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Shock Horror! The Video Nasties Are Back

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide is set for release on DVD November 1st, 2010.

Prepare to be corrupted and depraved once more as Nucleus Films releases the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon – one of the most extraordinary and scandalous eras in the history of British film.

For the first time ever on DVD, all 72 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions are trailer-featured with specially filmed intros for each title in a lavish three-disc collector’s edition box-set, alongside a brand new documentary – VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE, directed by Jake (‘Doghouse’) West.

Producer Marc Morris, co-author of ‘Art of the Nasty’ and ‘Shock Horror: Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era’ comments: “Hopefully, every true movie fan will want this in their collection”..

Disc One presents the 39 titles that were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and deemed liable to deprave and corrupt. These included: ‘Absurd’, ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, ‘The Driller Killer’, ‘I Spit on Your Grave’, ‘Nightmares in a Damaged Brain’, ‘Snuff’ & ‘Zombie Flesh-Eaters’.

Disc Two presents the 33 titles that were initially banned, but then subsequently acquitted and removed from the DPP’s list. These included:
‘Death Trap’, ‘Deep River Savages’, ‘The Evil Dead’, ‘Human Experiments’, ‘The Toolbox Murders’ & Zombie Creeping Flesh

Both discs can be viewed either as a non-stop trailer show, or with newly-filmed introductions from a wide range of acclaimed media academics and notable genre journalists. Each disc is preceded by a brief introduction by cult horror presenter Emily Booth.

Disc Three This era-defining documentary features reflective interviews with filmmakers Neil Marshall (‘The Descent’, ‘Doomsday’) and Christopher Smith (‘Severance’, ‘Black Death’ as well as charting the heroic stand taken by journalist/author Martin Barker, who single-handedly came out in protest against what he saw as the erosion of civil liberties. There are also revealing interviews with the MP Graham Bright and Geoffrey Robertson QC, as well as rare archive footage featuring James Ferman (director of the BBFC 1975-1999) & Mary Whitehouse. Taking in the explosion of home video, the introduction of draconian censorship measures, hysterical press campaigns and the birth of many careers born in blood and videotape, West’s cannily piercing and topical documentary also reflects on the influence this peculiar era still exerts on us today.

The documentary was screened at this year’s Film4 FrightFest, midst the controversy of A SERBIAN FILM and the remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE being subjected to stringent cuts by the BBFC. A timely warning perhaps. This is what Mark Kermode hasd to say:

“As revealed in Jake West’s captivating new documentary, the real life warping of fragile minds took place behind the scenes to make sure the Video Recordings Act of 1984 was made law”

Extras include a gallery of original video company idents and extensive gallery of lurid cover art for every video nasty.

See the trailer below and underneath the trailer you can find the complete list of all the movies featured in this box set.

The 39 Banned Video Nasties were:

01. Absurd (Aristide Massaccesi, Italy, 1981)

02. Anthropophagous the Beast (Aristide Massaccesi, Italy, 1980)

03. Axe (Frederick R. Friedel, 1977)

04. Beast in Heat, The (Luigi Batzella, Italy, 1976)

05. Blood Bath (Mario Bava, Italy, 1971)

06. Blood Feast (Herschell Gordon Lewis, USA, 1963)

07. Blood Rites (Andy Milligan, USA, 1967)

08. Bloody Moon (Jess Franco, West Germany, 1981)

09. Burning, The (Tony Maylam, USA, 1980)

10. Cannibal Apocalypse (Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Spain, 1979)

11. Cannibal Ferox (Umberto Lenzi, Italy, 1981)

12. Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, Italy, 1979)

13. Cannibal Man, The (Eloy De La Iglesia, Spain, 1971)

14. Devil Hunter, The (Jess Franco, Spain/West Germany/France, 1980)

15. Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone! (James Bryan, USA, 1980)

