Tag: video nasty

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Retrospectives

Retrospective: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

To say that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) helped shape the horror genre as we know and love it today would be an understatement. The film essentially tore through the screen and cascaded its way into the veins of genre cinema and aided in its stellar, magnetising and polarising reputation. Although its 50th anniversary is on the horizon, its reputation as a solid classic has never been more significant. 

The man behind the camera, Tobe Hooper, first conceived the idea for the film in the early seventies whilst he was working as an assistant director at the University of Texas at Austin. Enchanted by the mystery of rural isolation, darkened woods and the macabre nature of the human condition, Hooper took to sketching out film plots. His narrative would mould into shape over the years, but one focus that he kept true throughout was the aspect of real horror. One essence of storied evil came from the crimes by serial killer Ed Gein, whose reign of mutilation and murder gripped the nation since his attacks began in 1950s Wisconsin. 

With a rough idea in mind, Hooper enlisted his friend and fellow film creator Kim Henkel to flesh out what would soon be a titular force in the world of horror. Upon the trials and tribulations of funding, eventually, the pair eventually produced the film for around $140,000. Due to the scope of the project and the somewhat limited budget, the film developed an all-hands-on-deck mentality where the cast and crew gave themselves to a gruelling filming schedule and journey. With a dream of developing a contentious project for the time, the relatively unknown cast was deployed to Texas where they took over a farmhouse and its land where the southern humidity reached temperatures of 43°C; keep in mind that the shooting schedule consisted of 16 hour days, 7 days a week! 

In keeping with the authenticity of it all, the various horror paraphernalia seen throughout the film such as the copious amounts of blood, bones and gore were more often than not real. The blood seen splashed up against the walls in the dreaded farmhouse was real animal blood obtained from slaughterhouses. To further aid in the genuity of it all, the crew would often traverse the local gravel ways of the area to scour and collect the decomposing remains of roadkill and dumped cattle carcases to decorate the set. As if that wasn’t enough, a few scenes refrained from practical effects and opted for unstimulated violence, for example, during one scene a tube was supposed to secrete blood, however, due to technical malfunctions the tube failed, therefore, the lead actress, Marilyn Burns, and Hooper decided it would be best to instead slice her finger open with a razor blade to achieve the desired finish.

 Despite all the antics and devilment that ensued onscreen, the film managed to pull in a successful run at theatres, becoming the twelfth highest-grossing film of 1974. It has been reported that a large part of the film’s success and consequential issues with censorship regimes were owed to its misconception of factuality. The opening title crawl recounts that the film is a real account, based on a ‘true story’, leading to plenty of lore regarding its origins amongst cinemagoers. Eventually, the UK’s classification board, the BBFC, banned the film, citing that it advocated for “abnormal psychology”. It was not until the early 1980s that the film was released on video, however, due to the 1984 video nasties panic, the film was once again removed from public access. 

As the years rolled on and the censorship on horror loosened, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre became one of the most iconic pieces of cinema to exist. Featuring on nearly every ‘best film of all time’ list and garnering a protected and beloved status amongst all, Hooper’s once sordid feature has become a renowned classic. Many readings have circulated about the film, particularly surrounding the final girl philosophy, ‘urbanoia’ hysteria, and how the film spoke to the socio-political landscape at the time. Traversing back to the film’s title crawl – “the film you are about to see is true”, serves great significance in its diegesis. Hooper cites that the falsified warning was reminiscent of the misinformation of truth being spread to civilisation during the 1960s/1970s.

Hooper commented on how the news surrounding the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War led to many believing whatever agenda the press wanted one to believe, with society often overlooking the hidden atrocities at the time. In a similar vein, he also took to explaining how the horror in the film was of man’s creations, not a make-believe creature, again, taking aim at humanity’s own deadliness. As it stands today, fifty years on, this undertone of commentary still remains potent, with the film’s explorations of the transgressive speaking to many of the world’s events as of now. 

