Video Nasties (Part 1)

[GoggleboxUK]

Prior to the establishment of state censorship implemented in the Video Recordings Act of 1984, censorship was in the realms of the courts and the Obscene Publications Act. This required the courts to apply the test of whether videos were likely to "deprave and corrupt" the viewer. The Director Of Public Prosecutions maintained a list of those videos that were felt likely to be found obscene by the courts and hence worthwhile prosecuting. Of course, the real drivers behind the list were the UK press led by the ever obnoxious Daily Mail.



Several versions of the list were published and the following reflects all videos that made it to the list at some time. Many were eventually removed reducing the list to the 39 titles that were successfully prosecuted.



Absurd







aka



* Anthropophagous 2

* Rosso Sangue

* Horrible

* Monster Hunter

* The Grim Reaper 2

* Zombie 6: Monster Hunter



Review from IMDb: Halloween-esque



Monster Hunter is the Halloween-esque 'sequel' to 1981's insomniac's dream Anthropophagous. This time around D'Amato brings to us a sense of pace, making Monster Hunter much more enjoyable.



The added gore (including an ultra-torturous scene involving an oven) and cool electronic music score is a nice bonus.



The story (or lack thereof) brings back George Eastman as our favorite cannibal, this time not on a Greek island, but somewhere in the US being hunted by a priest (of all people).



A bit boring at times but Eastman's presence is over powering and the end involving a 'vegetable' overcoming her disabilities to face the beast is fairly ironic.



VHS released uncut in 1982 by Medusa



Passed 18 with 2:32s of cuts for a cinema release in August 1983



The video distributors withdrew the uncut video and released the same cut as the cinema version.



DPP 39The video was added to the list of banned video nasties in November 1983 anyway. It stayed on the list throughout the panic and so became one of the collectable DPP39s.



Current UK status: Nominally still banned



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon for release on 30th June 2009



The Anthropophagous Beast







aka



* Anthropophagous

* Anthropophagous the Beast

* Anthropophagus

* Antropofago

* The Beast Anthropophagous

* The Grim Reaper

* Man Eater

* Man Beast

* Savage Island

* Gomia, Terror en el Mar Egeo



1980 Italian video by Joe D'Amato (Video Film Promotions)



Gruesome killing & cannibalism including stomping on the bellies of pregnant women so as to snack on their fetuses. As a finale, the beast dies after eating his own intestines.



Review from Amazon US Cult Classic



Finally! Now we'll have it as it was supposed to be. I've been waiting for this moment for so many years! Now "Anthropophagus" may not be a masterpiece but it has become a cult classic very long time ago.



This film has some gruesome scenes and really horrific atmosphere - a dreamy one like in many Italian horrors. I repeat it may not have a big cultural value but you MUST have it on your shelf if you call yourself a horror buff



The video was release by Video Film Promotions in February 1983.



DPP 39It was listed as a video nasty in November 1983 and stayed listed throughout the scare, so became one of the collectable DPP39s.



A heavily cut version was released on the Videoshack to try and exploit the video nasty status, but it didn't sell well. However this did make it a rarity and therefore a challenge for collectors.



The heavily cut US version, The Grim Reaper was passed by the BBFC in 2002.



Current UK status: Passed 18 in an extensively cut version



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Axe







aka



* California Axe Massacre

* California Axe Murders

* Lisa Lisa

* the Axe Murders

* The Virgin Slaughter



1977 US video by Frederick R Friedel (Video Releasing Organisation)



Murderous gangsters on the run descend on isolated farm inhabited by girl & her paralysed father. The girl rejects amorous advances with the assistance of an axe and a razor.



Review from imdb: Classic of its own kind



A gang of three murderers escape the police, terrorize a salesgirl in a roadside grocery store, then proceed to hide-out in a seemingly deserted farmhouse. They soon discover that a young girl, Lisa, and her paralyzed grandfather live there. The gang attempt some sleazy deeds, but Lisa shows how she can work an axe in self-defense.



Even though this movie is EXTREMELY low-budget and is only around 60 minutes long, it is still another example of how a low-budget can help a movie. The acting isn't always the best, but Leslie Lee is considerably creepy as Lisa the axe murderess. Filmed in North Carolina at a deserted farmhouse, the atmosphere is very isolated, like the farmhouse in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The movie doesn't really go anywhere, but it is a classic of its own kind and the soundtrack should be enshrined on CD.



The X rated cinema release was cut back in 1982 under the title of California Axe Massacre



The uncut video was released as Axe by Video Releasing Organisation in 1982.



DPP 39It was listed as a video nasty in September 1984 and stayed on the list throughout the panic and so became one of the collectable DPP39s



Passed 18 after 19s of BBFC cuts in 1999 as California Axe Massacre



Passed 18 uncut when DVD resubmitted in 2005 by ILC as Axe



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



The Beast In Heat







1977 Italian film by Luigi Batzella (JVI)



Lady SS doctor tortures POWs in her charge and feeds the females to a crazed midget troll kept on a diet of mega-aphrodisiacs. The POWs finally get the upper hand and give her a taste of her own medicine.



Amazon Review: The Good Old Days



Ahhh, the good old days when absolutely nothing was safe or sacred to the exploitation movie merchants.... Here we have, in my opinion, probably the most tasteless example of the Naziploitation picture, a genre that more or less died shortly after this "movie". Most would probably agree that that is a good thing.



Anyway, about the movie. For the uninitiated, start with Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS. If you can "enjoy" that bit of nastiness, then perhaps consider taking on this "unique" take on a forgotten film genre. Just don't watch it with your mom or girlfriend or aunt or grandma etc...





Released uncut on video in June 1982 by JVI



DPP 39Banned in October 1983 when it was added to the official video nasty list. It remained on the DPP list throughout the scare and so became one of the (rarest) collectable DPP39s



Current UK status: Still banned in UK



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



The Beyond







aka



* L'Aldila

* Seven Doors of Death

* E tu Vivrai nel Terrore: L'Aldila

* And You Will Live in Terror: The Beyond



1981 Italian video by Lucio Fulci (Vampix)



Fifty years after a fatal witch/warlock hunt in a hotel, inhabitants start to meet gruesome deaths including eye gouging, face eating by spiders & acid attacks.



See review from IMDb: Fulci Lives



The Beyond is one of Fulci's best films. The film takes place in modern day Louisiana as a woman oversees the the renovation of an hotel that she inherits. Strange and gory things start to happen and poof the hotel just happens to be over one of the 7 doors to hell. Very bloody with a slightly incoherent plot the film is a lot of fun and I suspect that no Fulci fan should be without their copy. Visually I think this is Fulci's best film (that I've seen) and the acting is what you'd expect. 7/10



The BBFC imposed 1:39s cuts on the 1981 cinema release



Vampix released the cut cinema version on video in March 1982.



This was banned as a video nasty in November 1983 but was later dropped from the list in April 1985



The cut cinema version was passed without further cuts for Elephant Video in 1987 and the same version was reissued by Vipco 1992



Finally passed 18 uncut for the Protected DVD of January 2001



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 2 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Blood Bath







aka



* Bay of Blood

* Reazione a Catena

* Antefatto

* Bloodbath

* Bloodbath Bay of Death

* Bloodbath Bay of Blood

* Twitch of the Death Nerve

* Carnage

* Before the Fact: Ecology of a Crime

* The Ecology of a Crime

* L'Ecologia del Delitto

* Before the Fact

* Last House on the Left Part 2

* New House on the Left



1971 Italian video by Mario Bava (Hokushin )



A perverse reworking of La Ronde involving 11 graphic murders.



Review from US Amazon: Grandaddy of all slasher movies



Bay of Blood is often called the "Grandaddy of all slasher movies". Many reviews have made the reference to Friday the 13th and very similar killing styles. After watching "Bay of Blood" you can definitely see where "Friday the 13th" (made in 1980) got a lot of it's ideas.



With that being said "Bay of Blood" does not possess the single element that defined the slasher film, the indestructable, omnipresent killer.



The movie succeeds almost entirely thanks to Mario Bavo, who serves as both director and cinematographer, with his typical stylish flare which heavily influenced the great Dario Argento, his eye appealing use of color and interesting editing techniques, which include a lot of blurry dissolves give "Bay of Blood" an almost dream-like, surreallistic feel.



All in all worth an evening for the avid Italian horror fan.



The BBFC refused this a cinema certificate in 1972.



The uncut version was released on the Hokushin label in February 1983



DPP 39It was listed as a video nasty in March 1984. It stayed on the list throughout so became one of the collectable DPP39s



Re-released after 43s of BBFC cuts as Bay of Blood (Redemption, 1994)



Current UK status: Passed 18 with 43s of cuts



The uncut region 0 DVD is available via US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Blood Bath



aka



* Joel M. Reed's Blood Bath



1976 US horror by Joel M Reed (Rank)



See review from IMDb: B-movie horror



This nauseating tale of gore and torture wins my vote as the best b-movie horror for 1976. brilliant costume, intelligent plot, and terrific special effects make this a must see. n



This movie is wicked...if you like "blood sucking freaks" or the situational comedy series "the golden girls", you will love this obnoxious little piece!



Released in 1982 by Rank. A tongue in cheek horror film that only made the list due to its shared name with Mario Bava's Blood Bath. The list didn't specify details beyond the title so this unlikely video was also removed from UK video shop shelves.



Blood Bath was listed as a video nasty in March 1984. It stayed on the list throughout the panic.



Current UK status: No release since



The uncut region 1 DVD is available via US Amazon.

The uncut region 1 DVD



Blood Feast







1963 US video by Herschell Gordon Lewis (Astra)



Crazed Egyptian attempts to invoke the goddess Ishtar by building the perfect woman out of body parts from victims not yet ready to donate them.



Review from US Amazon: Pretty Damn Cool



This is one of those few movies where everything that everyone says about it is precisely true: Utterly barebones production, flatly pathetic acting, stilted and pointless dialogue, and lots and lots of ultra-phony gore. Of course, this is pretty undisputedly the first real gore film, so horror fans pretty much have to see this. And, even if it weren't so important historically it would be worth seeing anyway, cause it's pretty damn cool either way.



Fortunately, in making the first gore film they didn't go halfway. Sure, there are tons of films which are gorier then it now, it's still gory enough that if it were redone, shot for shot with realistic, modern effects, it wouldn't be allowed an R rating in a million years. You got flaying, leg severing, heart extracting, tongue ripping, brain, um, snatching etc. And, while the gore effects are incredibly dated, they aren't quite as cheap and old as I would have imagined. The blood itself actually holds up fairly well, and looks better than much of the stage blood you'd see over the next 20 years or so. It's actually red!



The film only gets 3 stars because much of the terrible acting and dialogue grows somewhat tiresome after a while. The directing is also amusingly flat. The camera hardly ever moves, nor do the actors. They just stand there, statue-stiff, delivering there lines. It's also got a fun soundtrack, with endless thumping tympani and cheesy organs and such.



Lotsa people are irritated by it, but I find it quite amusing.



Astra released the video in May 1982.



DPP 39It was an early casualty of the video nasty scare and was banned in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout the panic and so is one of the collectable DPP39s



Passed 18 with 23s of cuts in 2001 for Tartan Video



Passed 18 uncut in 2005 for an Odeon DVD release



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available from US Amazon



Blood Rites







aka



* The Ghastly Ones





1969 US horror video by Andy Milligan (Scorpio)



Mysterious killer retard stalks family will reading.



Review from US Amazon: Eating Live Rabbits



The Ghastly Ones" (a.k.a. Blood Rites), Andy Milligan's first horror film, is a 1968 film shot in cranium-cleaving color at his Victorian mansion on Staten Island. After a prologue in which a couple with a really large umbrella are hacked up by some guy, this movie has three daughters and their husbands at a reading of their late father's will. It is his wish that the couples spend three days in the family mansion in sexual harmony, and then they will find out who gets what from the old man. But once there the handyman is eating live rabbits, the couples start fighting, and then people start dying and showing up as the main course at dinner.



It takes a long time to get to anything remotely close to the required sexual harmony and even longer for characters to start dropping, but once they do, they start dropping like flies. But by then you might be asleep. It has been a long time since I have seen a horror film where nothing happens for such a long time. But if you are loose for a high content of cheese with your blood and gore, you will not be disappointed.



Released on video by Scorpio in March 1983



DPP 39Banned as a video nasty in August 1984. It stayed on the list throughout the panic and so became one of the collectable DPP39s



Current UK status: Nominally still banned in the UK



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon titled The Ghastly Ones





Bloody Moon







1981 Spanish/German video by Jess Franco Inter-Light)



A chainsaw killing is amongst the methods for the killing of staff and students at a language school.



Review from IMDb: Not the Worst



This movie is basically the infamous Jess Franco having a go at the American-style slasher films that were big in the early 80's, and what's most remarkable about it is how unremarkable it is. It's pretty violent, but except for one nasty knife exit wound there's nothing here that hasn't been done in hundreds of American slasher movies.



Why this movie got singled out for a banning in Britain is beyond me.



