VHS Nasty (2019) - full transcript

- [Announcer] On behalf of

the motion picture industry,

welcome to the world of

home video entertainment.

[Reel rattling]

[dark synthesizer music]

- [Narrator] A video

nasty is a colloquial term

used in the United

Kingdom and Europe

to describe a number of

films which are distributed

on VHS video in the early

1980s, which were heavily

criticized by the

press, Parliament

and various religious

organizations

for their content

which contained

strong use of violence

and graphic nudity.

No legislation was in place to

regulate home video content.

This meant that any

films on the market

and available for video rental

stores had no certification.

Although the act did not

govern home video at the time,

at this time the British

Board of Film Censorship

was established in 1912

only governed theatrical

cinematic releases and was not

enforced to censor home video.

This is due to a loophole within

the film classification

laws at the time.

Because of this,

in the early 1980s,

the market was flooded with

low budget horror films

featuring gore, violence

and graphic nudity.

Due to the video nasty

debate in both Parliament

and in the courts, this

resulted in a number of films

being prosecuted

in the early 80s

by the director of

public prosecutions.

Following this, the

government passed

the Video Recordings Act 1984,

which meant in Britain

all video releases

had to appear before the BBFC.

The so-called video

nasties caused

an outright media frenzy

during the early 1980s.

- [Announcer] To avoid

fainting, keep repeating, it's--

- [Crowd] Only a movie,

only a movie, only a movie.

- [Narrator] In 1982, Vidco

placed an advertisement

for the Driller Killer

in a VHS magazine.

This advertisement served

to bring the awareness

of these types of films to

the attention of the masses.

What happens next was--

- Censorship, censorship.

- [Announcer] Cannibalism.

- Censorship.

- I think it's important

for us to define

what we're talking

about here at the start.

This isn't the small

type of censorship,

say an adult trying to restrict

the access of a small child

to pornography,

something you could argue

is in the best interest of

someone who is not capable

of deciding for themselves

what's best for them

or what is possibly

bad for them.

This is something different.

This is something larger.

This is something insidious.

This is a small group of people,

a governing body of some type

restricting the

access of the body,

of the masses to

something that they want.

These are people who can

decide for themselves

what's good for them or

possibly bad for them,

but you have this

overreaching governing agency

or government

enforcing their own

ideals, morals on the masses.

This is where things get wrong.

And this is what

we're talking about

when we talk about censorship

within this context,

the video nasties, the

PRMC, the Satanic Panic,

this whole era of restriction

of music and film and art

in general from the masses.

- So if you were lucky

enough to own a video player

in the early 80s, you

had unrestricted access

to a number of violent

horror gore films

full of blood full of gore full

of splinters going in eyes,

full of drills going in

heads, full of nudity,

full of Nazis,

full of everything.

The video nasties

are bloody amazing.

They're very important for

film, for film history.

I don't think there

isn't a film maker

a horror film maker alive today

who doesn't owe a

debt to a video nasty.

They were such a big part

of our British culture

and worldwide, they're

a worldwide phenomenon.

- Even the word nasty,

what does it mean?

At the time when that

phrase was coined,

it was considered an

incredibly nasty, vicious film

with a lot of violence,

usually sexualized violence.

Women were the main target

and victims in these films.

And certainly American films

I even find distasteful

the early Wes Craven,

Last House on the Left,

I Spit On Your Grave,

for example another film from that genre

which seemed to revel

in sexual violence

and it's something that I've

never felt comfortable with.

But whether those

films should be banned

or whether they should

just have a warning on them

is a controversial subject.

Because if you talk

about banning things

then you get into

that area where

if you know Fahrenheit

451 essentially

is the temperature of which

paper erupts into flame

and that was kind of

exemplified as an example

in that great film

of the same name.

- Pretty much everything on this list is known for its brutality,

movies like House on

the Edge of the Park.

It's got a lot of rape scenes,

but they're also very

violent in nature.

The same thing with

Last House on the Left.

I think that's sort of

what in a lot of ways

what makes these

videos video nasty,

it's just the

nastiness of it all.

- I know the actual

New York repo

and they actually escorted

that film out of the country

because they didn't want anyone

even making bootleg copies

or any distributor

getting hold of that film.

So the New York repo was actually escorted out the country,

which is really crazy.

- But here's the problem

censorship inevitably runs into

is that any time an art

form, music, film whatever

is censored that inevitably

creates an underground movement,

a collective of creative

people that are inspired by

the restrictions that

have been placed upon them

and seek to circumvent that

and find new ways, new

forms of expression,

more extreme forms of expression

as a direct response to the

unfairness of the censorship.

That whether it's hip hop,

whether it's punk rock,

whether it's horror films,

that underground

movement eventually

because of that extremity

because of the interest

in the rebelliousness

of what they're trying to do

that outside group inevitably

takes over the mainstream

down the road and

becomes the mainstream.

The real hilarious

thing about censorship

is if you think about

things that have been

censored from The Wolf Man

in 1931 to Friday the 13th

to Where the Wild Things

Are it doesn't work.

I mean in the end

over the long term,

censorship does not

work, because eventually

these things you're

trying suppress always

get out there, always.

That's the irony of censorship.

- Censorship.

- [Lloyd] There should be no

censorship in films whatsoever

except for children, protect

the children, that's it.

It was a disaster to ban

the movies in the 80s,

like Mother's Day, Toxic Avenger

because what you got

a 40-minute version

of the Toxic Avenger.

It wasted people's money,

it wasted their time

and wasted very good art.

There's no reason for

any kind of censorship.

This is idiotic.

- So it means that

what we're in danger of

is throwing all of these films

into a great conflagration

and destroying them forever

and then a very valid part

of our movie history is lost.

So I think that's what the

British government at the time

had in mind when the list

of video nasties emerged,

where they decided that

any film that had any kind

of graphic violence was

considered beyond the taste

of the British taste

makers and because of that

they decided that the public

should not have access to them.

They became an illegal list

whereby if you wanted them

and they still were

available, you literally

had to get them in a brown

paper bag under the counter

and take them home and bring

them back in the same manner.

- The story I heard is

that they had a Go Video

once try to drum up some

publicity for his film

so he sent a copy

to Mary Whitehouse

pretending to be an angry

member of the public

who had come across

it in a video store

and he was hoping that

she'd complain about it

and that would get people

going out and buying it.

But instead it had a bit

of a catastrophic effect

on the video industry

as a whole at the time

because then it kickstarted

the whole Department

of Public Prosecutions

raids and making a

list and police raids.

So I think that was the kind

of catalyst for the whole thing

but most of the time you

would have video magazines

that would have full page ads

for stuff like The Dreaded

Cutter, Essex Experiment Camp

and things like that

and the video industry

didn't help themselves

at the time.

- But as you can see from

the list of video nasties

a lot of the films are

great Italian classics.

You're looking at Suspiria,

one of the great art movies

of the late 20th century.

Looking at Tenebrae

another really beautiful,

but extremely violent

film, which also had humor

and some of the most

dramatic camera movements

ever recorded in cinema history.

You had the films

from Lucio Fulci,

which again are extremely

violent zombie films,

but they're zombie films.

They're not to be

taken that seriously.

Zombies are fantasy.

As we can see now

in the 21st century,

one of the biggest

shows on the planet

is The Walking Dead.

Now nobody is trying

to ban that show

and it's far more

violent and aggressive

than anything that came

out in the 70s and the 80s.

Again I think video nasties

were a product of their time

and a kind of ethos of the time

of political correctness

where people felt that

we need to safeguard the

moral life of the viewer.

It is fascinating when you look

at the films on the list now

you're looking at The Evil

Dead and you think well

why was that film on the

list of video nasties?

Probably because there was

penetration with a tree branch

basically a women

was raped by a tree

and then you also had a lot of

scenes of aggressive violence

but again that sort of

thing was I think when

sexualized violence

was included with

the more mainstream

horror violence,

then became a tricky area for

the taste makers in Britain.

- Police and forces

were going around

removing these video

tapes from video shops

and burning them,

it's totally crazy.

You think it wasn't that long

ago that this was happening.

I mean where would these

bloody people be now?

What would Mary Whitehouse

do with the Internet?

Would she sit there

going around every webcam

sex fucking website

trying to censor that?

What would she be doing now?

- They wanted to get people

to buy their products

and they tried it in the most

sensationalist way possible

and I think at the time they could have been more like if they hadn't done

maybe we wouldn't

have had censorship

or censorship wouldn't have

been so tough as it was.

But they really kind

of in their need

to try and get people

buying their videos

they really went overboard

because at the time when

videos first came out

there wasn't any categorization.

It was classed as a

publishing medium alongside

books and music

and I don't know,

it would be interesting to

see what would have happened

with home video and

watching films at home

if the home video nasty

scandal hadn't happened.

I mean would it have gone

down the same path as

publishing mediums like

books and music and stuff

or would the classification

system be inevitable?

- Well my views on

censorship as a whole,

it's a tricky one isn't it?