Moving onto a more creative framing, the film has served as a baseboard for the slasher genre. Many filmmakers have explicitly stated their inspirational admiration of Texas Chainsaw’, such as Rob Zombie’s Firefly trilogy. One rather obvious locus of devotion to Hooper’s classic is the film’s franchise expansion. The franchise boasts a whopping nine films, along with a successful video game spin-off, comics and books, leading to the series joining the likes of cinematic universes such as Halloween and Friday the 13th. Although some entries remain more successful than others, such as the brilliant Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), the original remains the undefeated champion. 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s contemporary reception is living proof of its indefinitely popular reception, with the film even being admitted into the Horror Hall of Fame (1990), serving as a recognised exemplary piece of filmmaking. Even aspects that seem elemental in the film still hold great traction after all this time. Think of the iconic character of Leatherface, the great force of antagonism. His character has been under the spotlight for years, with his psyche being analysed and relayed multiple times. Many see his villainy as being a product of his environment, where his actions do not necessarily come from a place of banality, but from a place of misunderstanding. Regardless of his ethos, what stands for many is how he is at the root of much of the film’s stunning aesthetic.

The film’s concluding scene shows Burn’s character, Sally, fleeing from the farmhouse, escaping on the back of a truck whilst Leatherface breaks chase with his chainsaw flinging in the air. There is something so intriguing about the sunset tones and his gruesome mask made out of flesh, along with the understanding that although Sally has escaped, Leatherface and everything he stands for still goes on thriving.

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Curiosity Corner

Facts you never knew about the ‘video nasties’


1 – One film has never made it out of the nasties list

As any horror fan will tell you, the ‘nasty’ period was brutal for the genre, with every film on the list going through rigorous censorship campaigns, resulting in many films not being released fully uncut until the mid-2000s. However, despite the times moving on, one film has still never seen the light of day in the UK. The banned culprit in discussion is Gestapo’s Last Orgy (1977), an exploitation flick centred on the horrors of war. 

2 – The media’s concern went further than you could believe

In an interview regarding the nasties’ ability to infect the public’s minds, MP Graham Bright, stated that “research is taking place and it will show that these films not only affect young people, but I believe they affect dogs as well”. 

3 – House of Commons goes to the cinema

As part of the NVALA (National Viewers and Listeners Association) campaign to ban the rise of horror, the organisation compiled a compilation of some of the more bloody moments from the films in question. This compilation was shown to ‘prove’ how horrid these films were, eventually convicning parliament to create laws and legislations that would change the path of horror cinema for decades to come.  

4 – Real or fake – the case of Cannibal Holocaust (1980) 

The infamous Cannibal Holocaust was not neccesarily the ‘worst’ film on the list. However, its use of firsthand footage and its mondo influences meant that director Ruggero Deodato was actually arrested for obscenity. The graphic material was so absurdly gruesome that the authorities eventually changed his charge to murder, as there was ‘no way’ that the performers actually went through the stunts voluntarily. Eventually, the case was settled when Deodato brought out the cast and proved that they were in fact still alive. 

5 – Havoc at the video store

When the authorities were at the peak of prosecuting films, they would patrol local video shops hunting for obscene films. However, due to the officers not actually viewing the films, they did not always know which movies to lift from the shops. According to official documentation, Dolly Parton’s comedy musical ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ (1982) as well as the acclaimed Apocalypse Now (1979) was seized simply due to their names. 

6 – False evidence

It was not uncommon to see newspapers and reports comment upon the nasties as being equivalent to exercises in sadism that have the potential to tarnish the minds of Britain’s youth. However, when this was actually investigated, the results pointed elsewhere. Dr Guy Cumberbath was more than hesitant over the claims, resulting in him interviewing students at primary schools about the latest nasties. Most of the kids admitted to watching these films and enjoying them, but as part of the study, Cumberbatch would ask about fake titles that didn’t actually exist, all of which the participants would claim to have consumed. 

7 – The rise in popularity 


The protests against the nasties were vigorous and strict, yet that did not stop the list of films gaining significant positive attention. One of the more popular nasties was Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981), with the film’s first VHS release in 1983 (prior to the Video Recordings Act [1984]) garnered £100,000 in profit from its UK sales, making it both one of the quickest selling video releases in the history of home video.

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Retrospectives Reviews Top Horror

Top Ten Video Nasties

Dead Northern picks its ‘Top Ten Video Nasties’, in celebration of our new monthly event ‘Nasty Video Club’!

10 – Tenebrae (Directed by Dario Argento, 1982) 

Throughout Dario Argento’s lengthy career, he has become synonymous with the Giallo subgenre of horror cinema, known for its hyper-stylised, theatrical films that focused on the fantasticality of the narrative. Whilst the video nasties have become heavily linked to slashers, an era of cinema that many forget is heavily twinned with the nasties is Giallo. One of the must-see films within this confine is Tenebrae, a stunning yet dramatically horrific tale of deceit and betrayal. Surprisingly, Tenebrae remained on the list until 1999; however, unlike many of the list’s entries, Tenebrae still managed to gain quite a reputation despite its censorship in the UK.