The most lurid thing about it is the original (very misleading) Spanish title Colegialas Violadas. (which literally translates to "Raped Schoolgirls")



It's set at an adult Spanish-language school which seems to cater exclusively to incredibly dumb and slutty German and Scandinavian women.



The girls are being stalked by two of the reddest herrings imaginable. One is a burnt youth in a Mickey Mouse mask. The other is a gardener who is always laughing maniacally and coincidentally wielding the exact same implement that has just been used to kill the latest victim.



The best thing I can say about this movie it is it is so over-the-top with its dumb victims, obvious red herrings, and ridiculously gory murders that it might have actually meant to be a parody of the slasher film. It also has some competent cinematography and is relatively zoom free. It's certainly not the WORST film Franco ever made.



Cut by about 2 minutes when submitted for a cinema release in 1982



Inter-Light released 2 versions of the video in 1992, ie cut and uncut. The cut version was the same as the cinema release, ie shorn of about 2 minutes.



DPP 39The video was banned as a video nasty in July 1983 and stayed on the list throughout the panic, so is one the the collectable DPP 39s



Re-released after 1:20s of BBFC cuts (Vipco) in 1993



Passed uncut by the BBFC in 2008



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon



The Bogey Man







aka



* Ulli Lommel's Boogeyman

* The Boogey Man





1980 US video by Ulli Lommel (Vipco)



Various killings precipitated by domestic objects aided by the power of the occult.



Review from imdb: One of the better horror films



I was surprised that this movie got such a low rating, to me it's one of the better horror films I've seen in some time. Ulli Lommel allows the horror in this story to gradually build until it erupts in very frightening and disturbing and occasionally blackly comic ways.



The boogeyman's appearances in the film are effectively kept very brief, he doesn't become a silly charactor of the Freddy/Jason mould. Ulli lommel keeps the location barren and banal and uses them in inventive ways. The scenes in which the disturbed deaf brother paints over every mirror in the house is brilliant and foreshadows a lot of scenes in clean-shaven.



The 1980 cinema release was uncut.



Released on video in November 1981 by Vipco.



The video was listed as video nasty in October 1983 but was dropped from the list in July 1985



Re-released after 44s of BBFC cuts in 1992 (Vipco)



Re-released uncut in 2000 with an 18 certificate



An extended version was again passed uncut in 2004



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 extended DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



The Burning







1981 US/Canada horror by Tony Maylam



Camp caretaker gets horribly burnt as a result of a prank. Five years later he exacts revenge at a summer camp with the help of a pair of shears. Heads and fingers roll.



Review from US Amazon: Must Have



The Burning is hands down my favorite slasher film of all time,



I personally love the killer in the woods slashers the best and this is the perfect premise. This film starts as a flashback "of course"... The kids at a summer camp play a trick that goes terribly wrong on Cropsy the mean spirited grounds keeper and he is burned beyond recognition, Flash to hospital where the horribly burned and disfigured Cropsy is being treated and going through physical therapy then released with a warning that it will take him awhile to adjust to being in the outside in his disfigured state... Flash to the seedy part of Times square he picks up a prostitute and when she reacts in a horrified manner to his appearance he loses it and kills her, After seeing the first kill I knew it was going to be a great slasher film.



Flash back to the woods "summer camp " Cropsy returns to the scene of the crime to wreak havoc and spill PLENTY of blood. I personally don't see why they didn't make a sequel, Cropsy and his garden shears are scarier than Jason and his machete any day as far as I'm concerned.



This is a MUST HAVE for slasher fans.



Thorn EMI initially released the video uncut. They then tried to replace rental videos with the BBFC cut version but most shops stuck with the uncut version.



DPP 39The uncut version of the video was banned as a video nasty in October 1983. It remained on the list throughout the scare



Re-released after 19s of BBFC cuts in 1992 (Thorn/EMI)



Cuts waived in 2002 (Michael Lee)



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



Cannibal Apocalypse







aka



* Apocalisse Domani

* The Cannibals are in the Streets

* Invasion of the Flesh Hunters

* Savage Apocalypse

* Slaughterers

* Cannibals in the City



1980 Italian/Spanish video by Anthony M Dawson (Replay)



Cannibalism has become a disease brought back to the US by soldiers returning from Indo-China. French kissing becomes inadvisable as the plague spreads.



Review from UK Amazon: Horror and action



Interesting and disgusting mix of horror and action from the director of Castle of Blood Antonio Margheriti. What makes it work is that there is some nasty gore scenes like the infamous shotgun wound scene and eating chunks out of human flesh, a cool if cheesy funk soundtrack with a war theme that almost sounds like the theme to "G.I. Joe", a grisly twist in the end and the film is also a metaphore on how the horrors of vietnam can affect a soldier and this is one of Quentin Taratino's personal faves.



The uncut video was released by Replay in July 1982



DPP 39It was an early casualty of the press panic and was added to the DPP list of banned videos in July 1983. It remained on the list until the end of the scare.



Passed 18 with 2s of cuts for animal cruelty when submitted to the BBFC in 2005



Current UK status: Passed 18 with 2s of cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available via US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Cannibal Ferox







aka



* Cannibal Feroz

* Make them Die Slowly

* Let them Die Slowly

* Woman from Deep River

* Die Rache der Kannibalen



1981 Italian video by Umberto Lenzi (Replay)



Drug dealers run amok amongst cannibal tribes who eventually gain the upper hand with grim results. The girlfriend gets hung up by her breasts and the guy suffers various amputations before being deep throated in a rather one way manner.



Review from US Amazon: Delivers the Goods



Whether the film itself really has any merit depends on personal taste really. For my money, this is not a patch on Deodato's excellent Cannibal Holocaust, which is just as gory and a hell of a lot more realistic, with believable actors and an intelligent script. In comparison, Ferox seems like just an exploitative rip-off. But taken in its own terms, Cannibal Ferox does deliver the goods (I'm talking gore-wise) with hard-to-watch sexual violence accompanying genuine animal deaths. The music is cheesy, and again not up to the standards of Holocaust, but it grows on you.



Overall, this Holocaust rip-off is obviously a must-buy for Italian cannibal/gore fans. People new to the genre may do best to check out Cannibal Holocaust first, as it is cinematically far better although harder to watch. But if you're in the mood for a little mindless gore, and don't mind certain scenes looking a tad unrealistic not to mention the laughable dialogue, you could do far worse.



Replay first released an uncut version in August 1982.



In September 1982 the BBFC unofficially approved an 18 video version cut by 6:51s.



DPP 39It was listed as a video nasty in July 1983 and both the cut and uncut versions were successfully prosecuted. The uncut version stayed listed throughout the panic so became a one of the collectable DPP 39's. However the cut version was eventually removed from the list.



This 18 version pre-cut by 6:51s was submitted to the BBFC in 2000 who insisted on another 6s of cuts for animal cruelty.



Current UK status: Passed 18 with extensive cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Cannibal Holocaust



aka



* Cannibal Massaker

* Holocausto Cannibal

* Nackt und Zerfeischt







1979 Italian film by Ruggero Deodato (Go)



Film crew sent into the jungle captures some pretty gruesome local customs and then go on to indulge in a little raping and killing themselves. The natives strike back and the film crew are beaten, castrated, stripped down to their skeletons and eaten.



This film suffered repeated outrageous claims of being a snuff movie by the ever-ludicrous gutter press. This can only be a testament to the quality of the film as the TV film crew's demise is presented solely from news footage that they have supposedly shot.



Review from imdb: Very well written plot



Cannibal Holocaust was, first and foremost, a disgusting movie with more violence than I have ever seen. Despite this, it is also one of my favorite movies. It gives a feeling of Blair Witch done right, even though there are some very obviously contrived scenes in which nobody is holding the camera, but despite some small cosmetic problems this is the best horror movie I have ever seen.



Unlike most "shock" films, such as the Guinea Pig movies, Cannibal Holocaust has a very well written plot and a definite progression. The focus is still on making the audience ill, but we don't even see any violence until fairly late in the movie, so the emphasis on plot is much stronger. The story told is a deep one, showing the lengths at which people will go for some goal, the example given being fame and fortune. The theme is reflected in parallel story lines through the second half of the movie, as Alan and his crew go to more and more desperate lengths for fame, and the professor struggles against a big media company to suppress the release of their footage. Even in a "meta" sense, we see the theme appear once again in the lengths the director of Cannibal Holocaust itself went, going so far as to kill and butcher four animals on camera.



Go Video pre-cut their February 1982 release



DPP 39It was quickly labelled as a video nasty in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout the panic so is one of the collectable DPP39s



Passed 18 with 5:44s of cuts in 2001



Current UK status: Passed 18 with extensive cuts



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



The Cannibal Man







aka



* The Apartment on the 13th Floor

* La Semana del Asesino

* Week of the Killer



1972 Spanish horror by Eloy de la Iglesia (Intervision)



Alienated slaughter house worker kills cabby on Monday, fiancée on Tuesday, brother on Wednesday, brother's wife on Thursday, Father on Friday and then takes Saturday off.



Review from US Amazon: Pseudo-sleazy



Real slaughterhouse footage and scenes of dirty urban slums set the tone for this stark and obsessive Spanish horror flick.



A slaughterhouse employee named Marcos gets attacked by a cabdriver who takes objection when he and his girlfriend are making out in the back seat, and Marcos kills him. This sets in motion a week of killing, first to cover up the cabdriver's death, and afterward to keep the bodies piling up in his bedroom a secret.



He tries to dispose of the body parts at the slaughterhouse, but he can't do it fast enough and soon the stench of the corpses is becoming a problem, and Marcos slips further and further into madness. Weird, pseudo-sleazy film that works even though it doesn't even attempt to live up to its title - there's *no cannibalism*.



The dubbing is pretty bad and there's not much gore (most of the nastiness happens off-screen), but there's plenty of atmosphere and a sense of desperation builds in Marco's apartment.



It's not big on splatter, but it's still worth a look for Eurohorror fans.



Released by Intervision uncut in November 1981.



DPP 39It was banned as a video nasty in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout the panic and became one of the collectable DPP39s. The cover was a flimsy slip case that didn't last long so adding to the rarity of a mint condition cover.



Re-released after 3s BBFC cuts in 1993 (Redemption)



Current UK status: Passed 18 with 3s cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon

[GoggleboxUK]

Cannibal Terror







aka



* Terreur Cannibale



1981 French video by Allan W Steeve (Modern Films)



Criminals kidnap rich kid and unfortunately hole up in a cannibal infested jungle. The kid is adopted by the cannibals but the kidnappers donate their intestines for a tug-of-war match.



Review from US Amazon: Fails Miserably



Cannibal Terror fails miserably on all accounts.



The first thing that sets Cannibal Terror apart from other films in the genre is that its a Spanish/French co-production. This proves that cannibal exploitation films should be left to the Italians as this shameful bandwagon effort is an insult to people looking for a bloody, exploitative good time.



Cannibal films aren't known for great plots this film literally has no plot. Some lowlife criminals kidnap a girl and run into Cannibals in a jungle. Almost the entire film is filler with pointless, boring dialogue. There is only two gore scenes but nothing viewers haven't seen in this genre before and better. The worst aspect of the film is the cannibal tribe itself as they don't even look like jungle tribal members. It's a bunch of extras from all different races and hairdos. Some of the tribal members are fat, middle aged white men and there is even one tribal member with 70's style sideburns!



I do not recommend buying this film. Only buy if your an absolute completist or you are into torturing yourself.



Released on video by Modern Films in October 1981



Banned as a video nasty in July 1983, probably down to the title. Removed from the DPP list in September 1985



Passed 18 uncut in 2003



Current UK status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Contamination







aka



* Contaminazione

* Alien Contamination

* Alien 2

* Astaron Strut des Scheckens

* Toxic Spawn





980 Italian horror by Luigi Cozzi (ViP, European Creative Films)



Exploding alien pods ripen and burst, any unfortunate humans in the vicinity join a chain reaction of a slow motion offal explosion.



This was a very odd and cheesy Italian gore flick, it was a mix of horror and science fiction and it was directed by Luigi Cozzi who now owns the Dario Argento store in Rome called Proffondo Rosso. While Contamination was a decent film I just didn't think it was that good, the first half was very promising as we get to see some impressive gore scenes with the exploding stomachs but then the second half kind of loses steam and becomes slightly boring. The green alien eggs were a knock off from Alien and you could tell that this film was trying to cash in on its success which was typical of Italian horror films at the time, some of these films were of course great cause you can't take them too seriously and they were usually gorier than the original films.



Review from US Amazon: Odd and cheesy



This was a very odd and cheesy Italian gore flick, it was a mix of horror and science fiction and it was directed by Luigi Cozzi.



While Contamination was a decent film I just didn't think it was that good, the first half was very promising as we get to see some impressive gore scenes with the exploding stomachs but then the second half kind of loses steam and becomes slightly boring. The green alien eggs were a knock off from Alien and you could tell that this film was trying to cash in on its success which was typical of Italian horror films at the time, some of these films were of course great cause you can't take them too seriously and they were usually gorier than the original films.