Because I'm a libertarian, I

believe in freedom of speech.

We fought two world wars,

even English civil war

was partly about the

freedom of speech.

John Milton actually

wrote a famous pamphlet

speaking about censorship

which I've read.

That's even now

regarded as a classic.

So even then back

in the 1640s, 50s

people were against censorship.

The only thing, where

do you cut the line?

Where you have that point where

you think this is too much?

- I think censorship it

needs to be in place.

I mean there were

definitely movies

that I was watching

when I was young

that I really question

how I even got to do that.

I really believe some

things just shouldn't

be sent to young

persons you know.

You need to be mature and you

need to have life experience

to be able to digest what

it is that you're seeing

so it doesn't affect

you in a negative way.

Still baffled that a lot of the

stuff in America is unrated.

I would die if one of

my kids grabbed a hold

of Cannibal Holocaust and

they were 10 years old

or something it's kind of scary.

I think it's good

in this country,

in Australia that we

have pretty strict laws

on the classifications

because it is appropriate

that some stuff that

kids shouldn't see

until their minds are formed.

- I think you've got

to have some boundaries

with censorship because

I don't want to see

inappropriate material

that children are being put

in films and that.

Because you can't have a

free-for-all I don't believe.

So there's certain things which

I don't think you should show.

Stuff like kids,

but other things

like people being

killed on camera,

not for real of course, I

mean I'm totally against that

because some people

even want to legalize

so-called snuff movies

where people are actually

being killed for real and

that should never be allowed

to happen in any

civilized society

that those films should

be made freely available

if they even exist because some

people say it's just a myth.

So censorship some

things are inappropriate,

which I just said,

but on the whole,

you can't censorship with

films like this to be honest

because at the end of the day

it's just actors, they're acting

even if they weren't

that good some of them.

It's just fiction.

People who want to

ban all these films

should get over it

in my humble opinion.

- The idea of singling

out films in my opinion,

it's just absurd the

whole idea of censorship

in this day and age as well,

particular the Internet and--

- Censorship.

- The idea that you can get,

you can buy these things

and the fact that you

know you had films

that were banned for

years and years

and then they've

all been released

and there's been no

discernible affect on society.

There's not been a sudden

uprise in violence and crimes

and this is all

the sort of things

that Mary Whitehouse

and Margaret Thatcher

was trying these films

were responsible for

when in fact it was her way

diverting attention away

from how badly she's running

the country and stuff.

With Mary Whitehouse,

I think she just wanted

to make people follow the

kind of Christian viewpoint

of what she believed

in and horror films

didn't really fit in with that.

- I've got a big thing

about censorship.

It's really not endorsed

by anybody but myself,

really my views on censorship

we're at an age now where

films are so accessible,

the imagery is so

accessible to everybody,

so easy to get ahold of

and we're also at

an age where people

know what is fake

and what is real.

They know how films are made.

They know how special

effects are made.

It wasn't like back in the day

where you only had

Fangoria to look at,

to look at behind the scenes,

you know through

Blu-Ray releases

and special features,

documentaries that we make

that things are fake,

how to put together

and the crews are doing it.

So saying that

censorship is needed

to protect people from imagery

they shouldn't be watching

and also saying that

by watching those films

people are affected

and will do things

they shouldn't be doing is

I think is wrong really.

Because I'm watched

horror films all my life

and I'm not saying

it's one example,

because I know

people have issues,

but when people do have

issues regards to horror

and do act out and

do blame horror films

people who aren't exactly

people who's side are you on.

The average Joe who

watches a horror film

understands entertainment,

understands how it's made

and enjoys it for what it is.

- Yeah yeah yeah,

I kind of I agree.

I think that's why we've

got certification of films.

- But but--

- No no I'm just saying

that's why right,

it's how we

interpret stuff okay.

We're one of the fortunate few

who have rightly brought up

to see films we shouldn't

have at a young age

against age restrictions right?

And yeah we are two

living examples among many

who have seen these films and

not one thing has happened.

If anything it's

kind of huh exists.

- It wasn't a kid's movie.

- It actually inspired us.

It inspired us to

do what we do now.

- We wouldn't have met.

- We wouldn't have met

except for a love of horror.

- And there's a lot of people.

Look at horror fans

who watch all these,

making also you meet

all these people,

the actors, the talent

behind these films

they always say what a

wonderful crowd horror fans are,

how loyal there

are and everything.

There's gonna be

instances I have no doubt

where people are affected

in different ways,

but you know what it's

not just with films,

it's with anything.

It's that social backdrop,

do you know what I mean?

It's how they were

brought up, et cetera.

And also it's how

the mind works.

- We're also in a culture

where we blame people--

- Well they're scapegoats.

- We blame other--

- Child's Play 3,

Jamie Bulger.

- Exactly.

We blame things to

make our case stronger.

The guy who blamed

the Scream movies,

the guy for the

killings that he did

the guy who blamed

Nightmare on Elm Street.

You said you know fortunately Jamie Bulger case in the UK,

which was a big case.

It obviously affected a lot

of people in this country.

And Child's Play

3 suddenly banned,

one and two isn't,

but Child's Play 3 is.

- For one video.

- Because the children

said they watched that movie

and you know there are

similarities between

Jamie Bulger and Chucky.

But you can't then blame

the film for the actions

of people who aren't

completely there.

I knew as a

10-year-old when I was

watching those films

they were pretend.

I knew when I was 15,

those films were pretend.

The fact they are on the screen

and are made to entertain.

Horror is one of the biggest

entertainment genres around

because people

love to be scared.

Horror sounds nasty and

it can certainly be,

with your Blumhouses and

you still have that--

- I think the two

strongest emotions

the two biggest things

you can react to

is horror and comedy.

- Exactly.

- It's a rollercoaster.

It's just a movie.

[Screams]

- [Announcer] Don't

Look in the Basement.

The makers of Last House

On The Left warn you again

to avoid fainting,

keep repeating,

it's only a movie, only

a movie, only a movie.

[Screams]

- Well I think censorship

thing just backfired.

It basically promoted

to the curious

all it did was made

everyone want to see these

and here it is 40 years later

and people are still

talking about them

and wanting to see

what's all the fuss.

Look where we are

right now with all

re-releases on Blu-Ray

and vinyl releases.

I mean the supply

and demand is there.

I just wish a lot of the

film makers could see

the popularity that it got

because they can

finally get their due.

- No, I do not think that

these movies should be banned

or be put on any sort

of list like this.

I mean you don't ban paintings

and they really don't

ban books anymore.

I think that no matter

how extreme the film is

in it's nature, it's still art

and I don't believe that

art should be censored.

- I don't agree that young children should be watching films

should be watching

violence films.

I don't think a five-year-old

should be watching

A Serbian Film or The

Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

So in that way I do agree

that there should be

some sort of classification

system put in place

and young children

shouldn't have access

to these sort of things.

But when you get to

the 18s category,

I think that a lesser

branch of the law,

unless there's actually

something illegal

going on in the film

then the whole idea

that any kind of censorship

should exist is stupid.

- Censorship should

video nasties be banned?

Well now I don't

think they should.

Because it's part

of a cinema history.

It's part of the genre.

If you ban them, people are

just gonna want to see

them anyway, aren't they?

History has shown whenever's

something's banned,

people are gonna try and

find out why it's been banned

and watch it so no they

shouldn't be banned.

People are gonna get

them anyway, aren't they?

You've got the Internet and

YouTube things like that

so no they definitely

shouldn't be banned.

- I think some yes and some no.

Some of the movies

were quite gross.

Others were probably more what

I would consider an R rating,

which you could stomach.

Perhaps back in the

80s, it might have been

really gross and sort of

barbaric for some people,

but I think definitely now

you'll see some of the movies

that were an R rating

then are now an MA rating.

So they've dropped as

we've been able to digest

this material more and

more over the years.

So I think at the time

some yes and some no.

- Do I think they

should have been banned?

It's hard to say that really

because you're looking back,

you're looking back 30 years

and you're thinking well,

these are just movies,

how could they have

possibly have offended

so many people to think

that they should be banned.

But they were in

parts of the world

and they were done

because there were fears

that these would affect kids

and impressionable viewers.

And to a degree,

you can sort of see

that that does make some sense.

You can imagine a little bit

well I'm sure there is a

weird guy down the street

who watches this movie

and he might get an idea.

If he knocks on my door,

I can get beheaded, right?

- No, I don't think

any of these films

should have been put on

a list for the people

can't consume them,

can't watch them.

They're made to be

consumed by an audience.

They're made for

adult entertainment.

If anything, I'd say try harder

to keep it out of the

hands of children I guess,

but that doesn't fall back

on really the film maker.

That falls on the

parents and the people

that are letting them see the

films, you know what I mean?

You have to be a certain

age to drink and smoke

and watch porno you

know what I mean?

It just throws something on that

and get a little more

strict on that if you want,

but I wouldn't

need to ban a film

so nobody can see it,

unless people are actually

being killed in the film

for the sake of the film.

