I borrowed the title from a book by John Martin, it's well worth a read but not cheap, if you can get a copy that is. The title is a variant/bastardisation of a 1954 book by American psychiatrist Fedric Wertham, The Seduction of the Innocent, in which he claims that comic books were an inferior form of literature and would lead to juvenile delinquency. It was also a tabloid headline at the height of the media scaremongering, they had as big a role and manipulated the whole thing to make it as sensational as possible, not that they would do this nowadays!
A Video Nasty refers to a movie that was released on video tape in the UK at the start of the 80's that was deemed to contain harmful material, either sexual or violent, but mostly both! The term Video Nasty is said to have been coined by Mary Whitehouse, but more on her and her crusade later.
In the 1970s home video recorders were starting to arrive in the UK thus starting a whole new era in home entertainment, they cost several hundred pounds, a small fortune at the time, but us canny Brits rented (thank heaven for Radio Rentals!). So now people could record TV progs and sporting events to watch and keep whenever we want, and of course hire films from video stores, virtually every corner shop had a video section, they were everywhere!
Due to a loophole videos didn't need to be classified or censored because they basically bypassed the British Board of Film Censorship, thus leaded to unchecked, unregulated videos arriving on video store shelves all across the country. People were cashing in on the boom as well, filmmakers, distributors and store owners were putting everything and anything out, regardless of quality or content.
Coming up in further blogs, there's going to be a few of them, I'll look at the protagonists that brought about the Video Recordings Act 1984, so the like of Mary Whitehouse, Graham Bright, the police and the unbiased, balanced media.
I'll also look at the films, the prosecuted ones (39), non-prosecuted (33), those classed as video nasties but not mentioned in the other 2 parts (82) and other notable mentions not covered by the previous 3 parts, only 20ish of them.
I have watched the vast majority of these films over the years, some I have watched the cut version through choice, others I have chosen not to watch at all (I'm not a total completist), most are widely available and uncut, a lot of them on streaming services or free on YouTube, I will link where available.
Lastly I'll cover the subculture that has built up from all this, the books, the documentaries and websites/groups, all going strong and getting stronger over 30 later!
A little bit of trivia to finish this section the first home video machine was actually built in 1963 by the Nottingham Electronic Valve Company here in the UK. It was called Telcan, Television in a can, cost £60 (an average months wages) and could record 20 minutes of footage!
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