Contamination has some pretty bad acting and stars Ian McCulloch who also stared in Zombie 2 and Dr. Butcher M.D. so he's pretty well known among Italian horror fans and the direction from Luigi Cozzi was rather low-key with some scenes looking a bit too dark, the pacing was a bit uneven despite having a great opening sequence which had some great suspense and the film also has a weak plot but if your a gore hound then you won't mind since there were plenty of great gore scenes, the exploding stomachs were quite impressive and they even have a scene done in slow motion in case you missed it.



ViP originally released an uncut version and this was followed by a release from European Creative Films. They obtained an unofficial BBFC 18 certificate after 2:40s of cuts and pre-cuts.



Either way the video was banned as a video nasty in October 1983. It was dropped from the list in January 1985 though.



Passed 15 uncut in 2004



Current UK status: Passed 15 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon



Dead and Buried







1981 US video by Gary A Sherman (Thorn EMI)



Main stream horror film with Melody Anderson in which yokels set a photographer alight. He survives long enough to get a hypodermic in the eye and anyone investigating too closely ends up dead.



Review from US Amazon: Bravo



In the sea of forgettable FRIDAY THE 13th sequels and clones came this little creative and disturbing gem from the early 80's wave of gruesome horror.



Several people passing through the quaint and picturesque town of Potter's Bluff die terrible, violent deaths only to turn up as upstanding members of the community days later.



What's going on? Well, I wouldn't dream of telling, but you'll have a lot of fun finding out.



The X rated cinema release of 1981 was uncut



The subsequent Thorn EMI video was listed as a video nasty in November 1983 but was dropped in January 1985



The Video Collection release of 1990 was cut by 30s to get an 18 rating



Re-released in 1999 by Polygram with all cuts waived for an 18 rating



The 2004 Anchor Bay DVD and 2007 Optimum DVD are both uncut



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut US Blu-ray is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut US Blu-ray is available at US Amazon



Death Trap







1976 US video by Tobe Hooper



Deranged motel proprietor feeds people to his pet crocodile. The crocodile eventually ensures justice by eating its master.



See review from IMDb: Messed Up



Delirious, surreal, and savage, Tobe Hooper's follow-up to his landmark debut Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is one of a kind while bearing the same signature stamp he left with his predecessor.



A sheer unrelenting onslaught of pure madness, macabre and dark humor. Although not as entirely successful as Chainsaw, Eaten Alive is one messed up little drive in flick with good performances particularly by Brand as the psycho Inn keeper of "Starlight Hotel". Mumbling incoherently through most of his screen time and sputtering gibberish when audible, Neville Brand is eerily convincing.



The beginning of this picture owes to Psycho in that you meet a character that you are led to believe is the (no pun intended) titular heroine but is quickly dispatched and we are left with the equally sleazy and\or oddball residents of the locale like ole' country boy Buck (Englund, who's a hoot) or that oddball couple who's dog gets chomped by the gator that lives in the swamp behind the hotel. It's that kind of movie folks so be aware what you're getting into. Creepy, oddball fun.



The 1978 cinema release was cut by the BBFC



The first pre-cert video rental release was on the VCL label and featured the cut cinema version.



Then Vipco released an uncut version in July 1982. This got listed as a video nasty in July 1983 but after several unsuccessful prosecutions it was dropped from the list in December 1985



The first BBFC certified video version from Vipco in 1992 fell foul of the the post Video Nasties scare and suffered 25s of cuts for an 18 certificate.



The Tedderwick DVD version was passed uncut in 2000



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



Deep River Savages







aka



* Il Paese del sesso selvaggio

* The Man from Deep River

* Nel Paese del Sesso Selvaggi

* Au Pays del'Exorcisme

* Mondo Cannibale

* sacrifice



1972 Italian video by Umberto Lenzi (Derann)



Forerunner of Cannibal Ferox set in South East Asian cannibal infested jungles. Tongue amputations are the order of the day after snacking on traditionally served monkey brains.



Review from imdb: Not much gore



I liked this one strictly for its exoticness. Me Me Lay looks great dressed or naked. She has a great face. I have the Prism edition video. That one is missing a brief cannibal scene that later showed up in Lenzi's Eaten Alive by the Cannibals. The cinematography was well done and I may catch some heat for this but I actually liked the music.



The love scene in the river came very close to XXX. A well placed bush (no pun intended) kept it soft-core. Not much gore, so jungle flick fans should like it. I know I did.



Rejected for a cinema release in 1975 as The Man from Deep River



Derann released the uncut version on video in November 1982. It was listed as a video nasty in March 1984 but it was dropped from the list in September 1985



Re-released in 2003 after 3:45s cuts for animal cruelty for an 18 certificate



Current UK Status: Passed 18 with 3:45s cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Delirium







aka



* Psycho Puppet



1979 US drama by Peter Maris (VTC)



A kangaroo court of right wing nuts hires Vietnam veteran to clean the scum off the streets. The vet turns out to be an impotent psycho who summarily executes nubile girls who remind him of his deficiency.



See review from IMDb: A Strange and Atypical Nasty



This is one of the strangest and definitely one of the most atypical titles to be found in the whole list of infamous Video Nasties.



There's a maniac at large who slaughters his women relentlessly and grotesque. The maniac – Charlie – gets killed after a failed attempt to make another victim. Then suddenly and completely unexpected, Delirium becomes a post-Vietnam war drama. It is revealed that Charlie was a member of a secret network of vigilantes that exists entirely out of bloodthirsty Vietnam veterans and they are hired by a board of eminent & businessmen in order to keep the streets crime-free. Charlie just went a little berserk and started killing women randomly, that's all!



The concept of Delirium undoubtedly shows potential, but the elaboration is overly confusion and dull and reverts all too easily to dreadful clichés. The first slasher half is rather exciting, with a couple of truly nasty murder sequences and the most laughably inept police investigation ever, but the second half is painfully tedious and derivative of much better films.



I can't really bring myself to recommend Delirium to anyone, but I suppose it holds some interest if you're a cult movie freak.



The video was released in July 1982 by Video Tape Centre (VTC).



The video was added to the DPP list of nasties in November 1983 but was later dropped in May 1985



The BBFC passed the 1987 Global Sales video 18 after cuts. This release was titled Psycho Puppet .



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after cuts



The Devil Hunter







aka



* Sexo canibale

* The Man Hunter

* Mandingo Manhunter

* Il Cacciatore di Uomini

* Jungfrau unter Kannibalen

* Chasseur de l'enfer

* Chasseurs d'hommes



1980 Italian/Spanish/West German video by Jess Franco (Cinehollywood)



Set amongst jungle tribes that live in fear of the devil. Chained maidens are offered in supplication and the devil demonstrates eating pussy in a grossly excessive literal manner.



Review from IMDb: Plods Along



Devil Hunter gained notoriety for the fact that it's on the DPP 'Video Nasty' list, but it really needn't have been. Many films on the list where there for God (and DPP) only known reasons, and while this isn't the tamest of the bunch; there isn't a lot here that warrants banning...which is a shame because I never would have sat through it where it not for the fact that it's on 'the shopping list'.



The plot actually gives the film a decent base - or at least more of a decent base than most cannibal films - and it follows an actress who is kidnapped and dragged off into the Amazon jungle. A hunter is then hired to find her, but along the way he has to brave the natives, lead by a man who calls himself The Devil (hence the title).



The film basically just plods along for eighty five minutes and there really aren't many scenes of interest. It's a real shame that Jess Franco ended up making films like this because the man clearly has talent; but unfortunately his good films are just gems amongst heaps of crap and Devil Hunter is very much a part of the crap.



Released on the Cinehollywood label in November 1981



DPP 39Added to the Video Nasties list in August 1984. It remained on the list throughout and so became one of the collectable DPP39s. A rare one at that



Current UK Status: Nominally still banned



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon



Don't Go in the House







1979 US horror film by Joseph Ellison (Arcade)



A man tortured by his mum as a child returns the compliment by killing and roasting her. He keeps her charred corpse around to witness further burnings of bimbos and bitches



Review from US Amazon: A Bit Lacklustre



Don't Go in the House is a mixture of a psychological thriller and the basic premise of a slasher film, but don't go in expecting to see a slasher flick. By no means is this one, it just has the basic set up of one. If anything the best comparison would be a little bit of Psycho and a little bit of William Lustig's Maniac.



Don't Go in the House gets off to a fairly good start and was quite interesting in my opinion, but after the first murder scene things begin to slowly fall a apart and it goes from a good movie to an average movie that never is able to get off the ground. The biggest problem is the lack of on screen kill scenes. After the first one, which was an excellent scene, but due to the character being a total idiot some suspense is lost, but it's an excellent scene that's built up well and pays off with death by flamethrower.



But after that Don't Go in the House starts to get messy with some weak editing.



The screenplay written by Joseph Ellison, Ellen Hammill and Joseph R. Masefield starts off well enough with some good insight into the mind of the villain, but there comes a point to where the story never moves forward and in a sense it feels like the same scene is playing out over and over again.



Director Joseph Ellison works well with a limited budget and overall does deliver a mostly well made movie, but his scenes just seem to fall flat, which can be more placed on the script rather than his direction. There isn't much in the way of suspense since everything mostly happens off camera and it actually feels like there was something missing.



Don't Go in the House isn't a terrible film, but it's just a bit lackluster, while it does have it's moments it just never reaches its full potential.



The BBFC cut the 1980 cinema release



Arcade released the video in May 1982, cut as per the BBFC approved cinema release



Arcade then released the uncut version on video. The video then got listed as a nasty in July 1983 but was dropped in March 1984 after promises that only the BBFC approved version would be sold



Re-released after 3:05s BBFC cuts in 1987



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after 3:05s of cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Don't Go in the Woods...Alone!







1980 US horror by James Bryan (Video Releasing Organisation)



Victims are garrotted, stabbed, impaled and have various limbs lopped off



Review from imdb: Movie for a laugh



I rented this movie, hoping to find a good movie. It was... if you're into comedy! This movie had deadpan acting, no storyline at ALL (a maniac roaming around, killing people for no reason, which may not be THAT bad), and a stupid looking killer (when he's being stabbed at the end, it looks as though his chest is made of brick, or is that CARDBOARD?).



The gore was supplemental, however, and I always recommend this movie for a laugh (in fact, I rented it again just to show my friend how bad it was!). It kept me laughing however and the ending hinted towards a sequel.... maybe it would be better around now? This movie gets a definite 2 out of 10 since it kept me laughing.



Released on the Video Releasing Organisation label in March 1982



DPP 39Banned as a video nasty in October 1983. It stayed on the list throughout the panic so became one of the collectable DPP39s



Passed 15 uncut in February 2007



Current UK Status: Passed 15 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon for release on 26th May 2009





Don't Go Near the Park







1979 US video by Lawrence D Foldes (Home Video Productions)



Vampire cavemen sentenced to eternal life for blood drinking, incest & cannibalism are rejuvenated in the modern day.



Review from imdb: Wonderfully Bad



Now I've seen my fair share of garbage over the years. Hell, I admit to actively seeking it out. But nothing prepared me for this little wonder.



Everything about this film goes way beyond amateur, from the 'old person' make up, to the Persian rug cavemen clothes, to the dissolve shot ageing FX. The lighting is abysmal; spot lights are shone straight into the set giving each shot an early silent film style ring of shadow around the edge of the shot. The acting is appalling, especially from the grimacing Crackers Phinn. The plot progresses at bizarre speeds, some scenes dragging on for way too long and other plot points zooming past at top speed.



Despite all of the above (or perhaps because of it) I love this movie. I really could bang on about it for days but I won't. If you ever find a copy (which isn't easy) you have to see it. I defy you to find anything worse in such a truly wonderful way.



Oh yeah, there's a 'shock' ending too. Marvellous.



Released by Home Video Productions in 1983. Listed as a video nasty in November 1983 but was later dropped in July 1985.



Passed 18 uncut when submitted for an Anchor Bay DVD in 2006.



Broadcast on the Horror Channel in 2004. Missing some footage of entrails being removed, but the stomachs were still ripped open with gusto.



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon in the Box of the Banned 2

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon





Don't Look in the Basement







aka



* The Forgotten

* Death Ward 13

* Don't Go in the Basement





1973 US horror video by SF Brownrigg (Crystal)



Lunatics take over their asylum after beheading the doctor. The chief loon develops her own treatment regime that involves inflicting burns on her charges. This merely inspires the loons to start killing each other.



See review from IMDb: A must-see for B horror fans



Take an ensemble cast of good B grade actors, give them a good script, a somewhat original premise, and unobtrusive directing, and you may end up with a film that over-achieves as much as Don't Look in the Basement did.



The film takes place in a large house which is home to several psychotic individuals. Before the plot even begins, the head of the hospital is chopped up by one of the patients with an axe. The rest of the film builds tension and successfully develops the individual psychoses of the in-mates. After a while it becomes very unclear who is a patient and who is a doctor.



In the end, Don't Look in the Basement is a cleverly plotted film which benefits from generally good acting and directing and not-overly-ambitious camera work. A must-see for B horror fans, and an interesting diversion for those interested in psycho-dramas and psychological thrillers. Be warned, however, this film is slightly more gory and sexy than the average horror film of its time.



