Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape

[Alex]

I think it was more that Mary Whitehouse started a campaign against them and the uk gov were more than happy to ban away.

M. Whitehouse is bent

And yet DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT was on the ban!

that goes to show how inconsistent it all is

apparently FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE is on the list because of bad language!

Mary Whitehouse frequently admitted (proudly no less) that she had never seen a single one of the "video naties" nor intended to in her lifetime.  She didn't need to .. "God" told her the movies were "evil" personally.

Funny how often what god tells these crusaders happens to match exactly what they already happen to think.

[RCMerchant]

Well, God is a good source, I reckon. I mean-like he's God and all.
I never met him in person, and when I ask him something, he doesn't answer. I suppose he's doing God business. Like making water into wine. Which he hasn't done for a long time. I guess he did it once, because it was written in the Bible someplace, so it must be true!

[zombie no.one]

let's not have that derail now....   

btw I thought there was a bit in that doc where it said M Whitehouse compiled a selection of 'worst scenes' that she showed people? during the bit where it showed her on a train... maybe not

I know Graham Bright (my new least favourite person in the world) said he did that as well.

[Trevor]

Mrs Whitehouse reminds me of the people in SA post 1994 who went on a pro censorship crusade when it was announced that there would be no place for "apartheid style censorship" in a democratic South Africa.

Umm... we still have a censor board.......  www.fpb.org.za

[zombie no.one]

on one level I can agree with wanting to protect young children from watching potentially upsetting and violent scenes,  but forbidding adults to watch pretend gore and simulated sex is unforgivable.

the kind of people who go full into some censorship crusade like morality warriors are probably the people with the biggest skeletons in their own closets imo

[RCMerchant]

Not the fist time the British had a ban on horror films. They came up with an "H" rating in 1937, after the Lugosi/ Karloff film the RAVEN.

https://www.spookyisles.com/h-for-horrific-the-forgotten-horror-film-certificate/#:~:text=Naturally%20the%20BBFC%20soon%20caught,to%20enforce%20this%20or%20not.

[RCMerchant]

In the 50's the Brit censors gave films like the BLOOD OF DRACULA an 'X'!

[zombie no.one]

H for Horrific! never heard of that one... 

films with an X certificate had this mythical status when I was at school ( that must've been at the very end of when the X rating was still a thing). I never saw one though.

there was also XX and XXX ratings but I only found out recently that those weren't official ratings... the studios themselves invented them as a publicity stunt

the phrase "X rated" to describe explicit scenes is still a thing though...

[RCMerchant]

The first X rated film in the USA was not porn or horror.
It was the 1968 Brian DePalma GREETINGS starring a young Robert DeNiro.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063036/

[RCMerchant]

H for Horrific! never heard of that one...  

films with an X certificate had this mythical status when I was at school ( that must've been at the very end of when the X rating was still a thing). I never saw one though.

there was also XX and XXX ratings but I only found out recently that those weren't official ratings... the studios themselves invented them as a publicity stunt

the phrase "X rated" to describe explicit scenes is still a thing though...

I looked it up. It ended in 1982!
Of course it stopped nothing, as the video nasty ban happened later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_British_film_certificates#1982%E2%80%931985

[RCMerchant]

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) Was banned in England until 1958.And then only released later with an X rating.

[kornula]

I find it ironic and funny that even though the people on the Cencorship board knew if the list got out in public, it would just fan the flames of desire to watch all those "nasty" movies.   The list did manage to slip out...and it did exactly that, give teenagers a burning desire to watch all those "nasty" movies.   I'm 99% certain that none of those teenagers who watched all those banned movies grew up to be cannibal serial killers.   

I do believe a handful were inspired actually to be filmmakers.

[zombie no.one]

exactly...

very occasionally a specific movie will get mentioned as being the 'cause' of a murder... the one I remember being CHILD'S PLAY 3 which was attached to the Jamie Bulger murder in 1993... but that's still just media conjecture

murder was a thing before movies were a thing.

[kornula]

I strongly suspect the teenagers who did not watch the "Video Nasties" movies, grew up to be on the Censor board...and worse.. Chartered Accountants - for the Censor board!

[Alex]

Back in the '90s we had a Prime Minister who ran away from the circus to become an accountant. That theory might just explain him.