Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that were criticised for their violent content by the press, social commentators, and various religious organisations in the early 1980s. These video releases were not brought before the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) due to a loophole in film classification laws that allowed videos to bypass the review process. The resulting uncensored video releases led to public debate concerning the availability of these films to children due to the unregulated nature of the market.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American supernatural slasher media franchise consisting of nine films, a television series, novels, comic books, and various other media. The franchise began with the film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), written and directed by Wes Craven. The overall plot of the franchise centers around the fictional character Fred "Freddy" Krueger, the apparition of a former child killer who was burned alive by the vengeful parents of his victims, who returns from the grave to terrorize and kill the teenage residents of the fictional Springwood, Ohio in their dreams. Craven returned to the franchise to co-script the second sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and to write/direct Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). The films collectively grossed $472 million at the box office worldwide.
The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which had been instrumental in the certification of motion pictures since 1912, was designated as the classifying authority in 1985. Works are classified by the BBFC under an age-rated system ; it is an offence under the Act to supply video works to individuals who are under the age of the classification designated. Works that are refused classification cannot, under the Act, be legally sold or supplied to anyone of any age unless it is educational, or to do with a sport, religion or music and does not depict violence, sex or incite a criminal offence. The BBFC may also require cuts to be made, either to receive a certain age rating, or to be allowed a classification at all.
I Spit on Your Grave is a 1978 American rape-and-revenge film written and directed by Meir Zarchi. The film tells the story of Jennifer Hills, a fiction writer based in New York City who exacts revenge on her four tormentors who gang rape and leave her for dead.
Cannibal Ferox, also known as Make Them Die Slowly in the US and as Woman from Deep River in Australia, is a 1981 Italian cannibal exploitation horror film written and directed by Umberto Lenzi. Upon its release, the film's US distributor claimed it was "the most violent film ever made". Cannibal Ferox was also claimed to be "banned in 31 countries", although this claim is dubious. The title derives from the Latin ferox, meaning cruel, wild or ferocious.
Film censorship is the censorship of motion pictures, either through the excising of certain frames or scenes, or outright banning of films in their entirety. Film censorship typically occurs as a result of political or moral objections to a film's content; controversial content subject to censorship include the depiction of graphic violence, sexual situations, or racial themes. Censorship standards vary widely by country, and can vary within an individual country over time.
Legend, formerly Zone Horror and Horror Channel, is a British free-to-air television channel specialising in sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, action and cult series. It is broadcast in the UK and Ireland. The channel is known for its horror movies during the evenings and early hours with its schedule featuring in the Films section of the Radio Times rather than with the General Entertainment channels.
Promises! Promises! is a 1963 American sex comedy film directed by King Donovan and starring Tommy Noonan and Jayne Mansfield. Released at the end of the Production Code era and before the MPAA film rating system became effective in 1968, it was the first Hollywood film of the sound era to feature nudity by a mainstream star (Mansfield).
The Werewolf is a 1956 American horror science fiction film directed by Fred F. Sears and starring Don Megowan and Joyce Holden.
Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat is a 2009 documentary film, directed by Spencer Halpin, an American independent filmmaker. The title of the film is in part a reference to the Mortal Kombat series of video games. The title was changed from Moral Kombat to Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat to avoid the risk of a lawsuit.
Bobby Di Cicco is an American actor best known for his early roles in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) by Robert Zemeckis, 1941 (1979) by Steven Spielberg, Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One (1980), and the John Carpenter-produced The Philadelphia Experiment (1984).
Jake West is a British film director, known mostly for his horror films and for a series of documentaries looking at film censorship and interviewing well-known directors, actors and industry figures.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film about competitive arcade gaming directed by Seth Gordon. It follows Steve Wiebe in his attempts to take the high score record for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong from Billy Mitchell. The film premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was released in U.S. theaters in August 2007. It received positive reviews.
The term “media panic” was coined by Danish media scholar Kirsten Drotner. Media panic refers to the highly emotionally charged discourse surrounding the emergence of new medium or media technology - such as the Internet, the World Wide Web, computer games or social media - that is feared threaten society and its values. It can be considered a specification of the wider concept of “moral panic” and according to Drotner followers several basic characteristics:
A pre-certification video is any videotape or laserdisc issued in the UK before the introduction of the 1984 Video Recordings Act.
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is a 2011 American 3-D concert film centering on Canadian singer Justin Bieber. It received generally positive reviews from critics. It was released in the United States on February 11, 2011 and grossed $99 million worldwide, against a $13 million production budget. A sequel was released on December 25, 2013, entitled Justin Bieber's Believe.
Film censorship in the United Kingdom began with early cinema exhibition becoming subject to the Disorderly Houses Act 1751. The Cinematograph Act 1909 was primarily concerned with introducing annual licensing of premises where films were shown, particularly because of the fire risk of nitrate film. After the Act began to be used by local authorities to control what was shown, the film industry responded by establishing a British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) in 1912, funded by an Incorporated Association of Kinematograph Manufacturers levy.
Alan Jones is a film critic, broadcaster, and reporter primarily focused on movies in production, especially in the horror fantasy genre. His first assignment was on Star Wars in 1977, after which he became the London correspondent for Cinefantastique magazine from 1977 to 2002 and reviewed for the British magazine Starburst from 1980 until 2008. A film critic for Film Review and Radio Times, he has made contributions to the Radio Times Guide to Films, the Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction, and Halliwell's Film Guide. He has also been a film critic for BBC News 24, Front Row on BBC Radio 4, and Sky News programme Sunrise. He has worked for Empire, Première, and Total Film. An article of his in the latter coined the term for the Splat Pack.
Marc Morris is a documentary producer, archivist, and researcher. He is a director of Nucleus Films, a film distribution company which he runs with film maker Jake West. A recognised authority on exploitation cinema, Morris has been credited with 'an encyclopedic knowledge of grindhouse and sleaze' whose collection of films, posters and trailers 'should be enshrined as some sort of national archive.'. He has written and produced two documentaries on the 'video nasties' phenomenon and, for Nucleus Films, curates the DVD series Grindhouse Trailer Classics. His feature-length documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape was released in 2010, with a sequel, Video Nasties: Draconian Days in 2014. Both were premiered at FrightFest and are often used as reference works for university film studies on British movie censorship.
Nucleus Films is a UK-based independent DVD and Blu-Ray distribution label and private limited company, founded in 2003 by researcher and writer Marc Morris and film director Jake West. The label distributes rare cult films in the horror and erotica genres. They have also produced a range of documentaries and featurettes about the making of films, noted film directors and the fight against censorship.