The BBFC cut the 1977 cinema release



Derann released an even shorter version of the film on its Crystal video label in February 1983. It is thought that this may have been a TV version.



It was listed as a video nasty in August 1984 but was dropped from the list in December 1985



The BBFC waived its film cut for the 2005 Stax DVD which it passed 15 uncut



Current UK Status: Passed 15 Uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon



The Driller Killer







aka



* Driller Killer





1979 US film by Abel Ferrara (Vipco)



Power tools only make a brief appearance in the film but the cover picture of a power drill boring into a guys forehead probably started the press baying for blood in the video nasties panic.



See review from IMDb: A Good Movie



It has been said of Abel Ferrara that you will either be turned on by his artistic vision, or be left cold by it. I'm split down the middle when it come to his films, I've liked half the ones I've seen but disliked the other half; this one fits firmly in the 'like' side of the equation. The Driller Killer is another entry into the 'shock' cinema repertoire, which is topped by such classics as The Last House on the Left and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Driller Killer hasn't gained itself as much fame or notoriety as those two, but don't let that fool you; it is still a very good movie.



The story follows an artist, who, through the pressures of his work and various things going on around him, is slowly driven insane. His insanity is brought about by lack of money and a punk rock band that has moved in upstairs. We are able to see the frustrations of our 'hero' increase throughout the movie, especially when the plot thickens and several other things in his life go awry. Because of this, we can see that there is a reason for the brutality that is later shown in the film, and therefore this movie can take credit for having a story behind it's violence, and not just having brutality for the sake of it.



The Driller Killer was originally banned as a "video nasty" because of the notoriety it gained for it's cover art, as opposed to it's content. This can be seen clearly by the fact that The Driller Killer isn't actually that gory. Of course, as the title suggests; this film features a drill being inserted into various places on the human anatomy; but unlike a lot of other movies of this ilk, the horror doesn't come as a result of the huge amounts of gore spurting from the wounds, but rather from the noise that the drill makes while being used, and the insanity of the main character. However, gorehounds will still find lots to like about this movie and the people without a strong stomach are probably best staying clear.



Overall, the Driller Killer is a creative and inventive insight into insanity. It's not a masterpiece like some movies that deal with a similar theme, such as Taxi Driver, but it a very good movie and recommended to fans of shock cinema.



The video was released by Vipco in February 1982



DPP 39It was one of the iconic early batch of video nasties banned in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout the panic so is one of the collectable DPP 39s



Remained banned in UK until 1999 when it was passed 18 with 54s of pre-cuts.



The ILC Prime DVD was passed uncut in 2002



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon





The Evil Dead







1982 US video by Sam Raimi



Teenagers battle and lose to the spirits unleashed from the Book of the Dead. Notable rape of girl by marauding tree roots.



Review from imdb: Essential Viewing



Raimi is already a legend, because he created 'The Evil Dead', without a doubt one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Made on a shoe string budget as a labour of love, it still remains Raimi's best movie. He has subsequently worked on bigger projects with bigger names but it is arguable whether he has ever surpassed the invention, thrills, energy and sheer fun of this. And why Bruce Campbell never became a genuine movie star after his debut here, and not just a much loved cult figure, is a complete mystery to me.



'The Evil Dead' is a modern horror classic and absolutely ESSENTIAL viewing for any self-respecting movie buff! It doesn't get much better than this!



The 1983 cut BBFC cinema version was transferred to video and was banned as a video nasty in October 1983.



It was dropped from the banned list in September 1985.



Video re-released after a total of 2:05s of BBFC cuts in 1990



Passed uncut in 2001



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon





Evilspeak







aka



* Evilspeaks



1982 US horror video by Eric Weston



Fun starts when an ancient tome is unearthed and used to summon up a pack of man eating pigs into an unfortunates girls bedroom. Decapitation, disembowelments and open heart surgery with a sword follow. The climax involves a nail launched from a crucifix flying into the baddies head.



Review from UK Amazon: Stands Up Well



It's strange when you see a film for the first time in twenty years, you expect it to have the same impact as it did when you first saw it as a gore-hungry teenager. And of course it can't, but it does stand up remarkably well.



The bullying & violent-revenge plot still works well because the bullies still so very much deserve what they get!



The gore is all there from what I remember of it and the performances are still cheesy, although Clint Howard's sweaty, stuttering performance as the bullied Coopersmith isn't half bad.



My only real moan about the presentation (bear in mind I only watched the UNCUT version of the film on disc 2) is the quality of the print. The UNCUT version seems to have been edited together using a patchwork of many different prints , ranging from the pristine to the power-sanded!! Some scenes look mint while some look like a video source while some look like they have just been discovered in a bin.



Released uncut on video (Videospace) in August 1983. The distributors later replaced this with a pre-cut version



DPP 39Banned as a video nasty in March 1984 (both cut & uncut versions)



Re-released after BBFC cuts (Horror Classics)



Cuts waived in 2004 but dialogue cut by the distributors. This is coupled on DVD with the fully uncut version with spliced in restored dialogue.



The uncut region 2 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Expose







1975 UK video by James Kenelm Clarke (Intervision)



Unlikely British entry in list, a thriller with rape & murder.



See review from IMDb: Sleazy and Gruesome



Writer Paul Martin has scored a massive hit with his first novel and has retreated to a remote cottage in the heart of the English countryside to concentrate on his follow up. He's accompanied by his new secretary, Linda, a housekeeper and occasionally his lover Suzanne. However there is something strange about Linda and soon the bodies begin to pile up.



Admittedly it has a few sex/nudity scenes and a little bit of bloody violence, but there is not enough exploitative elements for my liking.



Udo Kier is decent as a highly unlikeable writer and Linda Hayden is excellent as his secretary. She openly masturbates few times and has a great lesbian encounter with Fiona Richmond.



The violence is quite tame except for the bathroom murder scene which is pretty nasty. The direction is lifeless, the characters are unpleasant and the film is slightly dull. Still I enjoyed it and you should too, if you like exploitation cinema.



Passed X for a cinema release with ~3 minutes of cuts in 1975



DPP 39The uncut Intervision video was banned as a video nasty in March 1984. It then stayed on the list throughout the panic and therefore became one of the collectable DPP39s



It was also notable in that this was the only UK video that achieved the DPP39 status.



Re-released after 51s BBFC cuts in 1997



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after 51s of BBFC cuts



The uncut French region 2 DVD is available via UK Amazon

The uncut French region 2 DVD is available via US Amazon



The Australian release under the name of House on Straw Hill is uncut.



There's a US uncut release from Severin due in 2009

[GoggleboxUK]

Faces of Death







1981 US documentary video by Conan Le Cilaire



Mixed bag of death scenes, badly acted surgical and autopsy scenes, monkey brain eating, phony video footage of death by alligator and bear, political assassinations etc.



The banned video was in fact a cut version of the original. 5 sequels followed.



Re-released in 2003 after BBFC cuts for animal cruelty



The uncut region 1 DVD is available here from US AmazonFight for your Life







1977 Canadian video by Robert A Endelson



Strange entry in the list in that most of the video is taken up by talking about vengeance rather than getting on with the job.



From The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Disturbing Scenes



Three escaped convicts seek refuge at the home of a black minister and his family, there the family is humiliated and beaten. When his daughter is violated the family begin to embark on some vengeance.



A film which has very little to offer other than racial hatred and some rather disturbing scenes of violence.



Rejected from a cinema release in 1981



DPP 39The 1982 uncut video release was banned as a video nasty in September 1984 and remained on the DPP list throughout the panic



Still banned in UK



The uncut region 0 DVD is available from US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available from via UK Amazon





Flesh for Frankenstein







aka



* Andy Warhol's Frankenstein

* Il Mostro e in Tavola... Barone Frankenstein

* Carne per Frankenstein

* Chair pour Frankenstein

* Andy Warhol's Young Frankenstein

* De la chair pour Frankenstein

* The Devil and Dr. Frankenstein

* Frankenstein

* The Frankenstein Experiment

* Up Frankenstein





1973 Italian/French video by Paul Morrissey



Famous scene where the Baron has an orgasmic grope amongst his creations innards and proclaims that You don't know life till you've fucked death in the gall bladder.



Re-released in 1996 after BBFC cuts of 56s (First Independent)



Finally passed uncut by in 2006 for a Tartan Video release on May 22nd 2006



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon





Forest of Fear







aka



* Blood Butchers

* Blood Eaters

* Toxic Zombies



1979 US video by Chuck McCrann



Zombies are created from hippies smoking weed that has been contaminated by pesticide. They then go on a flesh hunt.



Review from US Amazon: Cheesy Classic



This is one of those cheesy classics from the 70's. I enjoyed it somewhat.



Basically to sum it up...A group of people growing dope get dusted with a chemical meant to kill their crop. They turn into flesh eating zombies and try to kill campers in the same area.



It was alright, it didn't take too long to get to the juicy parts. Although, in my opinion it is NOT worth the Amazon price of 21.00. I'd probably pick it up for 5.00 maximum.



The 1982 Monte video release is missing the epilogue about FBI agent quitting his job but all the violence was intact



DPP 39It was added to the DPP list of video nasties in November 1983 and stayed on the list throughout the panic.



Nominally still banned in UK



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon titled Toxic Zombies





Frozen Scream







1975 US video by Frank Roach (Home Video Productions)



Very few nasty bits bar an injection into an eyeball.



See review from IMDb: For bad movie fans



A pretty lame horror flick about a scientist's attempts to make people immortal. This is a bad movie, featuring several funny parts. I particularly liked the scene of two women in the hospital talking, when out of nowhere the policeman narrator's voice is dubbed over the conversation. It's just sloppily put together.



Beyond that, the only point of interest is that H. Kingsley Thurber did the music.



After watching it again. I now value Frozen Scream. Some stretches of boredom, but more amusement than I had originally thought. Don't go too far out of your way to see it, but bad movie fans should find something of interest here.



Released on video in 1983. It was added to the video nasty list in August 1984 but was soon dropped by October 1984



Still nominally banned in the UK



It was released on DVD in Germany in 1997 with an English soundtrack



This uncut region 2 DVD is available via UK Amazon





The Funhouse







aka



* The Funhouse: Carnival of Terror



1981 US video by Tobe Hooper



Mainstream film about a murderous mutant on the loose in a fairground. It has been suggested that the video appears on the list due to a confusion with another film Last House on Dead End Street that is also known as The Fun House.



Review from UK Amazon: Good News Bad News



The Good News: This is an effectively underrated slasher entry. One of it's most impressive feats is that it gives us a nice carnival atmosphere with some interesting sights. The setting is the best thing about this, as great pains is taken to turn the early part into setup, and this does create a great atmosphere for later on in the film. By taking a trip through the garish freak-show, which includes on exhibit a two-headed cow and a deformed, bottled fetus, the mechanized fun-house creatures, the deformed inbred monster, the creepy surreal barkers and more, the groundwork is laid for some real fun. The attention to detail he gives the carnival at the beginning is amazing, even the stuff that is going on in the background. This is obviously thrilled by the colors, textures and shadows of the carnival and capably turns the place into a menacing and alien environment. Even the carnival workers themselves are weird and seedy.



The film's main positive point, though, is the extremely great showdown at the end. There's rarely been a better one in the annals of the slasher genre, starting inside a hall of mirrors and wandering through the back-rooms, down into the bowels of carnival, finally ending up in the machinery room. It's quite impressive and really stands out in the field. The stalking inside the fun-house generates some great tension as well, including a couple crashing through doors and some real surprise pop-ups from the other carnival attractions.



The Bad News: There really isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. One of it's problems is the slow pace in the beginning. By using the opening as the setup for the walk-through of the carnival, this here takes a large amount of time to get started. There's around an hour of material before the killer is even getting started, and while it builds up atmosphere, this really could've been trimmed down a tad and replace most of the running around...



The Final Verdict: With only a few nagging problems, this really is a quite underrated slasher film with a lot to like about it. It's creepy, frightening and full of intense action, leaving it a film full of entertainment and a full recommendation for the slasher fans in the crowd.



Added to the DPP list of video nasties in 1984 and was dropped in 1985



Passed 18 uncut in 1987.



Passed 15 uncut in 2007



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon





The Gestapo's Last Orgy







aka



* L'Ultima Orgia del III Reich

* Bourreaux SS

* Last Orgy of the Third Reich

* Des Filles pour le Bourreau

* Caligua Reincarnated as Hitler



1977 Italian video by Cesare Canevari (Video Film Promotions)



Bannable scenes include girls being dunked in quick-lime, girls fellating pistols and sodomising the commandant with the butt of a whip.



Review from Amazon US: Way Better than Expected



Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler was way better than what I expected. Just the exceptional location of Northern Italy's lake district gives it one star. Furthermore, the young blonde star of the film is gorgeous and someone both men and women would find attractive to sleep with. There are some five star sexual violence scenes that are unfortunately too brief. Beatings, whippings, gang raping of women prisoners, dipping naked women into vats of lime, hanging the young blonde star nude and upside down over a box of live rats! I mean, hey you "sicko" Nazi fans, is this something or what?



