Most shocking video nasty

[GRAEME]

Originally Posted by davidb as for banning these films for political reasons ,i believe in free speech ,however some of these films were of questionable content as in nazi experiment camps etc ,its certainly a difficult question about how you have free expression etc on one hand and a tasteless sadistic gore fest on the other ,but wasnt the main fuss about these films that there was no certification at all on the home video market and some were being watched by children ?

"For the children" is always the excuse! It was about control. You had the choice whether to watch or not - as with any other movie. These films were not uniquely violent or sexual - there's plenty to corrupt minors that was afforded a certificate. The "for the children" argument could be used to ban practically anything.

Allowing things to be censored just because you don't like them personally is easy enough - what happens when things you do value are being banned because other people don't like them? Is banning the answer? Surely most people would exercise their freedom of choice without Big Brother taking a hand?

[davidb]

the video nastys represented a conundrum for even the most liberally minded people ,something deeply offensive like some of those films were puts you in a difficult position ,of course there was films that were banned which shouldnt have been ,george a romeros zombie films for example ,i suppose it just caught the authorities on the hop ,after such strict censorship [ witness the british sex movie of the 70s as opposed to foreign ones ,so ive been told anyway ! ] ,there being no censorship in the then new home video market made them over react

[donna]

the new brand of horror films disgust me like Saw and the Grudge cant watch them , Im more for creepy scenarios like Rebecca, and loved Vertigo but thats not horror is it.

[batman]

Originally Posted by donna loved Vertigo but thats not horror is it.

Yep .... it's psychological horror, much more scary.

[davidb]

a lot of people quoute the wicker man as scary [ which i agree ] and you dont see any gore ! good actors ,good story ,they didnt even need a big budget !

[donna]

All gore type evil films make me sick. why anyone is entertained by this is beyond me.

[sippog]

Originally Posted by batman Are there any British 'video nasties'? That would a more appropriate question for this site.

Yeah, I regret to say there is: "The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael" (2005). It's about a bunch of teenagers in some depressing coastal town who spend their time getting high and features a gang rape and a brutal rape and murder as its climax.

There might have been some kind of social point being made but the film-maker is no Alan Clarke (or Edward Bond). The script is banal and the characters are one dimensional and unconvincing.

However much you might dislike the "torture porn" genre of horror films (and I do) they at least aspire to a sort of grand guignol flourish. This is just a saddening and rather sordid experience laced with unashamed misogynism.

[Third Man]

Originally Posted by donna All gore type evil films make me sick. why anyone is entertained by this is beyond me.

I may be beyond you then because I find Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead one of the most riotous bits of fun I have ever had in the cinema, a phantasmargoric splatter of visceral attitude which has never been bettered. How this was put on the banned list was ludicrous. As high art and audacity at the top level of cinema making it stands as one of the most defining bits of horror ever created for the screen, just remember to take a bib.

However most of the DPP list are as dull as dish water and I would argue that some of the artwork on the covers of the videos were more interesting than watching the films themselves. However if looking for the most shocking of the DPP list I would say it is Cannibal Holocaust, a remarkably well made film as a sort of docu-drama style adventure, it actually comes off as though events have taken place, therefore the preedings are all the more shocking because it is the films capability in bringing this quasi reality to the screen that in itself makes the film shocking.

Simon

[Third Man]

Out of a matter of interest which films did actually deserve a place on the banned list?

Also don't forget the main drive for banning these films came from the ever obnoxious Daily Mail.

Simon

[batman]

Originally Posted by Third Man Out of a matter of interest which films did actually deserve a place on the banned list? Simon

Diffficult for me as the whole debacle was so long ago ..... the torture and other sadistic stuff that caused a lot of the furore at the time can now be found in mainstream films like Saw.

[CaptainWaggett]

Here's the video nasty that still gives me nightmares after 29 years

[Third Man]

Originally Posted by batman Diffficult for me as the whole debacle was so long ago ..... the torture and other sadistic stuff that caused a lot of the furore at the time can now be found in mainstream films like Saw.

I just went through the list and out of all them could only pick out three that were what I remeber as really nasty films they are the following;

Absurd - Joe D'Amato
Fight for Your Life - Robert A Endelson
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain - Romano Scavolini

I remeber the Nazi ones as well but only as absurd pieces of perverse titilation and isn't Max Mosely selling his private video at the moment?

Simon

[scholes]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett Here's the video nasty that still gives me nightmares after 29 years

And apparently, according to Andrew Marr, was a paraphrase of St. Francis of Assisi, which actually read:

'Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt'.
The Counsels of the Holy Father St. Francis, Admonition 27

Still I know what you mean.
Whilst Faith and Hope were perhaps successfully achieved, Harmony and Truth certainly weren't.

[Cheeky Bob]

Originally Posted by donna All gore type evil films make me sick. why anyone is entertained by this is beyond me.

Most mainstream Hollywood romantic comedies, especially those with eight or nine-figure budgets that could be diverted to far more interesting and worthwhile work, make me pretty sick too - but I choose not to watch them.

Presumably you're equally capable of exercising free will?

Originally Posted by davidb the video nastys represented a conundrum for even the most liberally minded people ,something deeply offensive like some of those films were puts you in a difficult position

Not really, because I've never found it hard to differentiate between films that cannot be made without causing actual harm and committing actual crimes (child pornography is by definition impossible to create without breaking the law) and films that merely show offensive but simulated images. To me, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will is infinitely more offensive than anything on the DPP's list, and yet that's freely available (and should be, as it's a vital historical document).

,of course there was films that were banned which shouldnt have been ,george a romeros zombie films for example ,i suppose it just caught the authorities on the hop ,after such strict censorship [ witness the british sex movie of the 70s as opposed to foreign ones ,so ive been told anyway ! ] ,there being no censorship in the then new home video market made them over react

The problem with legal authorities getting involved with cultural matters is that they can't differentiate between intelligent and provocative cinema and exploitative crap, and neither would I expect them to - that's the BBFC's job (and, to give them credit, they're usually pretty clued-up about that distinction).

That said, I honestly believe that if the mainstream film industry had got in on the act much earlier (i.e. the late 1970s as opposed to the mid-1980s), the "video nasty" scare probably wouldn't have happened - certainly not to the same virulent extent. The problem was that there were relatively few mainstream films available on video in the early 1980s, so the rapidly growing market was being filled by independents - and since the rights to European gore films were generally pretty cheap, that's what flooded the market.

(There was also a strong element of opportunism in exploiting the censorship loophole - until 1984, BBFC classifications were voluntary, but in practice most local authorities insisted on them being applied to cinema screenings, but their remit didn't cover video shops.)

[davidb]

Originally Posted by Third Man Out of a matter of interest which films did actually deserve a place on the banned list? Also don't forget the main drive for banning these films came from the ever obnoxious Daily Mail. Simon

probably none of them ! i think the main reason a lot of these films were banned was the danger that on home video they could be viewed by children ,a lot of them were trash and never had a cinema release because there would be no audience for them ,it got silly when things like the excorsist etc were banned as well ,it was a knee jerk reaction by a conservative govt 25 years ago to a problem that came out of nowhere ,the scariest thing about some of them when viewed now is the fashions and the dubbing ,the new menace is video games apparently ,a lot of fuss about gta 4 or is it 5 ? [ disclaimer, other people are making the fuss not me ,im prepared to listen to both sides of the argument before making my mind up ] thats not directed at third man neither