What propels Tenebrae into the video nasties hall of fame is the film’s most bloody and glorious scene, featuring a sudden axe attack which shows the victim flail her bloody, axe-wounded arm across an entire sterile white-coloured kitchen, painting the walls with bright red. As with many Giallo films, Tenebrae is a pure feat for the eyes, basking in the glory of beautifully morbid visuals and creating scenes that stand the test of time. 

9- Blood Feast (Directed by Herschell Gordon, 1963) 

Blood Feast is the oldest film on the video nasties list and one of the most underrated entries. The Herschell Gordon directed film is a junior feat from the early days of the splatter era. It is known for its pure bloodshed and frenzied chaos that focuses on heavy gore and violence, with the film’s storyline coming second to the visuals. Blood Feast fleshes out a myriad of themes, from cannibalism and ceremonial feasts to a whodunit mystery showcasing authorities trying their darndest to work out who is the culprit causing all of the murderous madness.

Whilst many video nasties have gone on to become outstanding classics, with burgeoning reputations following in its wake, Blood Feast has yet to reach this acclaimed status. Many horror icons, including none other than Stephen King, have gone on to declare their disdain for this film, yet, there is something so moreish about this 1960s classic. Indeed, the performances are not entirely polished, nor is the dialogue anything outstanding. However, Blood Feast belongs to that homegrown, grassroots string of horror that gives credence to independent filmmaking.

8- The Driller Killer (Directed by Abel Ferrara, 1979) 

The Driller Killer screams ‘video nasties’. Everything about the film is entwined with what the nasty list epitomises; it has a catchy name, countless instances of violence, and is an all-around whale of a time. The film had one of the more severe punishments during the nasty reign, with the slasher not being reinstated until 2002 and belonging to the prosecuted section of the list.

However, the gore is so overtly over the top that any form of realism is entirely stripped, yet it is within this fantasticality that The Driller Killer shines. The flagrant score overpowers the dialogue at times, and the animated acting that thrives alongside the ludicrous character decisions propels the film into typical ‘nasty’ terrain where excessiveness trumps quality. 

7- The Burning (Directed by Tony Maylam, 1981) 

During the early 1980s, there was a massive boom in the horror market, with slashers, splatters, and gorefests rallying in the crowds and making financial waves in the process. Studios were desperate to capitalise on the success, with The Burning’s campsite premise eventually gaining interest. Upon its release, reviews were mixed, with horror still being a critically contentious subject. Despite The Burning not capturing critics’ attention, the film drew interest from the censorship board, which made excessive cuts for the cinema release. As the nasty epidemic grew, The Burning caused further outrage despite the public being openly allowed to watch it in theatres years prior. It was not until 2002 that audiences could watch The Burning in its full glory, with all of its murderous mayhem.


6- The Funhouse (Directed by Tobe Hooper, 1981) 

Tobe Hooper is known for the one and only Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), the quintessential piece of horror history. However, The Funhouse still remains a criminally underrated diamond from his extensive filmography. The film is a terrifying circus of what happens when a carnival turns deadly, with the fairground antics collaborating with the multiple slayings, impalements, and electrocutions. Compared to its fellow comrades on the list, The Funhouse had an easy ride, obtaining a cinema release years prior and then being released uncut in 1987.


5- Dead & Buried (Directed by Gary Sherman, 1981)

For a gruesome video nasty with an abundance of visceral gore and ghastly frights, Dead & Buried has an incredibly gripping story that keeps audiences on their toes with immense amounts of suspense and tension. The writing duo Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett are at the hands of the grasping script. Amongst their credits are Return of the Living Dead (1985), Total Recall (1990), and the original story for Alien (1979). The film oozes relentless excitement, with each twist and turn complimenting the gnaly practical effects.


4- The Last House on the Left (Directed by Wes Craven, 1972) 

Prior to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Scream (1996), there was the utterly savage, brutal, and unforgettable The Last House on the Left. This 1970s classic based on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) is a film that was deemed so barbaric that the BBFC did not release the full uncut version until 2008, not to mention the several post-nasties campaigns fighting against the release appeals made against the film for decades.

