Introduction

W-a-a-a-y back in the early 1980's when affordable video recorders became commercially available in the UK, a small group of enterprising distribution companies opened up intending to cash-in on the video boom by releasing pre-recorded films onto tape.

This idea proved hugely successful, and the first dedicated video libraries started opening up soon after. But there was one major problem, in those days  there was still a sizeable chunk of cash to be made in re-releasing films at the cinema, and so the larger studios were initially reluctant to release their mainstream blockbusters onto tape. Meaning the smaller video distributors were constantly struggling to find new material to put out.

However, back in those days video films were in something of a legal "twilight". As unlike cinema films, there was no legal  requirement for them to be classified, or vetted by any statutory body prior to release. So technically, they could pretty much release whatever they liked.

It was with this in mind, and in order to fill the public's constant demand for a wider variety of movies on tape, that the distributors quickly began snapping up the rights to a lot of foreign low budget exploitation films, many of which would have never otherwise stood a chance of ever being screened in the UK.

This meant that cult classics like "I Spit on your Grave", "The Driller Killer", and "Last House on the Left" were soon finding their way onto UK video shelves, despite the fact that many of them had been effectively banned from the cinema.

Unfortunately though, the down side of these video works being unregulated meant that they fell under the remit of "The Obscene Publications Act". An archaic piece of legislation that dates back to the 1800's, which prohibits the distribution of materials liable to "Deprave & Corrupt". So it was only a matter of time before the authorities decided to sit up and take notice.

The problems first started in early 1982 when distributors Vipco (Video Instant Picture Company) took out several full page adverts in various video magazines of the graphic box art to "The Driller Killer". Another culprit was GO video, advertising full page spreads for their films "SS Experiment Camp" and "Cannibal Holocaust", which lead to numerous complaints being made to the Advertising Standards Authority.

This attracted a lot of undue attention, and at this point the ever vigilant gutter press, most notably the Sunday Times and Daily Mail, started to speak out against the availability of some of the titles, making a big issue about how easy it was for children to access them. Even calling on comments from morality groups, church leaders, and self appointed media watchdogs like the obnoxious National Viewers and Listeners Association (now called Mediawatch UK) to back up their outrageous articles about the "evils" of home video.

This was the catalyst that set the authorities' wheels in motion, and the police subsequently started raiding distributors and video shops up and down the country looking for contentious material that they could prosecute under the OPA.

The Government's Department of Public Prosecutions subsequently drew up a list of films that they felt where likely to be judged obscene by the courts for the police to concentrate their efforts on when carrying out raids. The press referred to these films as "Video Nasties".

Whilst there where many horror films at the time being branded as so-called nasties by the media, not all of these made the DPP's official hit list. Altogether there where 74 different titles that appeared on the list at one time or another. The original list contained 52 titles, but many more where added soon after and others dropped, leaving a final total of just 39 which were successfully prosecuted.

This "Purge" by the DPP went on until the Government finally introduced the "Video recordings Act" in 1984, which outlawed the trade in unclassified tapes and required that all video films be submitted to the "British Board of Film Classifications" for vetting prior to release. This ended the availability of the more infamous titles, and subsequently the nasties furore by the media, and of course the need for any further prosecutions by the DPP.

There was a 12 month period of grace given to clear all uncertified tapes out of the system, and so some titles were still around for a while, but inevitably, it was the end of a much too short lived era. The UK was never the same again, and even today many films still fall foul of our beloved censors.

So with that, let us take a stroll down memory lane, back to those days in the early 80's when video was the latest thing, recap over all that media hysteria that changed the face of the UK video market forever, and take a look at all those titles that earned a feel of the collar by the local constabulary.

The information on the following pages has been gathered from various sources, mostly from "Dark Side Magazine" , Dave Taylor's "Melon Farmers Video Hits" website, the "BBFC" website and the "Internet Movie Database", With additional info on the more recent sections taken from the book "See No Evil" by David Kerekes and David Slater.