There are no actual hard core sex scenes, however, there are multiple simulated sex scenes that are quite hot to watch. I think there is significant sexual tension in scenes throughout this very good storyline. If you are into the whole "Nazi sex slave camp" thing....this is by far, the best of that genre I have come across. And because I only paid $9.99 for this double feature...it makes it a 5 star film for me by all catagories.



I am curious if there is an unrated or extra cut film out there of this, as another reviewer hinted at? If so, and they showed more actual sex, that would be the one to purchase.



The video was released in 1983 by VFP with a missing 10:48s scene of an Aryan fantasy and a feast of human flesh. The video was re-released in 1984 by Video Shack



DPP 39Added to the DPP video nasty list in March 1984 and stayed on the list throughout the panic so became of the the collectable DPP39's. The Videoshack version is particularly rare.



Current UK Status: Still banned in the UK



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



The House by the Cemetery







aka



* Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero

* The House Outside the Cemetery



1981 Italian video by Lucio Fulci (Videomedia)



Apparently praised by the Sunday Times for its constraint but still includes decapitation, stabbing in the head, scalping, a throat ripping, a bat attack and more.



The banned video had already been cut to remove the decapitation of the baby sitter and most of the violence committed with a poker.



Review from US Amazon: Dread and Fear



This is the third in a loose trilogy of films by Italian master of the macabre Lucio Fulci set in New England that evoke the uncanny and cosmic terrors of H.P. Lovecraft. The other two films City of the Living Dead and The Beyond are quite a bit better than House by the Cemetery, but that doesn't mean this film is totally without merit.



At times Fulci succeeds very well in creating an atmosphere of dread and fear, and the film is not without some subtle moments of terror, due mainly to an eerie soundtrack and a couple of creepy kids.



But fans of Fulci and Italian horror cinema in general are not interested in the type of subtle scares one might find in English ghost stories; instead his films are marked by unusual levels of graphic violence. Although this film is not without its moments (throats ripped out, maggot ridden bodies and decapitation), the violence seems quite muted compared to other Fulci films. Fulci is perhaps aiming too strongly for the atmosphere of Lovecraft, and subsequently forgets to invest in his film the graphic and absurdly violent scenes which have afforded his work a cult following.



The film as is usually the case with Fulci makes little sense and is full of continuity errors, its difficult to know whether this is down to bad editing, or an intentional effort to create an uncanny world in which time and space are confused, personally I prefer the latter possibility. There has always been something dream like and hallucinatory about Italian horror cinema and this film doesn't disappoint on that level.



The cinema release of 1982 was passed X after 34s of cuts



DPP 39The cut cinema version was released on video in January 1983 but was banned as a video nasty in November 1983. It remained on the list through out the panic so became one of the collectable DPP 39's



The 1988 Elephant video was passed 18 after 4:45s of cuts.



The 1993 Vipco version suffered 7:27s of cuts.



The 2001 DVD from Protected is missing 33s



The BBFC waived all previous cuts for the 2009 Arrow DVD



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon



House on the Edge of the Park







1979 Italian video by Ruggero Deodato (Skyline)



Class warfare, retards are invited to rich kids party for ritual humiliation, retards extract revenge by robbing, raping and pissing on the rich kids. Eventually the rich kids get the upper hand and the retards get it.



Review from US Amazon: Interesting yet Chilling



A couple of trouble making rapists Alex and Ricky ( David Hess from Last House on The Left and John Morghen from Cannibal Ferox) who are invited to a rich person's party until they decide to make their own cruel and twisted kind of fun such as murder and rape.



A harsh and unsettling Italian horror thriller from director Ruggero Deodato ( known for the infamous immoral Cannibal Holocaust) has definitely know how to shock his audience. The acting isn't all that great but the music is good with a funky disco song, some gory violence with torture, nudity, and sleaze abound, this is definitely a interesting yet chilling film.



The BBFC banned a 1981 cinema release.



It was released on video uncut by Skyline in October 1982



DPP 39It was listed as a video nasty in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout the panic so became one of the collectable DPP39s



2002 Protected DVD passed 18 with 11:43s of heavy cuts.



Current UK status: Passed 18 after 11:43s of cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Human Experiments







1980 US film by Gregory Goodell



Some doubt as to whether this film was an official nasty.



Woman in peril when falsely imprisoned in an asylum. The mandatory mad doctor is experimenting in catatonic shock induced by spiders and bugs.



Banned in UK



I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses







aka



* Drop Dead Dearest



1978 Canadian video by Murray Markowitz



Stars Elke Sommer and features electrocution in a swimming pool and a paving slab being dropped on someone's head.



Re-released after BBFC cuts as Drop Dead Dearest (Heron Home Entertainment)

[GoggleboxUK]

I Spit on Your Grave







aka



* Day of the Woman

* I Hate Your Guts

* The Rape and Revenge of Jennifer Hill



1978 US video by Meir Zarchi (Wizard/Astra)



Perhaps one of the most famous of the video nasties probably because it is one of the better films on the list. It shows brutal and protracted scenes of the violation and humiliation of Camille Keaton. Armed with resolve and intelligence Keaton avenges herself by chopping up, hanging, drowning and castrating her tormentors.



Review from US Amazon: Brutality



Over the years my memory had embellished the film; nonetheless, it still shocked me, today.



It is easy to forget that there are actors following a script. The film is evenly paced and unrelenting. One is forced to confront the brutality of rape and violence.



The actress is quite convincing and deserves recognition. The rape scenes are borderline snuff quality except for the fact the editing and directing have moments of brilliance. The men are sickening and easily hated; they are just vicious animals without any redeeming qualities, yet they are believable. Let us not forget, there are men who commit these atrocities. One can appreciate why she seeks revenge.



Without question, the rape scenes are some of the most disturbing moments in cinematic history. The castration scene is unparalleled. The special effects are just that, effective.



The DVD is an excellent package. I Spit on Your Grave isn't presented as a low budget film. It is art; it's not a slasher flick; it's not meant for entertainment.



Released in January 1982 first under the Wizard label and then labelled Astra (Astra were UK distributors for US based Wizard). The video was one of the prime targets of the moral press and it was listed as a video nasty in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout so is therefore one the collectable DPP39s



International Trading gained a UK video certificate in 2001 after 7:02s of cuts to the rape scene.



International Trading pre-cut their 2003 DVD to reframe the rape offscreen. The BBFC asked for 41s of additional cuts. It added up to the same cuts as in 2001 but was perhaps more smoothly achieved. The same cut version was released by Anchor Bay in their 2005 Box of the Banned



Current UK Status: Passed 18 with extensive cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Inferno







aka



* Dario Argento's Inferno

* Horror Infernal



1980 Italian video by Dario Argento (20th Century Fox)



Apartment is inhabited by an evil spirit that causes a number of deaths including, stabbing, guillotining, and drowning.



Review from US Amazon: My own favourite



This is my own favourite Argento movie, but if you try and work out the plot it will drive you nuts. It's best viewed as a dark and incredibly gory fairytale and companion-piece to Suspiria.



Irene Miracle becomes curious about the history of the old New York mansion block where she lives. Big mistake, but oh forget the logic. Just lap up the marvellous set-pieces: a swim through an underwater apartment (why is it flooded? don't even ask!), a witchy teenager and a cat who materialise during a music tutorial, a slasher murder set to the Slave's Chorus from Nabucco, a rat attack in Central Park - I could go on but see it for yourself.



The soundtrack is an audacious blend of Verdi and - wait for it - Keith Emerson. Sheer bliss.



The BBFC cut the 1981 cinema release.



20th Century Fox released the video which was listed as a video nasty in August 1984. It was dropped from he list in September 1985.



The BBFC cut 28s from the 1987 Film & Video release



The BBFC cut 20s from the 1993 Fox Video



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after 20s of cuts



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Island of Death







aka



* Ta Pedhia tou dhiavolou

* A Craving for Lust

* Cruel Destination

* Devils in Mykonos

* Island of Perversion

* Psychic Killer 2



972 US/Greek video by Nico Mastorakis (AVI)



Saga of bestiality, incest & torture. Women and goats are raped, people are pissed on and nailed to the floor. Lesbians are torched and homosexuals are forced to drink paint.



Review from imdb: Rough Diamond



Island of Perversion is a rough diamond from the deep seas of sickness, another gem from 1970s - the golden age of Grindhouse and exploitation! A film where you can still smell the dirt from the backyard and railway station cinemas it was shown in! But it´s a great one, I enjoyed every second of it!



The story is about two totally weird siblings who travel to Mykonos to free the peaceful Greek island from all those who are perverted scum in their eyes: gays, lesbians, nymphomaniacs, hippies... Unfortunately, the version that I watched was cut, so I didn´t have the chance to see the notorious goat-rape!



Even though the violence is not that graphic in this film, the director seemed to be possessed by the ambition to make one of the most depraved movies ever! Loved the bad surprise ending!



Was passed X in 1976 with extensive cuts (14 mins) for the cinema as A Craving for Lust



AVI released an uncut video in November 1982 as Island of Death.



DPP 39Island of Death briefly appeared on the video nasties list in November 1983 but was deleted by the next issue. There may have been a confusion with another film with the same name by Narcisco Ibanez Serrador. The video returned to the list in October 1985 and remained on the list throughout so becoming one of the collectable DPP39s



Heavily cut video version renamed Psychic Killer 2 was rejected by the BBFC in 1987



DVD passed with heavy cuts of 4:09s in 2002. Distributed by Michael Lee



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after 4:09s of cuts



The uncut region 1 DVD is available via US Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



The Killer Nun









1978 Italian video by Giulio Berruti



Patients are killed in a variety of exotic ways, perforated with pins, kicked to death, thrown out of window etc. These deaths resemble accounts of martyrdom often told by a drunkard, dopehead, lecherous old nun, Anita Ekberg. Also includes a bit of lesbian nun depravity.



Amazon review



What a great job Blue Underground have done as usual to restore it. This is a good film and anyone familiar with the exploitation sub-genre of nunsploitation will recognise this as a stand out film. There are some very atmospheric set pieces in the film Anita Ekberg's flashbacks and the giallo inspired murder of the old woman. I just wish we had the original italian soundtrack. As is usual with dubbed films it detracts from the power of the film by having cheesy actors do the overdubs. Some of the editing is a bit sloppy but Italian exploitation fans are well used to this. The gorgeous Paola Morra is worth the price of the film alone. Well worth checking out.



Passed uncut in 2006



The BBFC commented in their 2006 Annual Report:



Killer Nun had required cuts to remove some scenes of sadistic torture on video in 1993, but these now appeared dated and lacked the power to shock or harm and so it was passed without cuts.



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazo





The Last House on the Left







aka



* Krug & Company

* The Men's Room

* Night of vengeance

* Sex Crime of the Century



1972 US video by Wes Craven (Replay)



Two girls are kidnapped by escaped prisoners and are subjected to sexual humiliation, razor torture, rape, disembowelments and shooting. The parents of one girl avenge their death by chainsaw, throat cutting and castration.



Review from imdb: Brutal Realist Tragedy



While I think that people tend to get a bit hyperbolic when they talk about The Last House on the Left, I do think it's a fairly good film, especially given what the filmmakers were trying to do and considering their lack of experience, the era and the budget. Also, despite a filmic precursor, it just may be the earliest example of the horror subgenre of brutal, realist tragedy. However, it has flaws that would be difficult to overlook in a distanced assessment of the film.



But again, focusing on that amounts to hype now, and shouldn't be taken too seriously, lest it lead to inflated expectations. Just as surprising on a first viewing is that The Last House on the Left has an intermittent goofy sense of humor and a groovy attitude that is firmly mired in the early 1970s. The two policemen are really comic relief characters (and very funny at that), but there is also a lot of humor surrounding the criminal quartet--this almost becomes a black comedy at times. These sensibilities even extend to the music, which has a frequent hillbilly edge and lyrics that supply ex-positional material. Surprisingly, Hess, who plays Krug, wrote the music.



Rejected for a cinema release in 1974



DPP 39The video was released by Replay in June 1982. It was an early casualty of the video nasty panic and got banned in July 1983. It stayed on the list throughout and so became one of the collectible DPP39s



A cinema release was banned again in 2000. However it achieved an cinema club circuit release in 2000.



A subsequent video release was rejected in 2001



The video was again submitted in 2002 but this time the BBFC offered cuts. An appeal against the cuts proved unsuccessful and in fact resulted in additional cuts to those originally requested by the BBFC. The resulting Blue Underground video/DVD release of 2002 suffered 31s of censor cuts.



Further 2003 video/DVD releases (including one titled Krug & Company) from Anchor Bay have been edited differently but maintained the previous BBFC 2002 cuts



Finally passed 18 uncut by the BBFC in 2008



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



Late Night Trains







aka



* L'Ultimo Treno della Notte

* Don't Ride on Late Night Trains

* Night Train Murders

* Torture Train

* L'ultimo treno della notte

* Night Train - Der Letzte Zug in der Nacht



1975 Italian film by Aldo Lado



Drug crazed nutters mug a Father Christmas then move onto to terrorise and murder a couple of young girls on a train (Irene Miracle). The girls' parents inflict some retribution



Review from US Amazon



I agree that while this film borrowed heavily from Last House on the Left, Night Train Murders is the better of the two. Good production values, excellent cinematography, an Ennio Morricone score, decent acting and a tight script, set Night Train Murders above Last House and other films of this type.