Not so much in a Face

of Death situation

where it's supposedly

documented death

where it happened and

it was caught on tape

so they'll make

use of it that way.

For the most part, it's all art.

It's all entertainment.

It's not real.

There's stories being told

that might be a little

more gorier than Gone

With the Wind and stuff,

but that doesn't mean they

need to be blacklisted

and cut out of the

womb of society

so nobody could watch them.

- When it comes to

do I think the film

should have been banned and

put in the video nasty list,

I don't feel like

they should have.

I feel like they should have

warnings on the front cover

of the videotapes that

says this movie should only

be viewed by people 18 and up.

They just should have really

good warnings on the ones

that really were shocking.

Because the idea

of banning a movie,

because honestly

when you ban a movie,

all it really does is put

more attention to the movie.

It's kind of like

if your parent says

you can't watch that,

you can't see that movie,

that's not something you

should never see that,

it makes you want

to watch it more.

Like I remember when

I was in school,

I remember there was a

sheriff that came into

when I was in middle school,

I think I was in sixth grade

he came in and said,

there's one movie

you should never watch and it's

called Natural Born Killers.

It's shocking.

It's terrible.

It has bad depictions of police,

bad depictions of everybody,

he was going on and on and on

about this list about it

again and again and again,

continuously going on

about Natural Born Killers.

You know what I did that night

when I got back

home from school?

I immediately rented the movie.

- You know maybe you gotta

out of your way a little more

to make sure that they don't

go into the wrong hands

if that's what

you're worried about,

but I don't think

really I don't think

horror movies have ever

really caused problems

in the sense that

they're thinking of

in killing people and stuff.

I think that when

somebody goes out

and they kill somebody

they're killing somebody

because they want to kill them.

I feel like whether they grew

up watching Pound Puppies

24/7 their entire life if

it's in them to kill somebody,

then they'll kill somebody.

I don't think watching

The Beyond or Blood Feast

is something that's gonna

send them over the edge.

But I think yeah all

censorship in a whole

is not a good thing.

People shouldn't be dictated to

on what they need to do

or what they need to watch

and what they can and can't do.

Because I think people

are they have free will

and they should be able to

make their own decisions.

- Yes, so I think

banning a movie,

all it really does is bringing

more attention to the movies

so making it so people

were like you're gonna ban,

I'm gonna find some

way to watch it.

All it really was doing is

making more and more people

have to go out and find any

way they can to sort out

and find the movie with bootlegs

or anything that they could

sending away from

the copy from the US.

Anything that's

all it really did.

So banning it, I

really don't think

that was the way to do it.

And I also really hate the

idea of banning something

and saying you can't watch that.

That's I don't

know I just really

hate the concept of

doing that to a movie

and censoring it and

all that kind of stuff.

- Should there have been a ban?

You've got these

movies being made,

they are produced they

are funded by studios,

financed independently.

- I mean a lot of them

were done quiet rough.

- Yeah, some of

them were European,

they were being

released in Europe,

released in America,

banned here.

Now obviously we had a

particular issue in the UK

in regards to these films.

Now obviously we had

mentioned before was BBFC

was Mary Whitehouse,

so should they have

been banned because of that?

No they shouldn't have been.

- No.

- They were banned

because of an agenda

from a particular

political group

or a particular organization

who deemed those films

to be inappropriate.

They weren't banned because

there was an uproar from

the community in the public,

far from it, actually the

public were drawn towards

these films even more so

because they were banned.

- That's the thing ultimately,

I'm talking about all

this in retrospect--

- Of course yeah.

- We weren't there at the time

in the sense of knowing--

- I've done my research

and watching, so talk

about me maybe on this,

on this our kind of experiences.

So for me, I got into horror

films from a very early age

and in fact, doing

the story part now

my first encounter

with a video nasty,

albeit I didn't

realize it at the time

was the original Texas

Chainsaw Massacre.

My old man I had actually

seen Part 2 first

on a pirate Dutch

video, my dad had it

and the reason I think we

got on to watching that

was because I think I was

helping him organized his vinyls

and he had the original

soundtrack Chainsaw Massacre 2.

The cover threw

me straight away.

It was the breakfast club shot,

which now it's

absolutely hilarious.

When you're a little kid and

you see this hideous face

with a chainsaw and nubbins,

corpse, it was terrifying.

We watched it.

I was entertained.

I was terrified.

But you know it was a

memorable experience.

Then not long

afterwards he dug out

his original Iver Film Services

VHS box of Chainsaw Massacre

the original like it

was just the silhouette

Leatherface waving

the chainsaw around.

Thrown all over the box is

uncut, uncensored, it happened,

completely sensationalizing

the product.

And he popped it on and

I think I only watched

a segment first it was when

Kirk runs into the house

and Pam does as well and

they both met their demises.

So I'd experienced horror,

but never on that level

and unfortunately

the bar was set then

and not much in the year since

has the had same impact on me.

- I don't really

believe in censorship.

I don't really see

the point behind it,

particularly in

this day and age.

But the BBFC's

viewpoint has always

that they will ban

something if they feel that

it can cause harm

through to an individual

or to society for the

actions of an individual,

which I think is just

something that's just

never been proved,

it's just illogical.

It's like saying

you know for example

if you take something like

a gun, a gun is harmful.

It's been proved to cause

harm, so therefore we ban it.

But when it comes to films,

to say that some people

might watch a film and go out

and cause harm or whatever,

while other people

might not is pretty much

kind of proves that

films don't cause harm.

The way that people

act in society

comes back the whole kind

of nature, nurture debate.

It's all about how

someone was brought up,

their kind of how they learn

about ethics and morality

and how they understand their

actions cause harm to others

or it can be through the

nature side of things.

If someone has some sort of

mental problems in their brain,

if it's like caused

through genetics

or it's caused through in

psychology I learned about

how someone's frontal

lobe gets damaged

and that relates to

their theory of mind

and how their

understanding of their

actions causes harm

to other people.

These are the sort of things

that make people

go out and kill.

If you've been brought

up as a normal person,

you're brought up, you

understand the difference

between right and wrong.

You understand that your

actions have consequences

and you understand the

feelings of other people,

you're not gonna watch a film

and then have all of

those beliefs changed.

If I spent the weekend watching

the film Reservoir Dogs,

I'm not gonna go out on Monday

and start cutting

policemen's ears off.

That's just not how

human beings work.

I think if a film

doesn't break the law,

if it's not like

child pornography

or a real life snuff film or

doesn't have animal cruelty in,

then I don't think that

anything should be banned.

I think it's absurd as well,

the fact that we

still have stuff like

A Serbian Film is banned.

The full, uncut version

is still being cut.

Yet, you can go onto Amazon now

and buy the full

uncut Swedish release

next to the

BBFC-approved version.

I don't understand what

these people are doing

in their little SoHo office.

It just seems a bit crazy

idea that they still sit there

and they still agonize

over which bits to cut

and which bits to leave in.

Oh should we is this okay,

should we have this shot here?

As if any of that

really matters.

Like I said, going back to the

and the other thing as well

you get films which

were banned once

and then have now been released.

Their logic has always been that

well society's changed

and what was once harmful

is now not harmful and going

back to my example of the gun.

If I shot someone

with a gun now,

if we waited 20 years

and then I shot someone,

the fact that

society has changed

or the world has changed,

it's still harmful.

Whereas the idea of

a film being harmful

and then not being

harmful is just illogical.

We've got access to 24 hours

a day hardcore pornography.

We haven't got a society full

of rapists and sex offenders

as a result of it.

- I'll tell you what is actually

the silver bullet is technology.

Technology will

always advance faster

than oppression

can keep it down.

You put warning labels

on tapes, on music,

on heavy metal,

on hip hop and rap

and people copy the tapes

and distribute them.

You ban videos, you

ban horror movies

from being sold

from video stores

from being sold in the market

place and people copy them.

You ban videos now, they

get up on the Internet.

Technology is the silver bullet.

Technology is the thing

that always triumphs

over censorship.

- It's about the

constant fear of what if.

I think especially when

you become a parent,

that comes into play a

lot, because you're always

what if something

were to happen?

What if something was

to happen to my child

or yours or anybody else's,

the people in society that need

more protection than others?

And there's a feeling

that you want to take over

and control or at least

make safe and make safe

is an interesting term,

because you say make safe

and yet making safe is not

it may be safe for you,

but that's not safe

for everybody else.

In fact, that's just

straight out controlling.

That's where I think

a lot of the mindset

was coming from within the

idea to ban these films.

You gotta keep in mind that

these were not just typical

horror films with the violence

you would have already

seen or expected to see.

Blood that was in

color and red and gore,

I mean that was sort

of already there.

People were expecting

some of that

that was there, but

this was balls out.

This was the stuff where

you would just figure

if somebody was dying

by a knife or a machete

that's bad enough, but to

have them chopped into pieces

or guts pulled out or

somebody's eating the guts

and then you turn around

you cut off the head

next person who's

watching this happen.

I mean that's just

going for broke.

