Exploring Robert Smith’s love of video nasties
In the 1980s, a series of shocking movies became known as ‘video nasties’, a sub-genre of filmmaking that caused a moral panic among the British public. After the introduction of video recorders in 1978, most available movies were low-budget exploitation, horror and pornographic features courtesy of small distributors since larger companies were worried about the video recorder market’s impact on cinema sales. With no laws to govern this new technology, any movie could be released on video, no matter how obscene. These films were not required to pass any BBFC laws since they weren’t shown in the cinema, resulting in the distribution of some of the most gruesome and violent movies ever made.
As the release of these horrifying movies continued, ranging from gory splatter flicks to Nazi-themed exploitations, with many believed to breach the Obscene Publications Act, a law was passed to make sure that certain films didn’t fall into the wrong hands. The Video Recording Act was implemented in 1984 to ensure (via the BBFC) “whether or not video works are suitable for a classification certificate to be issued to them, having special regard to the likelihood of video works […] being viewed in the home.”
The act also determined whether a movie is “not suitable for viewing by persons who have not attained a particular age” or if “no video recording containing that work is to be supplied other than in a licensed sex shop”. With many films now banned in the United Kingdom, it was difficult for fans of low-budget horrors and blood-drenched gore fests to get their hands on the movies they wanted to watch.
One of these people was Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure. The gothic icon founded the band in 1978, and by the 1990s, they had found international success as one of the most influential alternative rock bands. In 2018, Elektra Records’ Howard Thompson shared an old fax he received from Smith during a 1992 tour, which included dates in New York. After Smith’s plans to go shopping were thwarted by an additional date added to the tour, he included a list of banned titles in his fax that he could only get his hands on in the United States. The singer hoped to secure specific obscene titles, alongside “maybe a couple of others you could recommend in the splatter-cannibal she-devil vein”.
His list included The Driller Killer, a 1979 slasher directed by Abel Ferrara, who went on to helm movies such as King of New York and Ms 45. The uncut version wasn’t made available in the United Kingdom until 2002 due to its graphic depictions of a murderous, power drill-wielding protagonist (played by Ferrara). Smith also requested two ‘rape and revenge’ movies, Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left and Meir Zarchi’s I Spit On Your Grave. Both films are now considered cult classics, although the latter remains one of the most controversial movies ever.
Smith’s list featured Joel M. Reed’s spatter film Blood Sucking Freaks, which follows a theatre group who perform genuine acts of murder and torture on stage, unbeknownst to the audience. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was also requested by Smith – the Russ Meyer-directed exploitation movie starring Tura Satana as a murderous go-go dancer. Although Meyer’s film was a commercial and critical failure upon its release in 1965, it has since received cult status, highly influencing the likes of Quentin Tarantino and John Waters, with the latter declaring in his book Shock Value that it’s “the best movie ever made”.
Smith was also eager to get hold of a copy of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Although the film is now widely viewed and appreciated, Kubrick’s iconic adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel was once banned (although never considered a ‘video nasty’) because of its violent and sexual content. Kubrick commanded the ban himself due to a string of copycat crimes. A Clockwork Orange was only made widely available in the United Kingdom after the director’s death in 1999.
Check out Smith’s fax below.