In decoding the film, there are a plethora of reasons raised as to why it remains just as disturbing now as it did decades ago, namely the realism that Craven applies to depict the horror. Despite the offbeat, out-of-place soundtrack and questionable acting, the events are beyond harrowing thanks to the unflinching camera that aims to show as much terror as humanly possible. 

3- The Beyond (Directed by Lucio Fulci, 1981)

Another giallo classic to round off the list is The Beyond, a certified Lucio Fulci must-see. With The Beyond being the second entry in his ‘Gates of Hell’ trilogy (also including City of The Living Dead [1980] and The House by the Cemetary [1981]), its of no surprise that the film induces a blood-curdling, white-knuckled ride into delightful frights.

The Beyond’s contemporary cult reception is a warm welcome considering its contentious release, with the film not receiving an uncut release in the UK until 2001, as well as it not being available for public viewing until 1996 in the U.S.

2- Possession (Directed by Andrzej Żuławski, 1981)

Known as one of the most unhinged horror film’s from the eighties’ due to the infamous ‘tunnel scene’ is Possession, a European, graphic horror with an art-house flare that can only be described as eccentrically bizarre. Unlike many films that have a beginning, middle, end, rounded up with a solid conclusion, Possession ends with even more questions raised. To add to the narrative connundrem is the aforementioned tunnel escapade, which is a stunning exercise into how crucial performances can be in attaining affect. The film is definitely not for the faint of heart, eyes, or mind!

1- The Evil Dead (Directed by Sam Raimi, 1981)

Considering The Evil Dead’s contemporary reception, it can be easily forgotten how controversial the film was at the time of its release. Raimi’s deadite adventures has not faltered at the hands of time whatsoever, with every inch of the film being just as entertaining now, if not more, than when it first hit the screens.

Everything, from the chilling dialogue sung and screamed by the evil creatures, the unforgettable tree sequence, the first word read from the Necronomicon, and Ash’s (Bruce Campbell) iconic catchphrases is an essential part of horror film history. If there was the ultimate entry from the video nasty list, The Evil Dead will always be crowned winner.

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Curiosity Corner Reviews

The Video Nasties: A brief history of the UK’s moral panic in the 1980’s

Video Nasties

Censorship has consistently exerted a high level of control over what is and is not acceptable to be viewed. In particular, The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has made sure that horror has endured a string of scrutiny for decades, leaving a trail of irony, criticism, and controversy across horror history. The BBFC is the ruling authority that has been in power since 1912 due to the Cinematograph act 1909 which regulated what films were granted permission to be screened at the cinema.

As time has progressed a series of changes has been made internally within the BBFC, with the primary alteration surrounding the changing role of the chief censor. At first, the BBFC was rather friendly with somewhat obscene material, as Chief John Trevelyan had a more open view of acceptability, take for example Ken Russel’s The Devils (1971). Trevelyan passed this film which was not shy about exposing sacrilegious imagery with an X rating. This soon transpired a series of outrage from the British Public. However, this brief enlightening of liberalization was harshly interrupted by the arrival of home video. 

In 1979 video players were first released in all high street shops, available to anyone. Regardless of one’s age you could view any material no matter the content as film’s did not have to go through the rigmarole of censoring. In retrospect the introduction of this marvellous invention is ground breaking, yet many mainstream distributors were more than reluctant to release any films, as they saw it as a threat to cinema and piracy infringements. This reluctance aided an influx of low budget horror films to dominate the market. TV was no longer solely there to appease family values, instead it was a chance to watch lurid and explicit content without numerous cuts and interferences. The accessibility was viewed as a major threat to the “youth of Britain’s mental health”, as supposedly these graphic horrors could literally possess children and force them to repeat the acts that they saw on screen. 

Quite understandably, this new territory could have been minutely intimidating, but the painstakingly long journey that horror went through to gain integration into the mainstream was beyond dramatically treacherous. The nation, bargained by the media, believed that these films were serious enough to be considered a moral panic, meaning that a general feeling of fear was felt across society mainly due to scaremongering and falsely constructed information. The barrage of terror was helmed by the one and only Mary Whitehouse, who for those who may not know is horror’s worst enemy. 