You cut off the genitals

and eat that penis,

because everybody

in cannibal land

seems to want to eat the

genitals, I don't know why.

Anyway, there's this idea that

it's not just a horror movie,

it's not just what you

might expect to see

down in the cinema,

it's no restrictions.

It's balls out in your face.

Whatever you could

imagine what would happen

would happen in these movies.

- [Announcer] To avoid

fainting, keep repeating--

- [Crowd] It's only a

movie, it's only a movie,

it's only a movie.

- What's great about

video nasties I think

is it's something that

doesn't exist at all anymore.

Don't get me wrong,

there's still censorship,

but what we have now these days

is ease of access

to all these films.

You can download them.

You can buy them in shops.

Half of them are now

available in Poundland.

- Yeah and I also think

the audience's perception

of what is gory and

what is horrific

and also censorship itself

has completely changed now.

Whereas you look back in

the video nasties of the day

and actually in

today's comparison,

they're kind of tame, we

said when we we're talking

about our own that these films,

some of them aren't

the greatest of films.

But they have

become cult classics

because they were

labeled as video nasties.

- I don't really think these

films should have been banned.

I mean okay they've

got a rating,

so you've got a rating

for a film that's fine.

But they shouldn't have

been outright banned.

It wasn't just children who

were seeing these films.

It was adults who

were being told

they couldn't watch

the video nasties.

So these were being

banned from everybody.

The major thing was children

might see these at

home or whatever.

But what about the adults?

Can't they make

their own mind up?

That's what I really

didn't get is how

they didn't even put a rating

on it or anything like that.

[Dramatic music]

[screaming]

Adults couldn't

even make a decision

to watch these films or not.

So I really don't

think these films

should have been banned at all.

- Perhaps they were

seeing the title alone

and they were

imagining in their mind

what was happening

in this movie,

what could possibly

be in this movie.

And of course you've got

to give it to the people

making the box covers

because you look at something

like Driller Killer

and you see the drill

going into the guy's head.

It's puncturing the skull

and it's drilling away

and all the blood

is coming down.

The guy is screaming and it's

probably in his brain already.

And you gotta imagine if

that's on the box cover,

my God, what else

could be in this movie?

- The Last House on the Left,

this film was on the

banned nasties list.

It was rejected

until 2000, I think,

I think they submitted

it again in 2000

and then it was rejected

and then in 2003,

they allowed a cut

version to be released.

And then in 2007, it

was submitted again

and they allowed

it through uncut.

I'm thinking when it

was banned in 2000

and they said no, you

can't release this film,

did they honestly believe

that it was harmful then?

Then 10 years later,

or less than 10 years

they'd allow it to be

released fully uncut?

I mean are there admitting

that they were wrong

and they're saying

we were wrong,

it's not actually

a harmful film.

It's illogical.

It doesn't make any sense.

I've seen all these films and

I don't go out killing people.

Going back to video nasties,

the only thing which I

do agree with being cut

or censored is

the animal cruelty

which comes into a lot of

the Italian cannibal films

unfortunately because that

does, that breaks the law.

Animal cruelty is illegal.

We don't really

want to watch it.

I agree like I said

anything that breaks the law

shouldn't be

allowed in the film,

but when it comes

to made-up violence

and fake effects and

things like that,

then there's no logical reason

to keep banning

that sort of thing,

to keep censoring

that sort of thing.

- Video nasties I always found

a very interesting

subject matter

because over the years I

think a lot of the films

that were considered video

nasties are art films.

They're actually really

beautiful examples

of how horror could be enter

like the art mainstream.

I know in a way that sounds

like a contradiction,

where a lot of people

think art movies

are Ingmar Bergman and Antonioni

or people like that, and

of course those films

are really artistic,

but the reason is

the Italians always

took a very blanket view

of making a film, whereas

they actually thought

and rightfully so

that the visual aspect

of making a film

and the audio aspect

should marry as a

really beautiful thing.

Even if the subject matter

is dark and the Italians felt

that the overall package

should be beautiful.

I totally agree with that.

I think that film

is a visual medium

and so unless you are

creating something

with a look that's meant

to be deliberately grungy

because say it's

like a mockumentary

or a fan film footage film,

then I think films

should be beautiful,

no matter how dark

the subject matter.

I suppose in a way that

means when I talk about

video nasties I'm

really thinking about

the Italian films that

came out at the time.

Of course when I rented

them as a boy on VHS,

I always remember going

down to the VHS store

and you'd find out the

latest horror movie

had come in from Italy or

had come in from the USA.

And they weren't

video nasties then.

They were just the

latest horror movie

and so many in retrospect

that these films

are considered video nasties.

- Horror films of

the 1970s and the 80s

are notorious primarily

for their gore.

I think it was a prime

period for horror films.

The style had changed

way before then

from the your gothic castles

to the real world,

serial killers.

- You change to mass

killer kind of films

compared to your Dracula

films or your Hammer horrors.

- And then by the late 70s,

you've got the odd zombie films.

So you're dealing with

two kind of extremes.

On the the one hand,

you've got you're gritty,

realistic films like

Last House on the Left

and then on the other

hand, you've got your

beyond fantastical

films like Evil Dead.

- But this was an issue

then for the censors

that when these films like

Last House on the Left

came out they were so

real in their terms,

they weren't

monsters or vampires,

they're sort of real

things happening.

- And then that's

where you can probably

like easily that question then.

You know it's hard

for me to discern

what should be and

shouldn't be banned.

I think Gunner Hansen once said

he finds it outrageous

a small group of people

like the BBFC were able,

all it has is a

small group of people

who basically decide

whether everyone else

can watch it or not.

- Well, that's true,

you've got think about

the types of people,

you're middle class people.

- Video nasty was a mass

class divide, wasn't it?

- Well yeah, Mary

Whitehouse this older lady,

who was probably in

her 60s, 70s maybe--

- And she hadn't even seen--

- She hadn't seen

any of these horror films

that she was dictating

to people--

- And then you had

James Furman say the--

- James Furman yeah.

- The impact of Texas

Chainsaw Massacre

might not affect

your everyday person,

but it might affect what

was it, a working class

member from Birmingham like you.

[Laughs]

And so going back on that

you're super realistic

horror films because

that's what it was, right?

It was either serial killers.

I mean you had your

cannibal movies,

but then you had

your zombie movies.

So if I was to say, if

I was given the choice

one of these is more

susceptible to being banned

than the other then in my eyes

because they're doing

it because the effect

it might have on the audience.

And in this instance,

their major worry is kids.

Then in all reality, the ones

that should be looked at more

would be your Last

House on the Left,

because you're literally

I mean the thing is

Wes Craven and I'll say

this as a fan of the film,

Wes Craven never set out to

make Last House on the Left

to glorify violence,

it was his--

- Or to be a banned film.

- No, or to be a banned film,

but it was his reaction

to the Vietnam War

and the fact that the TV

was showing such violence.

All right, we know that

as fans of the film

and a lot of people do,

that that was his intent.

The BBFC's perception of it was

that it's glorifying violence.

So ultimately it's

down the violence,

but Last House on the Left,

you are kind of showing

what could be a

very real situation,

which no doubt there has

been situations like that.

If there are to make a

decision on that or Evil Dead,

which was also on that same

list and Zombie Flesh Eaters,

then that would be the one,

at least I personally lean

more towards if there

was ones to be banned.

Because--

- But why like you said,

why was a small group of

people banning those films?

What was it about

those particular films?

- One of my memories

of renting was

when we got I Spit On Your Grave

and I watched it with

two of my friends

probably around 12 or 13.

My dad walked in me,

the scene right where

the rape was about to start

and he just sat down with

us and started watching it.

We were like just

laughing uncontrollably

because we were just

basically embarrassed

we didn't know how to process it

and he just turned to us

and said, this isn't funny.

We just felt so stupid,

but he ended up watching

the whole thing with us.

- I think in a lot of ways

the video rental store

was sort of a gateway

to the video nasty.

I remember renting both

Last House on the Left

and I Spit On Your Grave

for the first time

at a video store.

I remember when I rented

Last House on the Left,

I had to rent it on my

dad's rental account

because of course I wasn't

old enough at the time.

The movie actually

got eaten in his VCR

and I remember he

got really upset

and told me this is what happens

when you try

watching old movies.

So I'll always have that memory

from watching Last

House on the Left,

renting it at the store.

Then I also remember

I Spit On Your Grave

from the time I was 15 I think

and so I had to have an

older friend rent it for me

actually and he made a

bootleg copy of it on video

with photocopy guard so

I could watch it in

on my own any time.

Because at the time that movie

hadn't really been available

here other than the

Wizard release in America

and obviously it

was a video nasty,

so it was practically

impossible to find at the time.

So I always have those memories

and they definitely stick

out for that reason.

- I've got so many

favorite video nasties.

I love Cannibal Ferox.

That is one of my favorite ones,

really do love this

film, Cannibal Ferox.

I think this is actually

a bootleg copy as well.

I paid about 50 quid for this.

