Episode 90 - Video Nasties

Night of the Bloody Apes (1969), Don't Go in the House (1979), Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)

In 1984, in the U.K., the Video Recording Act was passed, which required certification of all video releases by the British Board of Film Classification, aka BBFC. This all came about due to a list of video titles that a group of various religious and other social groups run by the likes of Mary Whitehouse, deemed unsuitable to be viewed and thought for sure it would help corrupt the youth of England. The initial list had 72 titles on it, both films that had already been released after obtaining a BBFC certificate but now was deemed too offensive, as well as a whole bunch of other titles that were believed to fall under the obscenity law. If you own a shop that rented or sold one of these titles, you could be shut down, fined, and possibly even go to jail for it. And this all took place, not in the dark ages, but in the mid 1980s. Hard to believe it, especially growing up here in the U.S.

Some of those titles have only recently gotten passed and released over in the U.K., even 40 years later. Blows the mind.

In this episode, we discuss not only the whole Video Nasty era, but cover 3 films from that list, with each of us watching all 3 and see if we made it through without turning us into mindless deviants. Oops. Too late.

Films mentioned in this episode:

The Bat Woman (1968), Beast in Heat (1977), The Body Snatcher (1957), The Braniac (1962), The Burning (1981), Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981), Curse of the Crying Woman (1962), The Curious Dr. Hump (1969), Dead of Winter (1987), Doctor of Doom (1963), Don’t Answer the Phone (1980), Don’t Go in the House (1979), Don’t Look in the Basement (1973), Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984), Driller Killer (1979), Entrails of a Virgin (1986), Eyes of a Stranger (1981), Faces of Death (1978), Fear No Evil (1981), The Gestapo’s Last Orgy (1977), Horror High (1973), I Drink Your Blood (1971), I Spit on Your Grave (1978), Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974), Maniac (1980), Mortuary (1982), Mother’s Day (1980), Nekromantik (1988), New York Ripper (1982), Night of the Bloody Apes (1969), Perdita Durango (1997), The Prowler (1981), Psycho (1960), Roar (1981), Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man (1973), Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters (1970), Santo vs. Frankenstein’s Daughter (1972), Santo vs. the Head Hunters (1971), Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1969),Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy (1971), Shock Waves (1977), Silent Night Deadly Night (1984), Speed (1994), SS Experiment Love Camp (1976), Subspecies (1991), Suspiria (1977), Terrorvision (1986), Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Twister (1996), Unhinged (1982), El Vampiro (1957), The Wresting Women vs. the Aztec Mummy (1964)