THE QUEST FOR THE VIDEO NASTY

Ladies and gentlemen I have decided to embark on a quest of epic nostalgia and clarity. This quest will determine if I am really a die-hard horror fan, it will determine if I am the great adventurer that I say that I am and it will prove to myself that I can accomplish anything if I put my mind to it. Am I really up to this challenge? I’m not sure but there is only one way to find out. What is it that I am searching for, you may ask? A long time ago my dad bought me a Spectrum version of Xtro and since then I have sold it to a video store for some quick cash. I found an old list of films that I created on March of 2001, and this listed was labeled ‘The Video Nasties.’ I sat in my chair looking through the list pondering the question of how I even knew bout the Video Nasties before I even knew about film editing. It didn’t matter to me because I wanted to complete my quest that I started 9 years ago. It will be long, tedious and very time consuming but I have decided to give myself a few rules.

With the help of Dale Lloyd, I have given myself a few rules to this hunt. Back when I created the list I only wanted to find the movies themselves and didn’t think about what made a video nasty a Video Nasty. So the first rule is: trying to find out what a video nasty is. The answer to that is this: it’s a film or video that was heavily criticized, mostly by British conservatives, for being too graphic and violent especially if it fell into the hands of kids. Therefore, the video would end up on a list of films (mostly low-budget and Italian films) that were dubbed as Video Nasties. This, however, was during a time when VHS and videocassette were popular. These films were released way before the Video Recordings Act of 1984 and because of that they weren’t properly certified causing many of them to be banned.

During my quest, under the advisement of Mr. Lloyd, I have decided to find these videos in their original pre-cert format. Which means most of them, if not all of them, will have to be bought through eBay.uk. It’s funny because I had a pre-cert video of Xtro and I sold it before I even knew how collectable it is. Also, during my quest I will have to discover new lingos such as DPP39, NTSC and PAL. I will also be learning how to covert British pounds to American dollars and I will be meeting a lot of VHS enthusiasts along the way.

This quest is going to be ongoing until I managed to find all of them in their original pre-cert form. It will be a very interesting journey and I can sort of see this as a horror fans treasure hunt. The only map I have is a list that I created 9 years ago with a couple of little side notes here and there. I also understand that there is a documentary on Video Nasties that I have not seen yet, and during my journey I am sure I will be running across it. Below is the list of Video Nasties that I have and I have not scanned the original list… but when some time this week I shall try to. It’s very interesting how I was interested in this specific sub-genre before I even knew about film noir.

Absurd

The Athropophagous Beast

The Beast In Heat

Blood Feast

Blood Rites

Bloody Moon

The Boogeyman

The Burning

Cannibal Apocalypse

Cannibal Ferox

Cannibal Holocaust

Cannibal Man

Cannibal Terror

Contamination

Dead & Buried

Deep River Savages

Delirium

Devil Hunter

Don’t Go in the Woods

Don’t Go in the House

Don’t Go Near the Dark

The Dorm That Dripped Blood

The Driller Killer

The Evil Dead

Evilspeak

Expose

Faces of Death

Fight For Your Life

Flesh For Frankenstein

Toxic Zombies

Frozen Scream

The House by the Cemetery

House on the Edge of the Park

Human Experiments

I Spit on Your Grave

Inferno

Killer Nun

Last House on the Left

Lat Night Trains

Living Dead At Manchester Morgue

Mardi Gras Massacre

New York Ripper

Night of the Bloody Apes

Night of the Demon

Night Warning

Nightmare in a Damaged Brain

Possession

Revenge of the Bogey Man

The Slayer

Tenebrae

Terror Eyes

The Toolbox Murders

Twitch of the Death Nerve

Unhinged

Visiting Hours

Werewolf and the Yeti

The Witch Who Came From the Sea

Xtro

Zombie Creeping Flesh

Zombi

I am sure that I am missing some on the list but this was directly written from the list I created when I was 11 or so. That means that I probably left out some of movies off of it because I didn’t think they were horror or I just didn’t want to watch them. Now, this is a LONG list of movies and it will probably take me years to find all of them and sure… I might get a little anxious and annoyed and settle for non-pre-cert films but as of right now the quest has begun.

If anybody knows of any places that I can find good deals on Video Nasties, please let me know. Thank you!!

Helpful links:

The Video Nasty Project

A-Z of Video Nasties

Pre-Certification Video List

Pre-Certification Video

Side note: I created the graphic before I started calling my hunt a quest. ;)