I actually remember years ago,

these did have a

small box like this,

but this one does look

like a bootleg version.

I think this actual

label is far too shiny,

if you can see that one there.

So I actually think

this is a bootleg.

Cannibal Ferox is one of my

favorite all time video nasties.

I love the actual

soundtrack, the score.

It was so shocking.

When you actually

watch this film,

I remember seeing

this as a bootleg copy

and it scared the shit

out of me, this film.

It's bloody brilliant.

That haunting score,

you hear this music,

this synth kind of prog

rock music come up,

the same part all throughout

and you know there's

gonna be a death scene

or a killing scene,

so I think one of my

all time favorites

is Cannibal Ferox.

[Creepy rock music]

[screams]

- My favorite video

nasty is probably

it's a tough call

but I'd probably say

either The Evil Dead

or Cannibal Holocaust

because those movies are

really balls to the wall

and really intense and

you take the Evil Dead

that's a little more cartoony

than Cannibal

Holocaust would be.

Because Cannibal

Holocaust was pretty much

just a documentary, but

it's a fake documentary,

but it's shot entirely

like a documentary

so you're supposed to believe

that these things are real.

And then The Evil Dead

you're not supposed

to believe these

things are real.

It's a very kind of

far out there tale

of just gore and madness.

Cannibal Holocaust is

more along the lines

is this is what happens on

the other side of

the world type deal,

which is scary, because

it's that unknown.

You'll probably never find

yourself in a situation

where you'd have to deal

with that group of people,

but it's still scary to

know that they're out there.

- I think for me definitely

Flesh For Frankenstein

as I had been watching

all these horror movies,

when I finally

discovered that one,

actually there was two films,

there was Blood for Dracula,

which were both

Andy Warhol films.

But they're both

borderline pornographic

and I think being a teenager,

a pubescent teenager

starting to get really

interested in the other sex.

And finding these movies

were sort of borderline

pornographic,

but had the horror and the

gore that I really loved,

so definitely Flesh

For Frankenstein,

that would be my favorite.

- I would have to say

my favorite is Absurd

and it's actually one

of the latest entries

from my findings,

I first heard of it

from the soundtrack and was

immediately blown away by it.

And as a film, it checks

every box for video nasties,

and of course it's

got the great score,

but the story is good.

It's intriguing, it's

actually one of the few

that you don't have

to check your watch

and you don't have

to fast forward it.

The story is entertaining

and it keeps you entertained.

It definitely takes

a lot from Halloween,

but that's cool and

George Eastman rules.

It delivers on very,

checks every box.

- I guess maybe around

here we called them

bootleg the old VHSes

back in the day,

you'd see guys selling

out of a trunk of a car.

Some people because

they rip people off

and in some cases because

they were too violent

and sexually explicit.

Now this stuff was very

sought after when I was a kid,

because there was

no video on demand.

There was no Amazon

Prime or Vimeo

so people couldn't

find these things.

They had to exchange them.

It's kind of creepy

if you think about it,

it's like a dark web of

inappropriate VHS movies,

but I think that it really

built up independent film-making

in a big way and

I personally feel

without some of

the video nasties

and how they were

exchanged almost illegally

or illegally in some

countries, some states.

I think without that

you wouldn't have seen

such a surge of

independent film makers

who later did move on to the

Hollywood level in the 90s.

You saw a lot of

people get their start

working on these movies

that it was so shocking

everybody wanted to see it.

It had either the

insane gore effects

or a sex scene that

was crazy for its time.

You know very low budget stuff

and personally the last

couple of movies I've done

such as Witchhunt

and Parts Unknown,

I think I've modeled a

lot of what I've done

as a director around some of

these so-called video nasties.

Because they were shot

on much smaller budgets.

I think the budget wasn't

what was important.

It was what was accomplished.

And what was accomplished

was creating almost this

taboo situation where you can go

and watch one of these things.

You weren't seeing in a theater.

They were hard to find,

hard to track down

and you had something

that somebody didn't.

It wasn't just because it

was hard-to-get movie either.

It was because it actually had

the sex scene and violence in it

and the good stuff that I think

sometimes we don't

get to see anymore.

As our society changes and

becomes a little bit more PC

and we're not allowed

to show stuff in film,

I think there's gonna be a

big someday a big resurgence

in this underground film making.

And a way to bring this

back for fans of this genre,

I'd say anyone watching

his is probably

a fan of this genre,

is to go and support the

local horror conventions

and some of the local

people that set up shop

at these small events.

Because they're the ones

selling the stuff now.

The Amazon Primes and all

that stuff, that's cool,

but what you're

gonna see on there

and Netflix and all

that is probably

more of what you've

already seen.

So hopefully someday

we get to back to this,

it might not be VHS,

it might be on Blu-Ray

or even digital, but

someday I hope there's a way

to kind of trade

these movies again.

I think it got a lot

of people their start.

It found a lot of fans.

That's kind of my feeling

about the importance

of the so-called video nasties

and what they did

for people like me

who make low budget material.

- I got into video nasties

as around it might be

around '98, '99 time

when they were still banned,

but it was right before

James Furman left the BBFC.

All these films started

to become unbanned

and were starting to get

certificates and stuff.

So I got into the

video nasties at a time

when they were still

banned and then I saw

the point when they

started to get re-released.

When they were still

banned I remember

my other school and

a friend of mine

I'd always had an

interest in horror films

and extreme films

so the video nasties

were something that

always fascinated me.

That idea these films

that you shouldn't watch,

that they've been banned

somehow dangerous or whatever,

if you watched them they

could be disturbing to you

and say that when

you were at school,

that just makes you want

to find all these films.

At that time a friend of

mine he came across an advert

on the back Darling Free

Ads newspaper magazine,

if anybody remembers that.

Someone was sending

copies of The Exorcist.

Then he asked about nasties,

if he had any other tapes

and he had a whole

list, he had pretty much

the whole video nasties.

He had loads of obscure,

cult hard-to-find films.

That's where I basically

started seeing these things.

We would spend I think he

used to do two for 10 quid

or two for 15 pounds, he'd

put two films into one tape

I used to start buying those,

I think all of them from laser

discs or pre-seller copies.

My first experience

to the video nasties

was just all through

bootleg copies.

But his ones were

really good quality.

I remember a friend who also

had another guy selling them.

And they were fifth, sixth,

seventh generation copies

and they were

almost unwatchable,

but this guy from the

Darling Free Ads magazine,

his stuff was always

like amazing quality.

I think they were all from

laser discs he got them.

Then around that time

I actually started

making bootlegs as

well to sell on eBay.

Like I said at the time

this is when they were

still banned and you

couldn't get them

so I used to make copies.

Used to get four-hour

tapes and put two films

that were kind of

connected one tape

and stick them on eBay and

send them for like 10 pound,

15 pound a pop each time.

Stuff like Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox would go onto one tape.

I Spit On Your Grave and

Last House on the Left

would go on another tape.

Occasionally you'd get

bootlegs from people

saying they didn't realize

they were buying bootlegs

and your account

would be closed down.

- So did I ever own any

bootlegs of the video nasties?

God yes, I tell you, this

is a really great story.

In about '96, '97, this

is before the Internet

was really big, e-mail

might have been used

by some people that I knew.

But in '96 to '97 I

started doing mail trading

of movies on VHS where

we would send dupes.

Through e-mail you would

make contacts with people.

I guess they did have

websites up which is really

how you would find people,

but they were into trades,

so somebody would

have their list

of what movies they had

and you would have a list of what movies

you had and we would swap lists.

And of course we'd make a deal.

You say well geez,

I would really love

to get this, this and this

and then the guy

on the other end

would pick same amount

of movies from your list.

You would make the copies if

you were a reputable trader,

you would buy brand

new video tapes

and make the copies onto those.

I guess some people might

have used previously used

blank tapes, which was the

shittiest thing to

do for somebody.

But anyway you're

buy blank tapes,

copy the movie you

had, so you're making

your third or fourth

generation movie

onto a fifth or sixth

generation movie

because everybody is trading

a dupe of a dupe of a dupe

and then you mail

them in the mail.

Well this went on for

me for a few years

and I got so many movies

through the mail trading.

Cannibal Holocaust,

Cannibal Ferox,

Beyond the Darkness,

I got that one.

I got everything you see,

uncut Friday the 13th Part One.

These were all the movies that

were not on DVD at all yet.

They were not being

re-released and remastered.

They were still on

very ropey old tapes.

Another company I'm aware of

was of course Midnight Video.

They were selling

it at the time.

A lot of people I

knew had that movie

or Midnight movie tapes

and they were making

dupes of that to trade.

So I got Anthropothigast

and stuff

and the Midnight

Video Anthropothigast

was made up of

different sources.

So when it came to

see George Eastman

reach into the woman and

pull out the fetus to eat her

that particular piece of footage

was coming in this

very, very washed out

blurry piece of video

and then would cut out

sort of washed out

video where you saw

the rest of the movie.

So you had different

composites put together.

