Saturday, July 24, 2010

We are the Sprocket Holes vol. 155

Jake West Presents The Definitive Guide To The VIDEO NASTIES

by Todd Brown, July 24, 2010 2:43 AM


In the early 1980s, fearing that the morality of British youth was being corrupted by the explosion of ultraviolent film on home video, British authorities passed a sweeping new law on video content. It outright banned a total of seventy two films - though some would later be allowed on appeal - creating what ironically became the definitive list of extreme cinema for many collectors. These were the so-called Video Nasties.

In an age where everything you could possibly imagine is available for free on the internet the idea of controlling access to these titles seems sort of quaint but back in the day, if you were in the UK and wanted to see Cannibal Holocaust or I Spit On Your Grave the only way to do it was via illicit tape trading and an underground network of collectors.

And now, looking back on that era is Doghouse and Evil Aliens director Jake West, who is about to release via his Nucleus Films label, a three disc DVD set titled Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide. Disc one focuses on the titles that were banned and remained banned. Disc two focuses on the titles initially banned and then accepted. Disc three contains West's brand new documentary about the era, Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape. Here's the full announcement:

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide - out on DVD in Oct 2010

Prepare to be corrupted and depraved once more as Nucleus Films releases the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon - one of the most extraordinary and scandalous eras in the history of British film.

For the first time ever on DVD, all 72 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions are featured with specially filmed intros for each title in a lavish three-disc collector's edition box-set, alongside a brand new documentary - VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE, directed by Jake ('Doghouse') West.

Producer Marc Morris, co-author of 'Art of the Nasty' and 'Shock Horror: Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era' comments: "Hopefully, every true movie fan will want this in their collection"..

Disc One presents the 39 titles which were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and deemed liable to deprave and corrupt. These included: 'Absurd', 'Cannibal Holocaust', 'The Driller Killer', 'I Spit on Your Grave', 'Nightmares in a Damaged Brain', 'Snuff' & 'Zombie Flesh-Eaters'.

Disc Two presents the 33 titles that were initially banned, but then subsequently acquitted and removed from the DPP's list. These included:
'Death Trap', 'Deep River Savages', 'The Evil Dead', 'Human Experiments', 'The Toolbox Murders' & Zombie Creeping Flesh

Both discs can be viewed either as a non-stop trailer show, or with newly-filmed introductions from a wide range of acclaimed media academics and notable genre journalists. Each disc is preceded by a brief introduction by cult horror presenter Emily Booth.

Disc Three This era-defining documentary features interviews with filmmakers Ruggero Deodato ('Cannibal Holocaust') Neil Marshall ('The Descent', 'Doomsday'), Christopher Smith ('Severance', 'Black Death') and MP Graham Bright as well as rare archive footage featuring James Ferman (director of the BBFC 1975-1999) & Mary Whitehouse. Taking in the explosion of home video, the erosion of civil liberties, the introduction of draconian censorship measures, hysterical press campaigns and the birth of many careers born in blood and videotape, West's documentary also reflects on the influence this peculiar era still exerts on us today.

Extras include a gallery of original video company idents and extensive gallery of lurid cover art for every video nasty.

Check the trailer for West's doc below!


1 comment:

Aaron said...

Wow, this sounds great. Even though the Video Nasties list was bullshit and some of the movies that were on there didn't deserve to be, I'm still fascinated by it. I will definitely be checking this out come October.