Video Nasties

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by nastiesexpert

I always wondered why the MP's who spent thousands of tax payers money on jollies they called "fact finding missions" never took one to Denmark or Holland to find out exactly why freely available porn of all varieties and no censorship on video had not turned those countries into the violent cesspools they seemed to think the UK would become if we could watch I Spit On your Grave uncut

That's what always irked me with the British censorship: the fact that there never was any proof that banning certain videos and violent images had some effect in the public, i.e. some measurable decrease in violence.

Living through the video boom in Denmark in the 1980's was not all honky-dory, though: lazy distributors would often just get their masters from the UK, so while we have had no real adult censorship since 1969, we would unfortunately sometimes still get stuck with a cut version - especially from the mid-late of the decade and on.

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by drterror666

I lived through this era of video nasty fun! I was never a trader, but I scored a few vids, namely The Beyond, Dawn of the Mummy, etc. It's hard to imagine the fear of being caught just for having this stuff in your house, but, like the threat of nuclear war, it was always there in the background. The kids don't know how good they've got it these days. I mean, just to get a banned film was good enough, it didn't matter if the PQ and / or SQ were utter shite!

Actually , you were not in any danger by having nasties in your house. Possession never was and never has been an offence - only supply.
The Beyond was the BBFC cut version anyway as Videomedia did with all their titles so why it ever got listed is a mystery.

I don't really pay attention to any lists beyond the final real list. The number of titles that were listed briefly includes silly titles like The Big Red One which was assumed to be porn because of the title. Many crap inoffensive films got listed as "possibles" mainly because of their video covers and the lurid descriptions but they soon got removed.

It took an MP committing video piracy to hammer the final nail in the coffin when they created a compilation of the juiciest bits from many of the nasties and I believe it was the speaker of the house ( or maybe another MP) who came out with the classic quote "Did it really need this display of real life cannibalism to show what the nasties are " ( or words to that effect). So much inaccurate and plain untrue crap was spouted by the authorities and many others who obviously didn't really have a clue what they were talking about. It was rather like the current "celebrity peadophile" headhunt where anyone could say practically anything and because nobody had the guts to say "hang on a minute" it was all accepted and accuracy not questioned.

I want someone to go on Question Time and ask those in power "what makes the British so different from other countries that we need to be protected from content that nobody else has problems with". Even 20 years ago I saw Dutch citizens on shows like Kilroy genuinely laughing at the mentality of British society when it came to violence and porn.
The British obsession with restricting videos has morphed into the current obsession with paedophiles.

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

That's what always irked me with the British censorship: the fact that they never was any proof that banning certain videos and violent images had some effect in the public, i.e. some measurable decrease in violence.

Living through the video boom in the 1980's was not all honky-dory, though: lazy distributors would often just get their masters from the UK, so while we have had no real adult censorship since 1969, we would unfortunately sometimes still get stuck with a cut version - especially from the mid-late of the decade and on.

Would I be right in thinking that animal porn and other bizarre material British citizens would serve jail time for possessing is still freely available in Denmark or have they also been making changes similar to the adjustments the Dutch have been making in the last few years?

[HotRats]

Censorship in Britain has always been class based, the art films aimed at the middle class are always treated more leniently than films which may be aimed at the lower orders. This attitude continues with Cameron's obsession with age rating and porn-filtering the entire internet.

I remember the 80s boom in video piracy, bread crates full of bootleg tapes with badly photocopied covers at every record fair, selling for £15-£30 a piece with porn at anything up to £60. I knew several people who did very nicely out of the business and one who moved out pretty damn sharpish when some Irish gentlemen expressed an interest. I had a run in with Customs in the early days of DVD when I bought some Argentos and Fulcis including New York Ripper from Holland. Back then the right to privacy did not apply to parcels and they were seized and dire threats made if I challenged their decision to confiscate. I did challenge them and the discs were sent to me without another word.

[Poon Dong]

Originally Posted by nastiesexpert

Snuff has never had a UK release -period.
Astra Video announced it in 1982 , it got as far as being advertised for release and while a few samples got out somehow the official release was cancelled as the first whiff of the nasties scandal began to ferment.
I think the talk of possible prosecutions for I Spit On Your Grave scared Astra off

Not wanting to be a smart-arse but snuff was released in the UK back in the day and was reasonably common, I bought one that came from an amazing collection that included a Beast In Heat and loads of others.

The legitimacy of that release has been widely debated on the Pre-Cert forum, It has a black sleeve and there is no release company logo on the cover or cassette label. You are right about the Astra release (which has a blue sleeve), a sample was shown at a UK trade show in May of 82 but never saw general release.

[Marv Inc.]

Originally Posted by nastiesexpert

I wouldn't know where to begin.
I have it on a dvd and the tape is long gone

Just rip it from the dvd onto your pc and upload the file to youtube. You can get free dvd ripping software online. Have a search on google.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by nastiesexpert

Would I be right in thinking that animal porn and other bizarre material British citizens would serve jail time for possessing is still freely available in Denmark or have they also been making changes similar to the adjustments the Dutch have been making in the last few years?