- So yeah, I remember

when I was a kid,

the one in the United States

everybody wanted to see

Faces of Death, that

was the big thing.

If you had a VHS of Faces of

Death, you were like a king.

You'd go into a party

and be like hey,

I bought this off of

some dude on the street

and everybody would gather

around the TV and watch this

I have no idea if that's

actually real or not.

I feel like it's mixed.

It was just that

suspense I think

really paved the way for

things like The Blair Witch,

the found footage films

that excitement of

I'm seeing something that's

nobody supposed to see.

I think it really captured

what independent film

is supposed to be and not

a system of Hollywood B

which is what we tend to get on a lot of the video-on-demand services.

- One of the next

things that I have here

is actually bootleg

copy of Tenebrae.

This was a copy of the Video

Media release as you can see,

but it's a totally

photocopied cover art.

And also something

interesting about it,

you can see here

maybe is that it's got

the British rating on it

instead of the American one.

It's sort of all

over the place here,

but this is the way

I first saw the film.

It's what interested me to not

only Dario Argento's movies,

but Italian movies as well.

That seen at the

end with the girl

that gets her arm chopped off

and sprays blood

all over the wall

was sort of life changing for me

because that's the moment

I realized horror was art.

This movie will always stand

out to me for that reason.

Even though this

is a bootleg copy

and I of course have better

versions of this to watch

I'm always gonna hold onto this,

because this is what started

my love for Italian horror,

this very bootleg

release of Tenebrae.

- I did own one banned film.

I remember in

Melbourne, Victoria,

there weren't a lot

of films banned.

I mean the Driller Killer was.

I think Silent Night,

Deadly Night perhaps.

Some of these films

you could into state.

I remember a friend of mine came to

me knowing how much I adored horror

and he'd been to the

States and he picked me up

a copy of The Texas

Chainsaw Massacre 2,

and I remember that was banned.

I was the only guy I knew

that had this video tape,

and so attracted a lot of

friends to come and watch it.

And that was a banned film,

so that was probably

one of the only ones

that I really owned at the

time that did have the stigma.

- I did own a lot of bootleg

because I was on a quest

to try and own all

of the video nasties,

so I literally did

own, I still do now

so I've got a lot of bootleg

copies of stuff like that.

I had these tapes and it

was stuck on the side,

hand written Driller Killer

and stuff like that on there.

- Yes, I owned several bootlegs

actually of these movies.

Growing up back then, they

weren't that accessible.

You couldn't just

walk into a Best Buy

if you wanted to buy

a movie like this.

You had to track them down.

You had to do your research.

Usually, they were second,

third, fourth generation copies.

They were squiggly and

grainy and looked like crap

and you could barely tell

what was happening sometimes.

It was in a lot of

ways really cool

because you knew that this

was the only way

to see the movie.

You were seeing something

that not everybody else saw.

- So they were a bit

thing, the bootleg copies,

because they were

just going around.

I mean when I was a

kid in teenage years,

it was bootleg copies.

You never saw a real

copy of a video nasty.

So from about '85 to

about 2000 or even 2001,

you had these bootleg VHS copies

and bootleg DVD

copies in circulation.

So you're watching these,

sometimes it was like

a fifth generation bootleg

of The Texas Chainsaw

Massacre you were watching

or something like that.

- It's funny because it's given

me a really high tolerance

for low-quality transfers

because I just grew up watching

a whole lot of bootleg movies.

Nowadays it doesn't bother me.

I can watch really horrible stuff on YouTube and I don't blink an eye.

It's part of growing up

watching those bootlegs

and it's still sort of exciting

if I'm at a flea market now

or garage sale and I find a

bootleg of an old horror movie,

I definitely snatch it up.

It's nostalgic.

It's really cool and unique

and it's exciting to watch

a movie like that sometimes.

It adds a lot to the

mystique of the movie.

- [Announcer] See Abel

Ferrera as Reno Miller,

a man driven to the very edge.

[Moaning]

And then beyond.

[Drill rattling]

[screaming]

The Driller Killer is coming.

- The Driller Killer

when it came out

I remember was a very

controversial film

because they had all this

rumor going on at the time

that when Abel

Ferrara made the film

and starred in it that he was actually killing down and outs.

Because the people in the film

really looked like

down and outs.

Some of them probably

were and they were paid

a few dollars to become

part of this movie.

I always found that

very disturbing

for years after seeing it

and then experiencing again

over the years and the decades.

I've still found it a

very troubling film.

I think because it's incredibly

realistic on one aspect

and a little over

the top in others

in terms of the performance.

The performance of

Abel Ferrara himself

it's mixed, it's

very strong at times.

And then it's so wild it's

like do I quite believe that?

But it was shot in

such a lurid style

that you couldn't

help be sucked into

that grimy, horrible underworld.

And then when the

murders you were like

oh my God, is this

happening for real?

So in a way, even though

it's not found footage,

it kind of feels like a

mockumentary-style film,

which would have been one

of the first of that kind.

Driller Killer is a film

that's always stayed with me

for its level of violence,

grungy atmosphere

and general feeling of

dismay and overall horror.

- [Announcer] Faces of Death,

now a major motion picture.

- Faces of Death, the

mother of all Mondo movies.

Oh, where to start

with this one.

In a nutshell, it's a

documentary about dying.

It's pretty tame

compared to what

a lot of people think about it.

A lot of people think it's

a flat out snuff movie

where you see real people

getting murdered on video

and that's not at

all what it is.

It's got a narrator,

he basically discusses

the whole cycle of life

and what really happens

to us when we pass on.

They examine it throughout

different cultures

and they look at the

different traditions

that different people do around

death in their own cultures.

It's got some pretty

notorious scenes,

like a man that

is caught on fire.

I think that the original movie

is the movie with

the monkey brains.

There's quite a few scenes

that really make this movie

stand out, but it's notorious

for being mostly fake.

A lot of the stuff was staged.

It's come to light now

throughout various documentaries

and information on the Internet

that the re-enacted

a lot of the stuff.

I think that the

scene that takes place

in the Middle East

with the monkeys

was supposed to take place on

a tradition somewhere in Russia.

So they changed a lot of things

to not offend so many cultures

when the movie came out,

but to me the movie's

just a big spectacle.

The fear surrounding

the movie with parents,

the fact that you

couldn't find it anywhere,

you had to ask

for it some places

or it was in a special section

with the other death

movies or pornography even.

You had to be 18 to get it.

That always really

appealed to me

and made the movie

probably more exciting

than it is to watch,

because like I said

it's a pretty by-the-number

70s documentary.

It's just focused on death.

I think that even today

it's the type of thing

you could probably show

to a high school class

and nobody would bat an eye.

Everybody would

be on their phones

watching stuff more

extreme on YouTube.

It's funny because those movies

will stick out and

be the most extreme,

but by today's standards

they're almost a joke.

I think that that whole

series really stands out

against the other video nasties

just because it's

sort of the real deal

and it was the first of

its kind when it came out.

- I remember another

series of video nasties

which was quite horrific at

the time to be quite frank.

Faces of Death, do

you remember those?

It was a series of

films, video films

with apparently

people actually dying.

Well I wouldn't want

to watch them now

and it actually turns me stomach

to think I watched

them back then.

But there was one

that I remember

and it was a chap

in a gas chamber

and you actually had the

cameraman in the gas chamber.

Even as a kid I thought hold

on, this can't be right.

Then it turned out most

of them were faked.

Then there was one of a magician

and mostly goes round and

he's trying to cut himself

out of something and

these knives come down

and go into his

head and he dies.

He's so obviously it was

a rubber head or something

or plastic or wax head,

but then you still had some

what still appears to me

genuine footage of people dying.

THere's one terrible

scene where a chap

gets out of a car in

Africa or somewhere

and he's filming this lioness.

They cut to actually him

filming it on this teeny camera

and then this other lion

comes up from behind him

and attacks him and kills him.

All the people are screaming

and they have the footage of him

being put in a

car in a body bag.

So that was pretty horrific.

I wouldn't want to watch

them again I didn't think.

- Some of the

sickest video nasty,

I would say the craziest,

goriest, sickest one

out of the whole lot

would be Faces of Death.

[Droning music]

- [Announcer] Now a

motion picture dares

to take you beyond the

threshold of the living

where you may discover

your own face of death.

- I think that film

is really sick.

I mean there's actually,

is there real killings

in that film or not?

I don't know because

I've never actually

got the whole way through it.

I've put it on before, but

it actually turns my stomach.

There was that big

thing in the 80s

where they were deemed to

be eating monkey brains

and we've got prime

ministers, MPs,

saying they're eating monkey

brains for God sake in that.

They weren't.

It was all fake anyway,

which was totally crazy.

But Faces of Death has to be

the sickest, craziest film.

I think the film

that you'd crown

the king of the video nasty

would be I Spit On Your Grave.

That poster art, that

whole cover is synonymous

of being the queen,

king of the video nasty.

It's such an amazing film.

It's really brilliant.

- Faces of Death

was actually created

for the Japanese film market.

