Ray.

The Beyond Probably banned for the scene of a young zombie girl getting shot in the face. Exactly the same thing happens in the AMC TV show The Walking Dead. That's progress!

Dead And Buried Smart and stylish zombie movie from the writers of Alien, with bizarre FX by four-times Oscar winner Stan Winston.

The Bogey Man Colourful and creepy Halloween rip-off from Ulli Lommel.

Tenebrae Slick slasher movie with spectacular set-piece murders. Actress Veronica Lario married Silvio Berlusconi. Who, er, kept this off TV screens.

Last House On The Left Wes Craven's first horror. The only video nasty to rip off Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring.

The Driller Killer Abel Ferrara directs himself as a tortured NY artist who kills and drills arty poseurs.

The Funhouse Great carnival-based horror from Texas Chain Saw's Tobe Hooper.

The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue Amazing Spanish/Italian zombie flick shot in the Peak District. It shouldn't work, but it does.

Cannibal Holocaust Gave us the "found footage" routine later adopted by The Blair Witch Project.

Andy Warhol's Frankenstein One of the finest 3D horrors ever made.

Nightmare Maker Well-acted and deeply twisted tale of obsessive love.

Possession A highly stylised, gory look at a marriage breakdown as Sam Neil suspects his wife, Isabelle Adjani (who won Best Actress at Cannes for this), is having an affair with a tentacled beastie.

Video nasties: the bad


Snuff From exploitation duo Mike and Roberta Findlay (who also managed legendary New York recording studios Sear Sound, as used by the Strokes, Patti Smith and Sigur Rós) who added very fake gore to an Argentinian dud then paid people to protest the movie. All of that is more interesting than actually watching it.

Night Of The Bloody Apes Depends on your tolerance for bad monster masks and genuine footage of open heart surgery.

Blood Rites Blood Wrongs, more like.

Absurd An open goal of a title, one it lives up to. May have been deemed obscene but at least it doesn't contravene the Trade Descriptions Act.

Don't Go In The Woods … Alone! Another easy target title. Don't say they didn't warn you.

Mardi Gras Massacre Nudity, sleaze, hookers, gore and Mardi Gras masks. Actually, that doesn't make it sound too bad.

Gestapo's Last Orgy, SS Experiment Camp, Love Camp 7 Three films from a genre known as "Nazisploitation". Interesting that such a thing existed. Rather less fascinating to actually sit through.

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