AFAIK animal porn is still legal, though having sex with animals for real was (finally) outlawed last year.

The most seedy and rather weird side of the liberal Danish censorship (or lack thereof) is that child pornography was actually legal until 1980, though producing it was still forbidden. There was a new documentary on the national channel last month where some of the people behind were exposed. Apparently they got around the production prohibit by importing it from other countries and releasing and selling it to the rest of the world!

IIRC child pornography is currently the only thing explicitly forbidden by censorship laws here. The national censorship council hasn't really existed since the late 1990's, where it was replaced by a purely advisory body. All releases are are still marked with the appropriate age to watch, but as long as you are above 7 years you can now see everything in the company of an adult. And if you are 15 or above, you can watch everything you want to.

When I grew up in the 1980's, the age categories were mandatory, and cinemas could get fined if they let underage kids in. I specifically remember my local cinema demanding picture ID like passports to let you in to watch Fulci's City of the Living Dead. Needless to say, some of us still got around it by having the tallest guy in the group buy all tickets. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't.

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by Poon Dong

Not wanting to be a smart-arse but snuff was released in the UK back in the day and was reasonably common, I bought one that came from an amazing collection that included a Beast In Heat and loads of others.

The legitimacy of that release has been widely debated on the Pre-Cert forum, It has a black sleeve and there is no release company logo on the cover or cassette label. You are right about the Astra release (which has a blue sleeve), a sample was shown at a UK trade show in May of 82 but never saw general release.

As I said , Snuff had no official video release in the UK. Astra Video owned the rights and cancelled it before release. Confirmed by the video press of the time too - publications I still have. It may have been common in areas where shops didn't mind selling bootlegs but I never saw one in my area or in London although I did stick with the larger retailers - and even some of them were slow to remove all titles but Snuff wasn't one of them.
Bootleg releases don't really count otherwise we would be saying that Debbie Does Dallas was also released along with many other titles including porn and more .
I rented an uncut version of Zombie Holocaust either an original or copied from a Dutch tape which had subtitles from my local video shop but the official release was from VTC , cut and obviously no subtitles.

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

AFAIK animal porn is still legal, though having sex with animals for real was (finally) outlawed last year.

The most seedy and rather weird side of the liberal Danish censorship (or lack thereof) is that child pornography was actually legal until 1980, though producing it was still forbidden. There was a new documentary on the national channel last month where some of the people behind were exposed. Apparently they got around the production prohibit by importing it from other countries and releasing and selling it to the rest of the world!

IIRC child pornography is currently the only thing explicitly forbidden by censorship laws here. The national censorship council hasn't really existed since the late 1990's, where it was replaced by a purely advisory body. All releases are are still marked with the appropriate age to watch, but as long as you are above 7 years you can now see everything in the company of an adult. And if you are 15 or above, you can watch everything you want to.

When I grew up in the 1980's, the age categories were mandatory, and cinemas could get fined if they let underage kids in. I specifically remember my local cinema demanding picture ID like passports to let you in to watch Fulci's City of the Living Dead. Needless to say, some of us still got around it by having the tallest guy in the group buy all tickets. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't.

Yes I did read that under pressure from the EU the Dutch also banned animal porn production - but not supply IIRC.

I did read that the Color Climax Corporation ( still going strong today) were the ones behind the supply of kiddie porn for a decade although it seems strange that while underage sex itself was illegal CCC could still legally supply the content.
I recall as a porn collector here in the UK in the late 70's that despite only obtaining the likes of Playbirds and similar titles the fact I ordered them through the mail meant I went on mailing lists from all sorts of places and for a long time I would regurlarly receive glossy colour catalogues showing the covers of numerous hardcore titles including kiddie and animal porn although I'm dubious that it would have actually been supplied.
On the one occasion I tried to get a standard hardcore magazine all I got back was an issue of the UK mag Experience with a fake foreign cover stapled to it. And David Sullivan got rich off the back of this fraud.

In the mid to late 70's the likes of Playbirds were filled with ads of the various sex shops round the UK and many were openly offering animal porn mags and others that were obviously totally illegal so I think they were banking on people sending money and not taking action when they got ripped off - just like I did.

[HotRats]

Originally Posted by nastiesexpert

Yes I did read that under pressure from the EU the Dutch also banned animal porn production - but not supply IIRC.
In the mid to late 70's the likes of Playbirds were filled with ads of the various sex shops round the UK and many were openly offering animal porn mags and others that were obviously totally illegal so I think they were banking on people sending money and not taking action when they got ripped off - just like I did.

Indeed, David "the Slug" Sullivan's usual practice was to advertise magazines promising women with horses and dogs then send out back editions of Horse And Hound or Country Life

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Sir Graham Bright, he's still around as some sort of Tory police quango freeloader. Horrid little man.