The first third of the film introduces the main characters and then gets them on a train (the night before Christmas) that is full of odd, quirky travelers - most of whom seem to be prone to indulging in one perversion or another.



The "defilement" section of the film is a gripping, harrowing affair that escalates in viciousness before climaxing in a very brutal fashion.



The final act does not live up to the scenes that precede it. I was expecting a truly grisly and horrific conclusion. However, the director's desire to keep from glamorizing violence is probably why the ending feels somewhat restrained.



Passed 18 uncut in 2008 as Night Train Murders



The uncut region 1 DVD is available from US Amazon



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon



The Living Dead







aka



* Non si Deve Profanare il Sonno dei Morti

* The Living Dead

* Don't Open the Window

* The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue

* Let Sleeping Corpses Lie

* Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue

* No Profanar el Sueno de los Muertos

* Fin de Semana Para los Meurtos

* Weekend Per i Morti

* Le Massacre des Morts-Vivants

* Invasion der Zombies

* Zombi 3

* Da Dove Vieni

* Das Leichenhaus der Lebenden Toten



1974 Italian/Spanish horror by Jorge Grau (VIP)



Various members of the community are disembowelled and eaten. Then the heroes fight back.



Review from US Amazon: British Mini



Watching this film was a real treat as it was devoid of the usual American teenage students being slaughtered and was even filmed here in the U.K. It's full of 1960's/70's kitsch and the hero's even drive a real British Mini, a link copied in a recent advertisement campaign! The picture quality is excellent so you can see the Zombies in all their lurid excellence and so are the extra's and packaging. If you only ever buy one Zombie movie, make it this one!



The BBFC cut 1:27s from the 1975 cinema release as The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue



VIP released the uncut video in June 1992 titled The Living Dead.



Meanwhile LVC released a video Don't Open the Window. This is a version censored for a US R rating.



The Living Dead was listed as a video nasty in October 1983 but it was dropped from the list in April 1985



The 1:27s pre-cut cinema version was submitted for video in 1985 by Network Distribution. The BBFC demanded 26s of further cuts. This release was titled Living Dead at Manchester Morgue



All BBFC cuts were waived for the 2002 Blue Underground DVD, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie/The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available via UK Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon



Love Camp 7







1968 US video by R.L. Frost (Market)



Softcore goings on at a Nazi prison camp for girls.



See review from IMDb: Don't Take Seriously



The violence and sexploitation are best taken as tongue-in-cheek. By enjoying the exploits of the two WAC officers, Maria Lease and Kathy Williams, the movie is quite entertaining.



Both Lease and Williams could pass as Playboy Playmates. Both girls have no less than four scenes each were their wares are sampled - talk about copping a feel, these horny Nazis devour these two toothsome actresses!



Released by Market in 1983.



DPP 39The video was listed as a video nasty in April 1985 and stayed on the list throughout the panic



Banned when submitted again in 2002



Still banned in the UK



The Australian Region 0 2005 DVD from Siren Visual Entertainment is uncut



This uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon

[Carl V]

Thanks Gogglebox for all your information - I can see you've been busy. I remember back in the old analogue days of Sky, there used to be a channel called Bravo which showed various "video nasties", but I get the feeling they were in a heavily edited form.



I recall seeing Driller Killer, and to be honest I didn't like it, but maybe the poor editing had something to do with it. You're right about the cover art, as I think the poster showed someone having his head drilled but yet there was no scene like that in the film, unless it was cut. In fact there was hardly any gore in it at all, as you've mentioned.



Another film I remember is The Zombie Flesh Eaters, which included a scene where a woman was being dragged by a zombie towards a sharp wooden splint. On the TV showing, this was cut but on the DVD (so-called "extreme un-cut version"), you actually saw the splint pierce her eyeball.

[Carl V]

The House By The Cemetery was shown on Film 4 a couple of nights ago, and I did record it but I don't know if it's uncut or not as I haven't watched it yet. I know it runs for about 82 minutes once the adverts were removed.

[GoggleboxUK]

Madhouse







aka



* There Was a Little Girl

* And When She Was Bad

* Flesh and the Beast

* Scared to Death



1981 US/Italian video by Ovidio G Assonitis (Medusa)



A deranged woman escapes from the loony bin and gate-crashers her twin sister's birthday party. Guests are attacked by a big black Alsatian and/or a mystery maniac. The dog gets its come-uppance when lobotomised by a power drill.



Review from US Amazon: One of the Better Nasties



"Madhouse" is one of the better films that was previously on the "banned" list of so-called video nasties in the UK. It didn't really deserve it's place on the list, but it's easy to spot the scene that probably put it there.



Built around a slasher/crazed relative plot, the film stands above it's rivals due to some really good cinematography. The story tells of a young teacher named Julia (Trish Everly) who has lived under the shadow of her abusive sister Mary since childhood. News reaches her that Mary is suffering from a disfiguring disease and wants to see her. Julia's visit to the hospital is one among several scenes that stayed in my mind. As she walks through the ward, the atmosphere is quite dreamlike, with the room seeming like a huge white theatre, festooned in curtains. Mary makes for a rather belligerent and ungrateful patient however, and Julia's life is turned upside down by this encounter with her cruel sibling, and in the days following the visit, people around her start dying.



The film is enjoyable and capable of sustaining interest throughout it's running time. Trish Everly makes a very likeable heroine, and a lot of trouble is taken to gain the viewers sympathies for her, especially in the early scenes set in the school for deaf children where she works. She's rather timid, but armed with a fairly good script, she makes for an appealing heroine. Another good character is the fiesty girl friend who agrees to sleep over in Julia's apartment when events start to take a more sinister turn.



Although some of the time the action can get rather slow, the film features two pretty over-the top gore scenes that seem almost out of place in a movie that exercises restraint in most aspects. The most infamous sequence is the one that shows just how you can put down a dangerous attacking rottweiler with a handy power drill. The other is an axe attack that is so drawn out it becomes almost surreal.



The only things letting the film down are some rather over-the-top performances from the supporting cast, including the character of Mary, who appears on screen with pantomime-style evil rantings and some very unconvincing looking "facial disfigurement" make-up.



The nicely composed film needs to be seen in widescreen, including all the violence, even the dog-drilling scene (don't worry, it certainly doesn't look real!). I bought the UK DVD of this which was let down by the sound quality - it's APPALLING. Half the time its far too quiet and even with the volume turned way up, there were times when I couldn't even make out what people were saying.



A cut version of the film was released in 1983 by Medusa and was added to the DPP list of banned video nasties in November of the same year. There was also an uncut version in circulation



Passed 18 uncut by the BBFC in 2004



The uncut widescreen region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon but with poor sound quality.



Mardi Grass Massacre







1978 US horror by Jack Weis (Goldstar)



Serial killer picks on the most evil women he can find and tortures them by amputating hands, then feet, then the part that you use for evil



See review from IMDb: Cheese and sleaze!



Not exactly a straight slasher as many believe but it's surely as cheesy, and unintentionally funny as any slasher from the 80's.



Mardi Gras Massacre could be considered as a toned down exploitation low budget. The plot asks for brutality, violence, sleaze but the truth is that the execution of the idea isn't as half as good as it should.



The ritual method is repeated in all the death scenes. So we don't get originality or probably there wasn't enough budget to at least create three different gore scenes. It's okay but even ultra low budget slashers have at least two different killing methods! Anyways, Mardi Gras Massacre has generated some kind of cult over the years but sincerely, this isn't a must see. The movie should only be watched by b-movie lovers or morbid fans of low budget cheese and sleaze!

Released in 1982 on the Goldstar label and later on the Market label.



DPP 39Banned as a video nasty in November 1983 and stayed on the list throughout the panic



Current UK status: Still banned



The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon





Night of the Bloody Apes







1969 Mexican video by Rene Cordona Jr (Iver Film Services)



Ape to human organ transplants cause recipients to become beastlike and murderous. Cheesy gore effects include eye gouging and scalping.



From imbd.com



* The Mexican producers filmed a "special" edition of the film (sometimes called Horror y Sexo) for more tolerant foreign markets, adding scenes of nudity and extreme gore not present on the Mexican prints.



From a review on Amazon: Pretty Grim



The film is a very cheap Mexican 'horror' with real life heart transplant footage edited into it during the operation scenes. This is pretty grim. Although, they can't possibly have done this operation for the film itself, so I don't really consider that to be too tasteless. And really, the rest of most of the film is so comic book and likeable, dammit, that you can forgive the rather shoddy idea of using said footage as a main point of sale. Far more interesting are the scenes where a woman wrestles another woman in what initially seems to be a pointless subplot. Have faith viewers, it is NOT a pointless subplot, but a cunning and subtle plot development. Even when the film appears to be going nowhere it IS. God bless writer/director Rene Cardona. I love the actress who plays the wrestler, too - especially when she looks straight into the camera and smiles to us, her loyal viewers.



People say that really bad films are funny to watch _because_ they are so bad. I have only found this to be the case with one film before now, and that was Death Wish 3, but now Night Of The Bloody Apes has become one of my pet films. A desert island treasure.



For entertainment value, this gets 10/10. Recently I have been unable to watch films all the way through, due to my deteriorating attention span, but this kept my attention for its duration, even to the extent that I couldn't look away from the TV. Take my advice and watch this masterpiece.

The film was released in cinemas with around a minute of BBFC cuts in October 1974.



DPP 39It was released uncut in January 1983 by Iver Film Services. By November 1983 it had been listed as a video nasty and suffered a successful prosecution. It remained on the list throughout the panic and so became one of the collectable DPP 39s.



In 1993 there was a mysterious uncut Vipco version. It was nominally slated as pre-cut but somehow got a limited unsanctioned uncut release. It was withdrawn within days.



In 1999 the video was released on the Satanica label, in a version that was obviously taken from Vipco's planned cut version (Vipco's logo remains). This time the distributor removed every single violent scene before submitting it to the censors.



The same heavily pre-cut version was released on 2002 DVD by Film 2000.



An uncut version was released in 2007 by Redemption.



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after heavy pre-cuts



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



Night of the Demon







1980 US video by James C Wasson



Big Foot seeking expedition is tragically successful. Members get their throats cut, faces fried and get a good whipping with there own intestines. One poor guy accidentally pisses on the Big Foot hiding behind a bush and loses the tools required to piss again.

DPP 39Banned as a video nasty in 1983



Re-released after BBFC cuts in 1994(Vipco, now defunct)





Nightmare Maker







aka



* Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker

* Night Warning

* Evil Protege

* Momma's Boy

* Thrilled to Death



1981 US video by William Asher (Atlantis)



Horror film about an over-protective aunt jealous of her charges girl friends.



Review from Shock Horror! Gripping



It seems rather strange that the the director of the I Love Lucy TV series could ever make something on the DPP's list of banned movies, but that's exactly what happened to William Asher's 1981 feature. Despite several undoubtedly shocking scenes this seems particularly unfair, as it is actually a gripping and well made horror thriller, which was even nominated for a Saturn Award as Best Low Budget Film of the Year

Released on the Atlantis label in April 1983.



The film made the list of banned video nasties by November of the same year. It was dropped from the list in December 1985



It was submitted to the BBFC in 1987 with cuts as The Evil Protege but was rejected



Still nominally banned in UK





Nightmares in a Damaged Brain







1981 US video by Romano Scavolini (Oppidan)



Brain damaged inmate is unwisely released from the asylum. After recalling how he killed his father and a floozy with an axe he goes on a tour of the local sex shows. This whips him up into a frenzy ready to get down to stalking his ex, son and ex's new flame.



Review from US Amazon: Great Slasher Movie



I love this movie and I think it is the most underrated and under recognized slasher film of the early 1980s, which is saying a lot because there are dozens of good horror films from the first half of the 80s that have slipped into obscurity.



The plot is very interesting and is not at all a typical "slasher by numbers" flick, and is not predictable. There gore is pretty insane and gruesome, and Tom Savini was the make-up effects consultant. This is one of my favorite slasher films of all time, and I would consider it comparable to Maniac or The Prowler. There is a tense, uneasy feeling throughout the film, and some very memorable scenes showing how disturbed the killer is, like the part at the peep show in NYC where he gets so aroused he has a seizure. Pretty crazy stuff.



Highly recommended!

