Five controversial ‘Video Nasty’ movies to see before you die
In 1984, censorship activist Mary Whitehouse achieved her goal of imposing strict legislative guidelines on what films could and couldn’t be released on VHS in the UK. The Video Recordings Act of 1984 proceeded to ban titles considered dangerous to the populace because of their excessive violence and/or sexual content. A tape that had been banned became known as a ‘Video Nasty’—and many of them would stay legally unavailable in the UK for decades.
Whitehouse’s act made it difficult for gore-loving horror fiends all over the UK to access cuddly-sounding films like Cannibal Holocaust, Faces of Death, The Burning, The Gestapo’s Last Orgy, and SS Experiment Love Camp.
While they all might sound like freaky Friday night watches in their own right, the Video Nasty Act also led to the banning of several movies that are now considered important and never deserved to be outlawed in the first place. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Evil Dead, Tenebrae, Possession, and The Driller Killer were all slapped with the label at various points.
If you’re brave enough to venture into the bloody world of Video Nasties, many of the 72 officially classified flicks are worth watching. Here are our picks for the five Video Nasty movies to see before you die – hopefully not from a chainsaw to the face or power drill to the head.
Five essential ‘Video Nasty’ movies:
Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)
Between 1975 and 1982, Italian horror maestro Dario Argento had four movies branded Video Nasties in the UK. Inferno was banned for 30 years; Contamination was blacklisted for 23 years before being given a 15 certificate with no cuts made; and Suspiria took six years to finally be granted an 18 certificate. Deep Red would be our nasty Argento pick, though. It was released in Italy in 1975 but wouldn’t be legally available in the UK until 18 years later in 2003.
In this truly frightening and batshit giallo classic, David Hemmings plays a British pianist who investigates a series of gruesome murders being committed in Turin by a mysterious black-gloved figure. It features some of the most memorably disgusting deaths in giallo history – you may find your teeth getting itchy the next time you look at your fireplace – and a creepy mechanised doll that is total nightmare fuel.
Director James Wan has been open about how his work has been influenced on many occasions by Argento. His wacky 2021 horror mystery Malignant is a particularly obvious Deep Red homage, while Billy the doll in Saw is also indebted to the film.
Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)
When most people think of the words ‘Video Nasty’, it conjures images of extreme violence, excessive gore, and generally upsetting material. This is why it’s weird that the blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown was classified as a Video Nasty alongside countless films that fit the bill better. Sure, there’s some violence and nudity in this tale of a woman going undercover as a sex worker to find the person who killed her boyfriend, but it definitely sticks out like a sore thumb alongside titles like Blood Feast and Cannibals in the Streets.
The film was first released in America in 1974 but didn’t come to home video in the UK until 13 years later. It needed more than seven minutes of cuts to achieve an 18 certificate, and it would take another 26 years for it to be released in an uncut form.
This led to the farcical scenario that cinephiles in the UK couldn’t watch an uncut version of Foxy Brown – the movie that inspired Tarantino so much when he made 1997’s Jackie Brown – until 16 years after that Pam Grier-starring classic was released.
Fight For Your Life (Robert A Endelson, 1977)
Fight For Your Life first tentatively arrived in the UK in 1981, but the BBFC prevented its release in cinemas. A VHS release turned up in shops in ’82, but in ’84, it was swept up in the Video Nasty craze and ultimately banned. Incredibly, it’s one of the few films from that time that is still banned in the UK. There has never been an official DVD or Blu-Ray release – although it can be viewed on YouTube – and considering the racial content contained in the film, it’s unlikely that any of the boutique Blu-Ray houses will attempt to bring it back.
Ultimately, it’s a shame that the film can’t be legally watched in the UK because it’s actually written, acted, and directed with surprising skill. The story of an escaped convict who takes a black family hostage, only to find himself in a battle with the family’s preacher patriarch, the film has a couple of very famous fans.
During an interview with Furious Cinema, director Robert A Endelson – who is now a dentist in New York – revealed, “I know that Quentin Tarantino owns a print of Fight, and he’s screened it. I wasn’t there, but I would love to have seen the audience reaction.”
He added, “Tarantino commenting on the film and screening it makes me feel good: he’s a big fan. So is John Waters—he mentioned it in one of his books. Recognition is a good thing.”
The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972)
When the British Board of Film Classification first clapped eyes on The Last House on the Left on July 4th, 1974, it quickly decided it couldn’t give the film a rating that would allow it to be released in the UK. In a letter to the distributor, BBFC Secretary Stephen Murphy wrote, “We can find no redeeming merit, in script, in acting, in character development, or in direction, which would lead us to feel that this muddly film is worth salvaging.”
Even after huge cuts were made to the film to tone down the sexual violence, the BBFC still refused classification, and eventually, the movie was banned as a Video Nasty. It took until 2002 for the movie to finally be released as a 18 certificate DVD.
These days, the film has lost little of its power to shock and appall, but it’s now acknowledged that the performances and Craven’s direction lift it high above most exploitation films. It was remade in 2009 with Aaron Paul and Sara Paxton, and received similar vitriolic reviews to the original, with the irony being that the perception of Craven’s version had now shifted so much that it was viewed as untouchable.
Delirium (Peter Maris, 1979)
The backstory to this nasty 1979 thriller is genuinely fascinating. You see, Delirium is actually comprised of two totally separate films which were thrown together to make one ultra-violent Frankenstein’s Monster of a grindhouse movie. Oh, and it’s also known by a different title in some circles: Psycho Puppet.
The story goes that, in the late ’70s, director Peter Maris was making an urban conspiracy thriller set in St. Louis, Missouri, but he didn’t – or couldn’t – finish that film. Thinking on his feet, he wrote a new project about a killer and the police’s efforts to catch him. On their own, both films were unfinished spare parts, but together they made one semi-coherent story.
Delirium, then, is about a series of murders that terrify St. Louis’s citizens. The police investigate the killings, and when they find the culprit, they realise he is a deranged Vietnam veteran who was hired by a cabal of businessmen to kill the city’s criminals and undesirables. Unfortunately for this cabal, though, their murderous veteran turns on them, and they grow to fear the very monster they unleashed on the city.
For decades, Delirium could only be tracked down on VHS, as it was banned in the UK as one of the first Section 2 Video Nasties. In 2022, though, Severin Films released it on Blu-Ray, remastered from the only 35mm print that has survived from ’79. Guess who is a big fan of this movie? We’ll give you a clue – his name rhymes with Blentin Blarantino.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.