Video Nasties

VIDEO NASTIES – Snuff

Published on: 14th October, 2009

The truth behind Snuff, one of the most notorious exploitation flicks of the 1970s, is uneven at best. The various stories, rumours and so-called facts that surround the production of this low budget movie constantly contradict each other and none of the principals involved in its creation have ever been willing to discuss it [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Madhouse

Published on: 4th October, 2009

Ovidio G. Assonitis is notorious for more than just producing low budget horror movies, he is also famous for his very hands-on approach and even occasionally firing his directors. Perhaps the most known of these incidents was James Cameron: the future director of The Terminator and Titanic, whose first feature, Piranha II: The Spawning, [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Don’t Go in the House

Published on: 1st October, 2009

Michael Myers had an axe, Leatherface had a chainsaw and Jason Voorhees had whatever was lying around – yet one of the most grizzly murder weapons used in the vintage days of exploitation was the flamethrower, the weapon of choice for Donny Kohler, the disturbed antagonist from Don’t Go in the House. Released amid [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Axe

Published on: 30th September, 2009

Thanks to the notoriety of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre during the mid-1970s, independent filmmakers rushed out their own low budget shockers in the hope of scoring similar success. Their distributors or producers, both known for going any length to find their target audience, would often re-title their movies in an effort to make them [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Tenebrae

Published on: 29th September, 2009

Tenebrae is a sexist novel. Why do you despise women so much?” Perhaps the most self-reflective moment from Dario Argento’s entire career. Having constantly been accused of misogyny due to the excessive violence his films have often levelled at their female victims, Tenebrae was a chance for the Italian filmmaker to finally [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Absurd

Published on: 21st September, 2009

With Antropophagus, Italian filmmaker Joe D’Amato entered the horror mainstream with a gruesome and nihilistic horror about a cannibal hunting a group of vacationers on a remote island. Most notorious for the scene in which its antagonist tears a foetus from its mother and then devours it, the movie eventually found its way onto [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Killer Nun

Published on: 5th September, 2009

There is a whole genre that most of us don’t even know about, cheekily titled ‘nunsploitation.’ Often dealing with sexual repression or conflicts with the church, films such as Ken Russell’s The Devils, Domenico Paolella’s Le monache di Sant’Arcangelo (The Nun and the Devil) and Gianfranco Mingozzi’s Flavia, la monaca musulmana (Flavia, the Heretic) [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – A Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve)

Published on: 4th September, 2009

Whilst most of the Italian movies to make their way onto the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)’s list of ‘Video Nasties,’ the majority of them had been either cannibal or zombie movies and had recently been released. What was perhaps a little more surprising was when they decided to include Reazione a catena, Mario [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Cannibal Terror

Published on: 3rd September, 2009

Of the many cinematic fads that began in the early eighties, perhaps the most notorious was the cannibal cycle. Preying on man’s primal fear of being devoured, these movies were often low budget, gritty and extremely violent. Some, such as Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust, managed to impress a few critics, whilst others, like [...]

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VIDEO NASTIES – Zombie Flesh Eaters

Published on: 2nd September, 2009

Of all the filmmakers to grace the ‘Video Nasty’ list, the most common name to appear was Lucio Fulci. Throughout the existence of the DPP’s list of obscene feature films, three would belong to the Italian director, whilst a fourth (Lo squartatore di New York/The New York Ripper) would be cause equal controversy whilst [...]

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