16. Driller Killer, The (Abel Ferrara, USA, 1979)

17. Evilspeak (Eric Weston, USA, 1981)

18. Exposé (James Kenelm Clarke, Great Britain, 1975)

19. Faces of Death (Conan Le Cilaire, USA, 1979)

20. Fight for Your Life (Robert A. Endelson, USA, 1977)

21. Forest of Fear (Charles McCrann, USA, 1979)

22. Frankenstein (Andy Warhol’s) (Paul Morrissey, Italy/France, 1973)

23. Gestapo’s Last Orgy, The (Cesare Canevari, Italy, 1976)

24. House by the Cemetery, The (Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1981)

25. House on the Edge of the Park (Ruggero Deodato, Italy, 1980)

26. I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, USA, 1978)

27. Island of Death (Nico Mastorakis, Greece, 1976)

28. Last House on the Left, The (Wes Craven, USA, 1972)

29. Love Camp 7 (Robert Lee Frost, USA, 1968)

30. Madhouse (Ovidio G. Assonitis, USA/Italy, 1981)

31. Mardi Gras Massacre (Jack Weis, USA, 1978)

32. Night of the Bloody Apes (René Cardona, Mexico, 1968)

33. Night of the Demon (James C. Wasson, USA, 1980)

34. Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (Romano Scavolini, USA, 1981)

35. Snuff (Michael Findlay, USA/Argentrina, 1976)

36. SS Experiment Camp (Sergio Garrone, Italy, 1976)

37. Tenebrae (Dario Argento, Italy, 1982)

38. Werewolf and the Yeti, The (Miguel I. Bonns, Spain, 1975)

39. Zombie Flesh-Eaters (Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1979)

The films dropped (not deemed to be obscene)

01. Beyond, The (Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1981)

02. Bogey Man, The (Ulli Lommel, USA, 1980)

03. Cannibal Terror (Allan W. Steeve, France/Spain, 1981)

04. Contamination (Luigi Cozzi, Italy/West Germany, 1980)

05. Dead & Buried (Gary A. Sherman, USA, 1981)

06. Death Trap (Tobe Hooper, USA, 1976)

07. Deep River Savages (Umberto Lenzi, Italy/Thailand, 1972)

08. Delirium (Peter Maris, USA, 1980)

09. Don’t Go in the House (Joseph Ellison, USA, 1979)

10. Don’t Go Near the Park (Lawrence D. Foldes, USA, 1979)

11. Don’t Look in the Basement (S. F. Brownrigg, USA, 1973)

12. Evil Dead, The (Sam Raimi, USA, 1982)

13. Frozen Scream (Frank Roach, USA, 1981)

14. Funhouse, The (Tobe Hooper, USA, 1981)

15. Human Experiments (Gregory Goodell, USA, 1979)

16. I Miss You, Hugs & Kisses (Murray Markowitz, Canada, 1978)

17. Inferno (Dario Argento, Italy, 1980)

18. Killer Nun (Giulio Berruti, Italy, 1978)

19. Late Night Trains (Aldo Lado, Italy, 1974)

20. Living Dead, The (Jorge Grau, Spain/Italy, 1974)

21. Nightmare Maker (William Asher, USA, 1981)

22. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, France/West Germany, 1981)

23. Pranks (Jeffrey Obrow & Stephen Carpenter, USA, 1981)

24. Prisoner of the Cannibal God (Sergio Martino, Italy, 1978)

25. Revenge of the Bogey Man (Bruce Starr & Ulli Lommel, USA, 1982)

26. Slayer, The (J. S. Cardonem USA, 1981)

27. Terror Eyes (Kenneth Hughes, USA, 1980)

28. Toolbox Murders, The (Dennis Donnelly, USA, 1978)

29. Unhinged (Don Gronquist, USA, 1982)

30. Visiting Hours (Jean Claude Lord, Canada, 1981)

31. Witch Who Came from the Sea, The (Matt Cimber, USA, 1976)

32. Women Behind Bars (Jess Franco, France/Belgium, 1975)

33. Zombie Creeping Flesh (Bruno Mattei, Italy/Spain, 1981)

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