It was a movie called Junk.

It was released there that way.

They tested it with American

audiences and it caught on,

so they dropped it on home video

and it ended up becoming a

really popular American series

known as Faces of Death.

A lot of people also don't know

is that almost every

installment of the film

was released in a different

version in other countries.

Notoriously Faces of Death 3,

it's not actually on the list,

but it's a sequel

to the original.

That was released as Fear

in most parts of Europe

and it had a completely

different narrator,

totally different scenes, it

was edited completely different

and in some ways

it's a lot better

than the American

version that came out.

Of course there's several

versions that were released

of Last House on the Left.

America first got

the R-rated version

when it came out to theaters,

but then we did eventually

get the uncut version

on home video even

though it was missing

a lot of the gore that

Wes Craven had shot.

It was still a little bit longer

than what the UK

got for example.

- Definitely Faces of

Death would have to be

the most sadistic I mean

when I first heard the name,

it was almost like

this taboo Fear Factor.

Someone would say Faces of

Death, have you seen it?

And people would go

no, don't watch that.

It's supposed to be terrifying.

I think because you know

it's really a documentary.

And it was the

first video footage

that came out in the 80s

where apparently you could

see these real deaths.

Of course there was skepticism.

Some people thought they

were staged and whatnot,

but Faces of Death at

least where I was living,

that was supposed to

be the most scariest

and the most taboo so just based

on the reputation of those.

There was a whole spawn of

documentaries that came out.

I remember there was

Savage Man, Savage Beast,

Shocking Asia and there

was Being Different.

There was The Killing of America,

there was this whole range

Savage Man, Savage Beast.

So it was really

appeared in the 80s

where I guess horror film

became sort of popular.

Then they went into

documentary stream.

It almost like trying

to find the scariest

or trying to find the most

impact with the gore factor.

That's what people were after.

It was almost those people

that had an obsession

and they wanted to get

as nasty as they could.

And of course now

everything is reality TV.

So even documentaries back then

I think they were

onto something.

- One of the most violent

other than Faces of Death

in the video nasties would

probably be Cannibal Holocaust.

I mean there's a lot of

violent movies on the list,

but that's the one that really

pushed the envelope at the time

and was notorious for

its graphic nature.

The impalement through the woman's anus and out of her mouth

is pretty iconic now as

far as horror imagery goes.

I think that would

probably have to go down

as probably the most

sickest of the banned films,

followed closely by movies

like Faces of Death.

- Every time I watch

it it makes say

god damn this fucking

movie goes all the way.

I mean Cryo House Releasing

has the perfect tag line.

It's the one that

goes all the way.

But it's a good piece of cinema.

It's a fucking good movie.

It deserves to be seen

by a lot more people.

But I think a lot of

people hear stories

and of course the

animal torture stuff,

the animal killings,

it's a tough movie,

but it deserves to

be on that list.

It's one that deserved

to be on that list

as far as being making sure

that young kids don't see it.

The rape and all that

it's a tough movie.

- Yeah, I gotta

admit there are films

on the list of video nasties

that I really

couldn't watch today.

- Oh good Lord!

It's unbelievable,

it's horrible.

I can't understand the

reason for such cruelty.

- Cannibal films I have no

interest in watching those.

I don't like the idea of

innocent people being tortured

and ripped apart

and eaten alive.

It's just not something

that appeals to me.

- I wouldn't say that there's

any films I couldn't stomach,

but perhaps there's

scenes I can't stomach.

I've noticed as I get older

it's just getting

increasingly harder

for me to be able to keep

my eyes on the screen

during the excessive gore.

In particular, the scene

in Cannibal Holocaust

where it shows

the woman impaled.

That's pretty hard to look at.

Obviously being a

guy, the scene in

I Spit On Your Grave where

she takes the guy's manhood.

It doesn't actually

show anything,

but that's definitely something

that is very hard

as a guy to watch.

And also in Zombie

Flesh Eaters of course

the notorious scene

with the eyeball,

this split in the eyeball.

I don't know how anybody

can watch that scene

without covering their eyes,

because it's just it's torture

as her eye gets closer

and closer and closer

to that splinter,

it's like oh my God,

turn your head

what are you doing?

It's very hard to watch.

And then it pierces

and it's disgusting

and in typical

Lucio Fulci fashion,

it doesn't cut away right away.

So it's very hard to watch,

but it's still an

enjoyable movie.

All of these movies

are really enjoyable,

even if I have to cover my

eyes through parts of them.

- No, I wish there was.

I mentioned Cannibal Holocaust,

but I mean like I said I

got desensitized to it.

But there's really nothing

that does it to me anymore.

So no, I wish there was though.

I wish I was and I say it a lot

because I know some of

these films I could mention

like having friends seeing I

would envy that feeling again.

But I just don't get it anymore.

- I think a film I

couldn't stand like

it has to be Faces of Death

is one I couldn't stand,

but Cannibal Holocaust watching

that film turned my stomach.

It's such a good horror film.

It's a great video nasty

and a great horror film,

but it actually

turns my stomach.

There's a scene in there

where they're killing a turtle

and it just makes me even

now I'll put that on,

I will retch, my

stomach will turn

when it comes to that scene.

So yeah I think Cannibal

Holocaust and Faces of Death

even now they make me feel

queasy even thinking about them.

Both really amazing films,

but really, really sick.

- I think Cannibal Holocaust,

a friend of mine had

a re-release on DVD

and he put it on

and I was like okay,

we'll go back there,

we'll have a look.

But I really just felt sick.

I was kind of not

really probably now

being a grown man,

it wasn't scary.

It was a bit more sadistic.

I think that was a movie that

was a little more disturbing.

It just didn't really have

much of a clear narrative

that I like I mean for me

film is definitely an escape.

I love fiction, so I think

that one was almost

sort of borderline real

and it just kind of

made me feel sick.

- So yeah, The Texas

Chainsaw Massacre is one of

my all-time favorite

video nasties.

The strange thing

about that film was

I remember watching that

and another bootleg version

for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

and it was really fuzzy.

Before I watched that

film, I felt scared

because I knew something

really bad was gonna happen.

Everyone was talking

about this film.

But the crazy thing

is in the actual film,

there's hardly any blood,

hardly any gore at all.

In fact, there's basically none.

Everything we see

happens off screen.

All right, you see him grab Pam

and stick her up on the hook

but you don't see anything else.

You don't see any

incisions of hooks

and bloody heads coming off

and guts or anything like that.

A lot of that film

is what you don't see

that is actually

scarier in that film.

And for me The Texas

Chainsaw Massacre

is one of the all-time best

not just video nasties,

but one of the best

horror films of all time.

So for me, you get

that kind of film

and you think why would

you ban a piece of art?

Because that's

what you're doing.

You're banning pieces

of art with these films.

- So the The Texas

Chainsaw Massacre,

two siblings and three

of their friends,

on route to visit their

grandfather's grave in Texas

end up falling victim to

a family of cannibalistic

psychopaths.

[Laughs]

Yeah, when I saw Texas it was

by a company called Film Waves

and I think the whole

thing about it was that

it was based on a true story.

That was the

biggest fear factor.

It's interesting now

seeing film makers like

Nicolas Rining Refin he thinks

it's his favorite film as well.

I was very lucky and

obviously McGunner

and also received a copy of

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

signed by Tobe Hooper

himself for my 30th birthday.

So the movie really

resonated with me.

That was one of the films that

was almost slash doco style.

It was very raw, very gritty

and kind of changed

the face of cinema

as far as horror goes.

So definitely a big

thumbs up for me.

It would be in my

top four for sure.

- I think I've got this is

the German copy this one.

So this is the German

copy of the video nasty.

I actually really

like this cover art.

You've got a chainsaw massacre

going through this woman,

it's bloody brilliant.

[Screams]

- Great film from

that list to me

is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

and the hellish time

Tobe Hooper had trying

to get that film made in one

of the hottest summers ever

in the US with stinking,

rotting meat on set.

I mean I'm sure the

experience of making that film

was a video nasty in itself.

Because a lot of them are throwing up in the heat of the day

with the smell of the interiors

and all the rotting flesh

that they had to keep filming.

In those days they

weren't using digital.

They were actually

shooting on 16 mil.

So they knew that if

they wasted any film

or wasted any time,

then they may not get

to finish their film.

The funders they

leaned on them strongly

that they got the film

made in time and on budget

and hopefully ended

up with something

that they could sell or that

they could exploit in cinemas.

And as we know it

became a massive hit.

- [Announcer] After

you stop screaming,

you'll start talking about it.

[Droning music]

- I'm not sure it

was ever considered

a video nasty in the USA,

but of course when it came

out in Britain and Ireland,

it quickly became

part of that list.

Which is more amusing about

it, that film contains more

psychological violence

than physical violence.

Even though there is

physical violence in it,

a lot of it off screen and

that is very interesting to me.

It goes to show that

you don't need to show

the really nasty stuff,

you just need to suggest it

and then the audience

were deeply disturbed.