The 1982 cinema release was cut by the BBFC and passed X



Oppidan released a cut video in May 1982. This version is said to be more complete than the cinema release with the restoration of about 1 minute of material



DPP 39The video was banned as a nasty in July 1983. Perhaps something to do with promotional material such as the distribution of vomit bags and guess the weight of a human brain in a jar. One of the victims of the panic was David Hamilton-Grant, the owner of Oppidan, who was jailed under section 2 of the OPA. The video remained on the list throughout the panic and so became one of the collectable DPP3s



A pre-cut version (the US R rated version) was passed 18 by the BBFC in 2002 and again in 2005



Current UK Status: Passed 18 in a pre-cut version



There is an uncut German DVD noted as the Blood Edition from Laser Paradise



A rare US DVD titled Nightmare from 21st Century Releasing is also said to be uncut



Possession







1981 French/W German video by Andrzej Zulawski



Set in the outbreak of world war 3, a couple, Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, are undergoing a marital breakdown apparently mirroring the split of Berlin where they live.The wife cuts herself in the neck with an electric carving knife and partakes in an affair with an octopus creature.



There is a rumour of a 5 minute cut to the octopus baby miscarriage on the metro. This appears to be false as the old VTC version is the same as the Dutch and French video releases as well as cinema prints. The director himself has stated that the birth scene does not last 10 minutes. A fair few scenes were cut during editing one of which clarifies what happens to Anna (Adjani). To the director's knowledge, none of these have ever made it to any release of the film.

Re-released in 1999 uncut by the BBFC



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon





Pranks







aka



* The Dorm that Dripped Blood

* Death Dorm





aka



* The Dorm that Dripped Blood

* Death Dorm



Pranks DVD

1982 US video by Jeff Obrow & Stephen Carpenter



Teenage slasher movie with Daphne Zuniga set in a disused dorm. Includes the use of spiked clubs to the eyes, garrotting, amputation and even a human head turning up in the stew.



Review from US Amazon: Typical Slasher Stuff



Another 80's college film in which all the "students" look older than expected. College girl Joanne Murray takes on the unenviable job of readying the student housing building to become apartments, which includes selling the unneeded furniture, etc. This takes place during a break, so a mysterious psycho is stalking the nearly-empty premises on campus. Need more?



As you can imagine, this is typical slasher stuff, with overly dramatic music that sounds ripped off from Psycho. Don't expect anything earth-shattering; you do get a cheapie, yet solid release for fans of 80's slasher/horror.



80's horror fanatics will still love this cheesefest that was like a poor man's Pieces. I don't know, it's not as gory and weird as Pieces, but it's in that same mindless yet fun stalk n' slash vein....



Expect a low budget, some bad acting, and if those are things you are able to tolerate then Pranks ain't half bad. Best served with lots of beer and a roomful of friends.

Added to the DPP list of banned video nasties in 1983



Dropped from the DPP list in 1985



Re-released after 10s BBFC cuts in 1992



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon

[Steve Crook]

Beats me why anyone would want to see any of them.

If you want horror then just watch the news



Steve

[Carl V]

I have The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue on DVD under the Anchor Bay label. One or two reviews I've read when it was released would indicate it was slightly cut, but looks like it's been re-released since then. I recognise some of the opening scenes in Manchester before he drives out into the Lake District - or at least it was supposed to be set in the Lake District if memory serves me right.



I Spit On Your Grave has previously been shown on the Horror Zone satellite channel but not having seen it at the time it was broadcast, I couldn't say whether it was cut or not.

[GoggleboxUK]

Prisoner of the Cannibal God







aka



* Slave of the Cannibal God

* La Montagna del dio Cannibale

* The Mountain of the Cannibal God





1978 Italian video by Sergio Martino (Hokushin)



Explorer is held as a deity because his Geiger counter continues to tick as if his heart, even when his flesh has perished. This perished flesh gets daubed all over his wife, Ursula Andress.



Review from US Amazon: Very tasty little snack



Another 70's cannibal flick, this is much better than expected.



You've got the hot, scantily-clad Ursula Andress and her crew on a quest through the jungles of New Guinea. They get ambushed by some blood thirsty savages of course. This tribe looks extremely heinous. Their masks are what really stood out for me in this movie--some dirty, potato sack looking bags with holes cut out for the eyes. Freaky! When the maniacal tribe leader sees Ursula, he might develop a different kind of hunger.



You've got all your basic cannibal flick essentials--blood, gore, decapitations, nudity, violence with animals. The acting and dialogue are good enough not to hamper the story. It may not be extremely original, but hey, if it ain't broke...

Passed X for the cinema in 1978 with extensive cuts to animal cruelty. Passed for titles Prisoner of the Cannibal God & The Mountain of the Cannibal God



The cinema cut version was released on pre-cert VHS by Hokushin in 1981, titled Prisoner of the Cannibal God This was banned and added to the DPP list in Novemver 1983. It was removed from the DPP list in May 1985



Passed for the Protected video/DVD with 2:06s cuts for animal cruelty in 2001, titled The Mountain of the Cannibal God



Current UK Status: Passed 18 with 2:06s cuts



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Revenge of the Bogeyman







aka



* Revenge of the Boogeyman

* Boogeyman 2



1982 US video by Bruce Starr



Rehash of the gore from The Bogey Man

Removed from the DPP list but never re-released in its original version.



Bogeyman 2: Redux has been passed uncut in 2003 but this film has been re-edited and is now includes even more footage from The Bogey Man



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at UK Amazon



Shogun Assassin









aka



* Kosure Ookami: Sanzu no Kawa no Ubagurama

* Kozure Ohkmi 2



1980 Japanese/US action film by Robert Houston (Vipco)



Japanese executioner treks around with young son in tow looking for revenge on the men who killed his wife. Lots of stylish bloody sword play and blood spattering.



Shogun Assassin is actually an amalgam of two 1972 films titled Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance and Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx. The producer decided to join the best bits of these two films (using around 10 minutes of the first film as a pre-credits flashback sequence to introduce the characters).



Review from US Amazon: A great film



Shogun Assassin is a great film. Much "controversy" has arisen over the years regarding this film having been cobbled together from two other films in the Lone Wolf series. I think that what has been achieved is an extremely entertaining, fast-paced piece of action. By eliminating non-essential story lines and including a voice over narration, the action moves at break neck speed.



The amount of blood spilled is so over the top as to be cartoonish, which only adds to the uniqueness of the movie.



If you have never seen Shogun Assassin or have seen it a thousand times, buy this DVD, it is well worth it.

The BBFC cut the 1981 cinema release by 2s.



Vipco released the video and it got caught up in the video nasties panic. Copies were seized and the distributors were prosecuted. But the prosecution failed and the videos were returned. Shogun Assassin was never officially listed as a video nasty by the DPP.



The 1992 Vipco was pre-cut along the lines of the cinema version. No further BBFC cuts were required



The 1999 Horror Video release is uncut



Current Status: Pass 18 uncut



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



The Slayer







aka



* Nightmare Island



1981 US video by JS Cardone



Cheesy gore effects when a woman's childhood nightmares start coming true when she is stranded on a remote island.

Re-released after BBFC cuts (Vipco, now defunct).



Finally passed uncut by the BBFC in 2001



Snuff







aka



* El Ángel de la muerte

* The Slaughter

* American Cannibale

* Big Snuff



1974 US/Argentinian video by Michael & Roberta Findlay



Film within a film. Pointless outer film suddenly gets interrupted by a notorious "snuff scene" where the crew amputate the limbs from an unsuspecting actress and then they draw yards of offal from under her T-shirt. The effects are nowhere near good enough to even hint that this may be a real snuff film.

DPP 39Passed uncut in 2003



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at UK Amazon



SS Experiment Camp







aka



* Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur

* SS Experiment Love Camp

* Horreur Nazis

* Le Champs des Filles Perdues



1976 Italian video by Sergio Garrone (Go)



Notoriety achieved from the bad taste poster rather than the video itself. The most outrageous experiment is that commandant commands the removal of the balls of the hunkiest soldier "OK you bastard what have you done with my balls"



Passed uncut when submitted in 2005. The BBFC had few qualms in passing it uncut for sale in the UK with the following justification (reproduced from one of the newsgroups) The content of the film is in fact very mild and poorly executed. If anything, it was the title of the film and its original packaging that led to difficulties, rather than the content. The idea of the film may, of course, be offensive to some but that is not a good enough reason to cut or reject it. We would only cut or reject a film for adults if the content was illegal or harmful. SS Experiment Camp is neither illegal or harmful, just tasteless.



Review from IMDb: Highly dubious taste



The story involves a group of women who are delivered to the aforementioned SS Experiment Camp. While there they are subjected to some inexplicable experiments, which often seem to involve forced copulation with a group of Nazi studs (who it has to be said all look strangely Italian). The purpose of the experiments is to find the best stud from this Aryan select and transfer his balls onto the camp commandant who, as we discover, lost his when a Russian woman he was raping bit his off.



Now, the above synopsis may well make the film sound deeply depraved and offensive. Well, it is sleazy and in highly dubious taste but the execution of the film is so amateurish and unrealistic that it really sounds a lot worse than it actually is. The depiction of the camp is more Butlins than Belsen at times. The inmates seem relatively unconcerned for the most part and the Nazi baddies are often hilariously unconvincing. That said, there are some nasty moments, particularly the treatment meted out to the young girl at the orgy; she ends up hanging naked upside down in a shot that recalls the aforementioned distasteful cover shot. But, generally speaking, sequences that achieve such offense are uncommon here. The scenes showing the experiments, while certainly tasteless, are often more strange than anything else. The copulation in a tank of water idea being an example where it is too bizarre to take altogether seriously.

Released on the Go label in January 1982



DPP 39Banned as a video nasty in July 1983 and stayed listed throughout the panic to become one of the collectable DPP39s.



Passed 18 uncut in 2005 under the title SS Experiment Love Camp



The uncut region 2 DVD should have been available in Feb 2006 due to some unfortunate mistake in production, the film you actually got was a soft porn film, Love Camp, starring Laura Gemser. Sorted by the following release later in 2006



Current UK Status: Passed 18 Uncut



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at UK Amazon

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



Tenebrae







aka



* Tenebre

* Unsane

* Shadow

* Sotto Gli Occhi dell'Assassino



1982 Italian video by Dario Argento



An authors book is stuffed into the mouth of a murdered shop lifter (by razor). The author is bombarded by threats and pictures from other murders including razoring, axing, stabbing and garrotting.



This version was the same as the cut cinema version

DPP 39Re-released after BBFC cuts in 1999



Passed uncut in 2002



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon



Terror Eyes







aka



* Nightschool



1980 US video by Ken Hughes



Rachel Ward as psycho killer dressed in full biker leathers and crash helmet. She beheads various women and leaves their heads in a bucket, a ditch, down the toilet and in a saucepan of Irish stew.



Re-released after BBFC cuts (Guild)



The Toolbox Murders







1978 US film by Dennis Donnelly



Ski masked psycho preys on women in an apartment building who he considers are in need of a moral lesson. This is doled out with the contents of his toolbox, eg a nailgun is used to kill a wanton strumpet with shots to the head and belly.



Review from imdb: Grisly



The Toolbox Murders starts out with 20 minutes or so of grisly and very well done kill scenes, all of which involve tools. If you like violence, then you'll love the introduction of this film. If you're a sucker for nudity in horror films, then you'll appreciate the introduction to this film for that as well.



After the kills are complete, however, many people will be bored by the lack of action that takes place on screen until the final moments of the movie. The middle portion of this movie is a lot of talk with little or no gore. I didn't mind this, because I found the dialog between the killer and the kidnapped girl to be very interesting.



Lots of people complain that the acting in this movie is terrible. These people cannot be horror buffs, as I have seen countless other films in which the acting is much MUCH worse. I would go as far to say that the acting in this film is very decent.



If you have the attention span to sit through 'slower' moments of this film, then you'll find something to enjoy in it. I give The Toolbox Murders an 8/10.

The cinema release was extensively cut by about 6 minutes in 1979.



The massively cut cinema version was released on Pre-VRA video by Hokushin in November 1981 and made it onto the video nasties list in November 1983. It was removed from the list in May 1985



A version pre-cut by 2 minutes was Re-released after a further 1:45s of BBFC cuts in 2000



Current UK Status: Passed 18 after 3:45s of cuts



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Unhinged







1982 US video by Don Gronquist



Unrecommended video following a bunch of runaway girls meeting a freaky family in the woods. Some of the girls become a hickory smoked dinner morsel.

Passed X at the cinema with cuts



Removed from the DPP list



Passed 18 uncut on video in 2004



The uncut region 2 DVD is available at UK Amazon



Visiting Hours







aka



* The Fright

* Get Well Soon

* Terreur a l'hopital central



1981 Canadian video by Jean-Claude Lord



William Shatner makes the DPP list along with Michael Ironside and Lee Grant.A psychotic hospital stalker beats up girls, stabs nurses and turns off life support machines.



Review from imdb



I honestly didn't expect much from this, or at least not as much as I ended up getting. Visiting Hours was actually kind of scary.



For those expecting the killer slashing his way through the understaffed hospital (like I did), you'll be surprised to find the hospital setting to not be the main focal point. Colt stalks Sheila to her home many times, and also finds a young woman in town named Lisa (Lenore Zann) to victimize. Another surprise was how few characters weren't just fodder. (ie: Lisa, who becomes quite important later on in the movie.) The body count is low, and it's not like there's a shortage of people to kill. The hospital is always filled with people, and towards the end, is teeming with cops.