Whitehouse alongside the National Viewers and Listeners Association (now Mediawatch-UK) launched the Clean-up TV campaign which garnered over 500,000 signatures. The crusade gained both government and media attention very quickly, resulting in mass vexation. Soon titles such as  “How High Street Horror is Invading the Home’‘ (The Sunday Times, 1982) dominated newspapers, with The Daily Mail jumpstarting their own campaign literally called “Ban the Sadist Video”. The most ludicrous statement of them all can be seen in an interview with MP Graham Bright who states that the video nasties will even affect your family pets! Whilst every outlet was busy fabricating how these films were corrupting the youth of Britain, the actual films themselves were basking in the attention, their sales had gone through the roof. Supposedly the saying of ‘all publicity is good publicity’ is true after all. 

With the hatred was this arrival of attention which made people crave the gore even more. The fantastical cover artwork was purposefully daring, alluring audiences in with the promise of salacious material. Half of the time the covers and titles were far more smutty than the films could ever be. For example, The Toolbox Murders (Dennis Donnelly, 1978) vividly presents a nude woman crouched in front of a masked man wielding a phallically held drill. But the moral campaigners decided to forgo actually watching the content to decipher the actual material, apparently the cover was enough alone to ban this film. 

This judgemental notion was truly enforced once Whitehouse, alongside PM Margaret Thatcher, and MP Gareth Wardell had briefly introduced a harsher version of the already implicated Obscene Publication Act 1959 (OPA act), which saw the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) create a list of films that breached the OPA act, the list was modified monthly and at one point featured 72 titles including the now classics Cannibal Holocuast (Ruggero Deodato, 1980), I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978), and The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972). The list proved faulty, but instead of rationalising the seriousness of the ‘issue’ the panic continued to surge, resulting in The Videos Recording Act 1984  (VRA Act) being introduced. From this point on copious films were illegal to sell, with video shops selling such material even facing jail time alongside a hefty fine and license stripping. 

With this, the video nasties were officially born. The arrival of the VRA act was damning for future productions, but what truly cast their baptism as dreadful films tainting the scoundrels who dared to watch them was the comedic irony of the whole situation. The papers who blasted the nasties were so strict and constant in their abuse that naturally, the public conformed to what they were being told. In the 1980s there was no social media to get a second opinion, the views were majorly swayed. The moral panic was gradually slowed due to the VRA, with the nasties becoming old news. It wasn’t until years later when these films began to emerge from the pits of darkness (where they supposedly belong), and although horror is home to some pretty grim material some films have still never been released uncut. 

The nasties are gone but not forgotten. Villainizing a film is effective to a degree if you are sat on the opposite side, but eventually, the opposition will fall. Brainwashing the public to see the nasties as detrimental undoubtedly worked, yet it is widely known that the peddle pushing did not revolve entirely around the content; the threat of the unknown stayed close within the BBFC’s peripheral, these people were comfortable with their right lifestyle, and the nasties that had injected themselves into Britain’s mainstream were mainly Italian and American produced, showing a whole new set of cultural values. The conformity of the ‘known’ was breaking down, thus forcing traditional British values to be malleable and no longer set in stone. The fear did not solely surround the content of the nasties, but instead the alarm was rung due to the uncharted territory that the films invited in. 

Within the current climate, one can view whatever material they wish at the click of a keypad. The iceberg system of disturbing horror would have genuinely caused an entire breakdown across the country if films such as A Serbian Film (Srdjan Spasojevic, 2010) had been released in Britain back then. Even in this day and age, Spasojevic’s exploration into exploitation cinema had major issues with censorship from the BBFC, with multiple cuts being necessary for a release. Audiences are still being tested to this day, many films including A Serbian Film are not overly controversial in comparison to some of horror’s most daring ventures, take for example The Bunny Game (Adam Rehmeier, 2010). Rehmeier is the creator of one of the most harrowing tales legal cinema has ever seen.

The Bunny Game has been rejected for release in multiple countries including the UK and America, with its strong emphasis on violence against women and unstimulated scenes being too much for censors to handle. Matching this level of violence is Grotesque (Koji Shiraishi, 2009), which gives Takasi Miike’s reputation as Japan’s most controversial director a run for its money. Over time the craving for particularly gruesome horror has soared with many directors battling it out to try and test the boundaries as much as possible. 

What can be taken away from the video nasty era is the sense of miscontrol that the genre really has. Although profits have soared and popularity has grown there will always be a stigma against the content. The nasties are a reminder that liberalization within cinema is still a touchy subject.

The days of the nasties seem so long ago, but instead of that section of history being dead and buried it seems that censorship lives on, not necessarily through the BBFC but through public attitudes to the weird and wonderful world of horror.