A lot of these people are still around. The Mary Whitehouse mob have simply rebranded as 'Media Watch' and are currently campaigning about all sorts of things, including Video On Demand.

http://www.mediawatchuk.com/video-on-demand/

I guess they like lost causes but they're also the people behind this sort of thing - http://www.safeonline.org.uk/news/ - which has led to the government looking at ways to block p0rn on the internet and all sorts of nonsense.

The price of freedom = eternal vigilance. These people don't give up!

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by HotRats

Indeed, David "the Slug" Sullivan's usual practice was to advertise magazines promising women with horses and dogs then send out back editions of Horse And Hound or Country Life

I never ordered any of those so I didn't see first hand what he would do. At least my ripoff was a porn mag of sorts.

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by KRW1

A lot of these people are still around. The Mary Whitehouse mob have simply rebranded as 'Media Watch' and are currently campaigning about all sorts of things, including Video On Demand.

http://www.mediawatchuk.com/video-on-demand/

I guess they like lost causes but they're also the people behind this sort of thing - http://www.safeonline.org.uk/news/ - which has led to the government looking at ways to block p0rn on the internet and all sorts of nonsense.

The price of freedom = eternal vigilance. These people don't give up!

Since the death of Mary Whitehouse her band of morons have tried to carry on her work but I think the tide of change is against them and I don't now often see many reports of things they want that have anything close to a real chance of ever getting anywhere.

I recall Des Dolan shooting himself and the industry in the foot. He was the head of Go Video who released Cannibal Holocaust and SS Experiment Camp on video in the 80's and he contacted Whitehouse to complain to give himself some free publicity. IIRC he said the sales of those titles shot up but it was really the start of the problems as it was specifically the full page ads for those titles from whence everything began ( along with the ad for Driller Killer).
While I could understand some taking offence at the imagery in the SS ad , the roughly drawn cartoon for Holocaust was as offensive as an episode of Scooby Doo

[richieb1971]

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out the title to a movie nasty.

Its a cannibal movie.
Some sort of bi-plane lands, people set up camp.
At some stage it gets over ran by cannibals/natives.

I remember the lead guy gets put in a hole covered by a bamboo cross hatch roof. And some kids pee on him through it. I think he goes insane and eventually escapes.

I also recollect a native giving birth and throwing the baby into the lake where a crocodile yams it up like breakfast.

Watched it on VHS in the early/mid 80's.

I've watched a few cannibal movies but not come across it again. Thanks for any help.

[Dickieduvet]

Well, I don't know what that is but I really want to bloody see it now

[JohnCarpenterFan]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out the title to a movie nasty.

Its a cannibal movie.
Some sort of bi-plane lands, people set up camp.
At some stage it gets over ran by cannibals/natives.

I remember the lead guy gets put in a hole covered by a bamboo cross hatch roof. And some kids pee on him through it. I think he goes insane and eventually escapes.

I also recollect a native giving birth and throwing the baby into the lake where a crocodile yams it up like breakfast.

Watched it on VHS in the early/mid 80's.

I've watched a few cannibal movies but not come across it again. Thanks for any help.

That's Last Cannibal World (aka Jungle Holocaust), it may be the best overall when it comes to the cannibal genre for me.

I hope some company like Arrow US puts it out because it really is a great movie.

[Dickieduvet]

Oh I had that on DVD, Media Blasters I think ?

Sold all but a handful of my 4000+ DVD collection over the last few years, wished I'd hung onto a few more of them now

[eddyw78]

Yes it's Last Cannibal World or Jungle Holocaust if you own the Shriek Show DVD. This was never actually on the video nasties list. It was directed by Ruggero Deodato and stars Me Me Lai (Deep River Savages) as well as Ivan Rassimov. It's a decent film with lush scope photography but does have abit of that nasty animal stuff that the Italians seemed to like back then so I doubt there would be an uncut BD release here. It is do an update though. I watched the DVD recently and it's not great.

[Ste7en]

I remember a flick from the good old days that I haven't been able to find anywhere.

These people traffickers were trading scantily clad Asian women in bamboo cages for sex work and their camp was constantly being attacked by zombies.

Very similar to Raw Force, which I thought it was at first. Wish I could find it now

[WilsonBros]

Originally Posted by nastiesexpert

The doco has never been shown again. The only reason I have it is because I recorded it on VHS at the time and I eventually transferred it to dvd several years ago

I certainly saw it when it went out. A couple of years ago, I was clearing out my VHS archive, and transferred a copy of Empire of the Censors from the BBC's Forbidden Weekend, but this won't be played again because it is now "quaint", ending a kid buying a copy of Natural Born Killers to show how easy it was to get material which was deemed controversial.

Oh, and it sits with my transferred copy of Doing Rude Things, but then I am also partial to British smut...