Because there's nothing,

nothing, nothing more

powerful than the human mind

and the human imagination.

If you pull away

from what's happening

and then leave it up

the audience member

to decide what it is that

happened in that moment

and how it came about, then

you find that they walk away

with their own idea of the

worst possible scenario.

That's an example I

think of cinema today,

where you don't need

to show everything

in order to have

that great effect.

- Another fairly

obscure release of

a not-so obscure movie would

be the Wizard Video release

of the The Texas

Chainsaw Massacre.

This was the first version

of the movie I got.

This is the way

that I saw the film

when it first came out.

It's a very murky

dark grain print,

but a lot of people would argue

that's the only way

to see this movie.

I know now that this tape

is worth quite a bit.

It goes on eBay

for a lot of money.

It's fully intact, you can

see all the flaps there.

It's in really good

condition still,

but it's definitely not

something I'm gonna let go of.

I mean it's the

very first release

of probably my all-time

favorite movie,

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

so it's definitely one

that I cherish and will

always have in my collection

of awesome VHS movies.

- Stop, stop.

[Chainsaw rattling]

[screaming]

- Craziest memory

would have to be

I think I was like grade

six, form one in school

I was quite young and

I loved horror so much.

At school they used to

call me the gore freak

because I had a fascination

with the gore and the effects.

It was probably not so much the

fear factor of these movies,

but I was really interested

in how the makeup worked,

so I was really trying to find

really gross makeup effects

like in your Xtro and

a lot of these movies.

Sort of push it

to the next limit,

I had a mate of mine at school,

we used to watch a lot

of these horror films

and we'd got into

the video store.

He knew because I

was the gore freak

that I'd probably

pick a good film.

So I introduced him

to the Evil Dead

so I said to him if you really

want to test your stamina

for this sort of stuff,

we're gonna drink milk.

He said to me why am I

drinking milk during this film?

I said just have a

glass of milk there.

Then when the demon

started to spurt blood,

which is white, I was

trying to make him vomit,

so that was the

test drinking milk

whilst watching Evil

Dead trying to make

my friend vomit so it was

a tough one we used to go.

[Chainsaw buzzes]

- Stop it, help!

- Well it definitely

affected me.

It's the core inspiration for my

Cinema Therapy Video Nasties Mix

Forbidden Horrors

and Dirty Sin Scores.

It was me going down

this rabbit hole

of finding these films

that made me realize

the core connection

was all this gore.

The music the tie-in

was the music.

The 30 cents and the funky

disco and the prog rock.

When I was looking for

a new project to compile

for a VJ mix, it was perfect

because I didn't really

know about the controversy

until I started putting together

the pieces of these films

and what they meant to be.

Which was basically the music,

it was the music that drove

me to find these films.

- Now I Spit On Your

Grave definitely

had a high impact on me.

It was brutal.

It was a feared movie

when it came out.

Highly inspired

my movie Tomboys,

my film Tomboys, which

is really five girls

that kidnap a serial

rapist to seek revenge,

again loosely based

on a true story.

The funny thing I

found out afterwards

was that the director

actually married

the lead in that movie,

her name was Jennifer Hill,

which was also my mother's name.

So that was also kind of creepy

and I had an affinity to it.

But definitely right up

there in my top four.

- I think the video

nasties had affected

a lot of my work down to

Gransportation, VHS Lives,

Dance of Toxic Shlock,

The Crazy Corny Horror.

It's really influenced

a lot of my work.

- As far as censorship,

I don't really agree

with censorship per say.

I'm more of a believer in

having a good disclaimer

which lists come of the

content that the viewer

will be watching when

they put that film on.

Some nights for

dinner you may be okay

with necrophilia but

others you may not.

So sometimes the subject

matter may not be what

even the most

hardened horror fan

is ready for at that

particular time.

So just having a good disclaimer

is really all that you need

so that the viewer is

making the decision.

It's in our hands how

far we want to watch,

how far we want to take it

and then there's no

creative expression

that's taken away from the

artist behind the film.

There's no watering

down of the message

that they intended

to put out there,

which was their

reasoning for behind

making the film in

the first place.

- Italy had a tradition

of extreme movies,

especially in the 70s and 80s.

Most of them are

big part of the list

of the video nasties,

so titles like

100 Bottoms, Cannibal

Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox

or How Many Cemetery

just for some type of.

Those are some of the

masterpiece that gets banned

and forbidden for

many countries.

Also surprise me to find amazing

titles like Driller Killer

or Flesh For Frankenstein.

I think censorship

is something really

that doesn't have

reason to exist

because yes it's good

to protect child,

protect people that

is not ready or able

to see and watch

this kind of movies,

but people must have the freedom

to choose what they watch

to enjoy what they want to enjoy

and discovery what

needs to discovery.

Especially thinking

that some titles now

are considered masterpiece,

we are able to watch

in TV and internet

every kind of murder and

accident and disaster.

But there is someone

that believe that a movie

can be much more

dangerous than watching

these kind of programs

and news and TV.

- I mean the real

question is how do you

actually legislate morality?

Where is there a

line in the sand

that you can draw for a

massive group of people

that applies to

every single's person

own personal line

where they decide

something is decent and

something is not decent.

You can't do it, it's

a subjective thing.

So to unnaturally

enforce this line

where you say this

is appropriate

you can watch The Crying Game,

but you can't watch The Hills

Have Eyes, right I don't know.

It's a fallacy you can't do it

because everyone has

their own tastes.

Everyone has to

decide on their own

what is appropriate,

what is over the line.

That's our right as people.

That's our right as consumers.

That's our right as patrons

of whatever art form

we want to patronize.

To arbitrarily

put this line here

where you're saying everything

on this side of this

is forbidden from

you, it doesn't work.

[Screaming]

[droning music]

[screaming]

- Just wanted to talk.

- [Lloyd] Nothing

should be censored

other than for children and

that's up to the parents

to keep the children away.

- Censorship.

- The time of the video

nasties is a weird time.

It's almost like if you

had like what we thought

was a really cool

cover to your movie

would instantly get

put on this list.

So basically you had

movies that were basically

art house films

like Driller Killer,

which see that cover,

that cover is awesome.

We think that's awesome.

But there's little of

that actually in the film.

What you get is

a character piece

of a man slowly going insane

for various reasons and

all justifiable reasons.

They way he vents is kind

of a little questionable.

Like he buys a drill

with its own power pack

and just goes in the streets

and starts taking out

homeless people with it.

But that's well into the movie.

Before that, you

see fantastic scenes

like when he and his

lesbian roommates

they order pizza, a large pizza,

you get to see him

played by director

Abel Ferrara consume

this entire pizza,

this entire large

pizza by himself.

And you see many

art house moments

like that in Driller Killer,

which was clearly

labeled a video nasty

just for the cover alone.

- I think censorship will be

moving in a good direction

in the future, which

means it will be more lax.

There's going to be more avenues

just every day for the artist

to get their art out there

to the fans directly

going hand in hand

and having that

connection and cutting out

the bigger companies and

some of the other sources

that get in the middle and

meddle in our entertainment

where they don't belong.

I think also the calling

for having the ability

to watch a video nasty,

take your aggression out

on entertainment,

throw up, cry, scream,

but it's all at your screen.

We have the message,

we know it's happening

in our neighborhoods

or our towns.

But the ability to

press pause and stop

and just come back

to it, revisit,

you can still handle it as an

entertainment level type thing

instead of just

watching the news

and having that

reality in your face.

It's having more

control as a viewer.

It's having more control as

a human being in general.

There's gonna be

more calling for it

as we move forward

and the mindset

that people are in these days.

We need those outlets and

as long as we need them,

they're gonna get stronger

and they're gonna

flow in the direction

of the voice of the people.

- I was watching those movies

before I even knew what

video nasties even were,

like Friday the 13th, The

Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

all those types of movies

that were banned on that list.

They were banned over there,

censored so you couldn't even get them over there.

We had a luckily we

over here at the States,

we watched them over

here and over there

you'd have to get them on

bootleg and that kind of thing.

I'm not really sure I

think it was over there,

possibly try to order them

through a merchandise

video catalog probably.

Video nasties man, there's

some probably good ones

like Cannibal Holocaust, I

remember watching it way later

I was like 13 watching that.

I didn't even know it was

a video nasty at the time.

I found out through

research on Fangoria

what video nasties were.

I would see the

term video nasties,

but I didn't really know

what that term really was.

I did some research on them.

It was like this

list of these movies

that were banned, but

a pretty cool list.

Because it had movies on

there that I would use

for research to find at

video stores over here also,

like Don't Drip Blood

and things like that

that were on that list.

Evil Speak and

that kind of stuff,

I would use that as

a list as a guideline

so I could find these

movies at video shops.

But the ones I remember

the most getting

was Cannibal

Holocaust, crazy movie,

Xtro which is really

weird, especially the part

where the dude's getting born.

He's kind of coming out

of this weird alien birth.

It's really strange, it's

all slimy coming out of there

it's like ew, but

it's really cool.