The movie is really quite tense at times. The attack at Deborah's home is frightening, especially the dumb waiter scene. And the climactic chase is amazingly pulled off. The acting is alright, with Lee Grant getting a little hammy at times. Especially when she attempts to hone the screaming skills she just doesn't have. She only seems to yell, and it really makes her character seem cheesy. But overall, she does alright. Michael Ironside plays a convincing killer, and is extremely creepy. William Shatner as Gary Baylor, the pointless character of Deborah's boyfriend, is surprisingly not terrible, but probably only because his screen time isn't overwhelmingly long. Linda Purl does quite well as the innocent Sheila, and she plays a very sympathetic character. The music is also to note, and adds a lot of atmosphere.



This is much different from what you'd probably expect, and is worth a look. If anything, there are some very tense scenes, and some ideas that are unique. Definitely not your everyday slasher.

Passed X at the cinema with cuts



Re-released after BBFC cuts (CBS/FOX)



ITV broadcast the uncut version in 1989 and got rebuked by the ITC



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon from April 18th 2006





The Werewolf and the Yeti







aka



* Night of the Howling Beast

* La Maldicion de la Bestia

* Hall of the Mountain King

* Horror of the Werewolf



1975 Spanish horror by Miguel Iglesias (Canon)



On a yeti safari, a tragic heroic werewolf character has his way with vampire girls before staking them, rescues the sherpas from a tartar leader who likes flaying girls for an acne cure and finally wrestles the yeti.



See review from IMDb: Monster Movie



A team of scientists travel to Tibet to track down the Yeti. Among the group is Waldemar (Naschy) the werewolf who gets into a fight with the Yeti.



This had an extremely low budget, which I think really helped the film because it's just like those B monster movies from the 1940's.



The Yeti looks incredibly stupid but Naschy is quite good in his role and the werewolf look is nice. The Yeti is only used at the start and end of the film, which is a shame but the side plot dealing with Tibet rebels was nicely done.

Released on video by Canon in October 1982.



DPP 39Added to the video nasty list in August 1984 and remained listed throughout the panic



Current UK Status: Still nominally banned



The Witch who Came from the Sea







1976 US video by Matt Cimber



A sensationalist cover got this video into trouble "A young woman's nightmare of incest and castration... Molly has a way with razors!" The actual castration scene of course is well toned down.



Amazon Review:



Here is an odd little gem of a film that fortunately ( at least for fans of offbeat cinema) has resurfaced on DVD, boasting a pristine film transfer. Descriptions of the film, the title of the film, and even the DVD cover itself do little to relate, or even hint at what is, as it turns out, an altogether strange, unsettling, humorous, and entertaining cinematic treat. The off kilter acting styles, unnatural tone, and dark humor of the film shares a kinship to the works of David Lynch ( who is too often misused as a comparative description) and is sure to surprise and delight viewers who have an affinity for the outré. Highly recommended.

Passed 18 uncut by the BBFC in 2006.



The BBFC commented in their 2006 Annual Report: The Witch Who Came From the Sea had briefly appeared on the Director of Public Prosecutions’ ‘video nasty’ list in 1984 before being removed in 1985 following unsuccessful prosecutions. Its strong bloody violence was acceptable at ‘18’, but not at a lower category.



The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon



Women Behind Bars







aka



* Des Diamants pour L'Enfer

* Vias pour Mourir

* Prison Sado pour Femmes

* Punition Cell



1975 French/Belgian video by Jess Franco (Go)



Softcore goings on coupled with some sadistic treatment such as electric shocks administered to the breasts and genitals of Lina Romay.



See review from IMDb: A Jewel



Jess Franco women in prison flick, which deals more with a jewellery robbery than the actual prison.



There's still some dirty moments including tons of nudity, a lesbian scene and a couple torture sequences but this is still fairly clear for a Franco WIP film.



Romay has never been accused of being a good actress but she fits her role fine here and she's certainly cute so watching her naked isn't a problem. Franco himself plays a gangster in the film, which is a role he did quite often during this time frame.

The video was released on the Go label



It briefly made the video nasty list in August 1984 but was dropped in October 1984



Current UK Status: Nominally still banned.



The uncut region 0 DVD is available at US Amazon

The uncut region 0 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Xtro







aka



* Monstromo



1982 UK film by Harry Bromley Davenport



Some doubt as to whether this film was an official nasty.



A man is kidnapped by aliens and returns some years later in the form of a four legged crablike monster. He rapes a blonde and a fully grown human explodes from her womb the next day.



Review from Amazon UK



If you can overlook its obviously low budget and tolerate the BBC Radiophonic Workshop-like synthesizer noodling on the soundtrack, there's much to enjoy and offend in XTRO, a simple tale of a family man returning to Earth after three years in the company of aliens whose customs and ways of life he hasn't completely surrendered. Fans of the gross and outrageous will enjoy the sight of a fully-grown man being 'reborn' (literally reborn!) and the several messy killings that further spice up this warped and somewhat disturbing British shocker. Although clearly inspired by Ridley Scott's Alien, XTRO actually bears more than a passing resemblance to Norman J.Warren's notorious Inseminoid, except things are much nastier here. If you like multi-million-dollar blockbusters, this won't interest you, but fans of home-grown horror should check it out.

Re-released 18 without cuts in 1997



Passed uncut 15 in 2007



The uncut region 2 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Zombie Creeping Flesh







aka



* Night of the Zombies

* Virus

* Inferno dei Morti Viventi

* Apocalypsis Canibal

* Hell of the Living Dead

* Cannibal Virus

* Hell of the Living Dead

* Zombi 4

* Zombi 5: Ultimate Nightmare

* Zombie Inferno

* Zombie of the Savanna



1981 Italian/Spanish video by Vincent Dawn (Bruno Mattei)



A zombie plague results from a chemical worker being attacked by a zombie rat. The version released in Britain by Merlin video was already cut including the loss of the scene where the stars eyeballs get pulled out though her mouth.

Passed uncut in 2002



The uncut region 1 DVD is available via UK Amazon



Zombie Flesh Eaters







aka



* Zombie

* Zombie 2: The Dead are Among Us

* Zombi 2

* Island of the Living Dead

* Gli Ultimi Zombi

* Sanguelia



1979 Italian video by Lucio Fulci (Vipco)



Zombies are exuding from an old Spanish cemetery. The cut version loses eye skewering, profuse bleeding from ripped necks and the zombies feasting on intestines.



Review from IMDb: Horror Classic



This is a horror classic of Lucio Fulci with a simple, but interesting screenplay. The unforgettable story begins like Nosferatu, with an empty boat arriving in a harbor with a zombie instead of a vampire; shows the naked body of two beautiful actresses, Auretta Gay and Olga Karlatos; is very gory, with a death that slightly recalls the famous scene of Buñuel in "Un Chien Andalou", when the zombie perforates the eye of Paola Menard; and has a very scary and impressive make-up, with zombies eating human flesh and biting and killing people.



The sister of Mia Farrow, Tisa Farrow, has a good performance in this cult-movie. My vote is eight.

The cinema version was passed X by the BBFC in 1979 with 14 cuts totalling 1:46s.



This X rated version was released on video by Vipco in 1980.



DPP 39Vipco then issued the "strong uncut version" in 1981 at a premium price which then got out on the Video Nasties list in October 1983. It stayed on the list throughout so became one of the collectable DPP 39s



The heavily cut cinema version was passed 18 in 1992 & 1996. Vipco misleadingly tried to pass off their version as 'complete'



Re-released on Diskline video in 1999 with most cuts restored but still 23s missing



Finally passed uncut in 2005 and is released as part of the Box of the Banned set of DVDs from Anchor Bay



Current UK Status: Passed 18 uncut



This uncut region 2 DVD is available from UK Amazon.

The uncut region 1 DVD is available via US Amazon

[Sgt Sunshine]

Beats me why anyone would want to see any of them.

If you want horror then just watch the news



Steve

Yep...........I feel exactly the same way Steve.............Some people must enjoy this sort of thing I suppose.........

Sgt S

[Moor Larkin]

Hopefully a moderator can put them all in one place......



I think the debate about *censorship* is endlessly fascinating, but why on earth anyone wants to watch these things is quite beyond me........



Mind you, I'm not one for porno, any more than gorno... although I must admit 'Hostel' was a far better movie than I had anticipated from all the publicity I had read, whilst Saw was every bit as facile as I had feared....

[GoggleboxUK]

Hostel is far more graphic and violent than any of the movies on the whole Nasty list. Some of them are poor and were given hype by the ban but some are excellent movies.



I Spit on your Grave is every bit as good a movie as Death Wish, probably better by most standards.

Cannibal Ferox is a true story depicting violence against a race of people similar to Zulu

The Last House on the Left is a story with similarities to the Marquis de Sade.



The label "Video Nasty" is undeserved in my opinion, there's very little that is nasty about most of these movies merely different to the accepted norm during the late 70's and early 80's.



The fact that many of these movies are still not legitimately available in the UK 30 years after they were banned is ridiculous to me when we watched the genuine horror, violence and grief of real people for months after 9/11 and during the Gulf War. News channels are allowed to report that hostages have had their heads cut off at the same time as children are eating their tea but we're not allowed to see tomato sauce squirting from a rubber arm?

[paul bisson]

I prefer the innocent style of horror that we had in the 60s.I love Hammer and there were certain films amongst the nasties list that were good films ie.Straw Dogs but I also understand people who want to collect them though they are not my cup of Tea.I love the amount of work that has gone into this post.

I have a couple of books which are about Hammer and tell you about the battle they had with the censors and detail a lot of the cuts made and the reasons why which by todays standard are ludicrous

[Carl V]

I have seen very few of the "video nasties" mentioned by Gogglebox, and the ones I did see were probably out of curiosity as you tend to do with something that is banned. Personally, there isn't one that I've seen that I would say I'd like to see again, but Gogglebox has made a very valid point with regards to make-believe horror and the type of horror shown on the news round the clock. Broadcasters appear to be happy to report and show the horrors of war during the day, but feel the need to censor horror on a piece of celluloid shown late at night.



I don't like Hostel nor the Saw series either. Although I like the horror genre, I don't go for the modern style of teenage and slasher films that seem to be churned out these days. I'm a great fan of the old style horror from the 1940s right up to and including the 1970s - Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, etc. I also love the old Universal horrors of the 1930s, which have already been mentioned on another thread.



The only DVD "nasty" I own is The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, but I guess I probably bought that thinking it would show more of Manchester as it used to be in the 1970s, although the opening scenes were filmed here.

[Sgt Sunshine]

name='GoggleboxUK']



The fact that many of these movies are still not legitimately available in the UK 30 years after they were banned is ridiculous to me when we watched the genuine horror, violence and grief of real people for months after 9/11 and during the Gulf War. News channels are allowed to report that hostages have had their heads cut off at the same time as children are eating their tea but we're not allowed to see tomato sauce squirting from a rubber arm?

Its true what you say...it seems double standards...............

My eldest son has just returned from 10 weeks of voluntary work in Kenya, and was shocked at what they report in their news broadcasts.......

......there had been some trouble, and violence erupted.....one poor fellow was attacked, and covered in petrol and set alight........HE BURNED TO DEATH IN FRONT OF THE TV CAMERA........

As I said my son was shocked because you would not see that on the news here even at 10.00 pm........Maybe they would have "panned away" before you saw him finally die, or maybe they film it all but cut it before his death.........?

Any how......it seems here in UK our news is censored from the most horrific scenes....but this is not the case in some other countries (e.g Kenya)

I wonder if one day those disturbing images will make it onto our "gentle 6 o'clock news".............

Sgt S

[theuofc]

name='GoggleboxUK']....The Director Of Public Prosecutions maintained a list of those videos that were felt likely to be found obscene by the courts and hence worthwhile prosecuting. Of course, the real drivers behind the list were the UK press led by the ever obnoxious Daily Mail................

I'm not familiar with the history of the obscene video list. Why were the Daily Mail and the UK press supposedly "behind the list"? What did they have to gain, or was it just getting more fodder for the newspapers?



Thanks,



Barbara

[doojeen]

Quite an amazing piece of research on video nasties!

[Mark O]

Thanks for all the posting you've done Gogglebox, interesting reading on all the threads, funnily enough i've just returned from my local Morrisons supermarket where 'Hannibal Rising' is for sale at £2 with 'deleted scenes' reinstated whatever they might be!...........I wonder if it would have made the 'list' back then as there's a few ghastly scenes I recall when I first saw it.



A question, was 'Texas chainsaw massacre' ever on the banned video list?...........I thought it was horrible when I first saw it when young and played on my mind for weeks, it wasn't so much Leatherface but the mummified 'living-dead' family sitting round the table and the associated scenes which left me unsettled.

[ShirlGirl]

name='GoggleboxUK']The fact that many of these movies are still not legitimately available in the UK 30 years after they were banned is ridiculous to me when we watched the genuine horror, violence and grief of real people for months after 9/11 and during the Gulf War. News channels are allowed to report that hostages have had their heads cut off at the same time as children are eating their tea but we're not allowed to see tomato sauce squirting from a rubber arm?

There's a big difference between horror in real life and horror for entertainment purposes.