VIDEO NASTIES
- Nick Digilio
- 43 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Alright…let’s talk about one of my favorite, weirdest, most ridiculous and honestly kind of hilarious chapters in movie history…Video Nasties.
Because this is one of those things that, if you grew up in the ‘80s, if you were a horror fan, if you were even remotely curious about movies that your parents told you not to watch, this was like…this was the holy grail of forbidden fruit.
And it all starts, really, with this perfect storm. Early ‘80s. VHS explodes. Suddenly everybody’s got a VCR in their house, video stores are popping up on every corner, and there is this massive demand for content.
And here’s the thing, unlike theatrical movies, which were regulated by the British Board of Film Censors, the home video market in the UK? Total Wild West. No rules. No oversight.
Anything could be released.
So what happens? You get all of these low-budget horror films (some from the U.S., a ton from Italy, a bunch of exploitation stuff) being dumped onto VHS completely uncut. And these movies are loaded with everything you can imagine: gore, violence, cannibalism, decapitations, sexual violence, taboo subject matter…all the stuff that polite society is not supposed to be watching.
And then along comes Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, and they basically go, “This is the end of civilization.”
The term “Video Nasties” gets coined around 1982, and suddenly you’ve got tabloids (Daily Mail, all those guys) running headlines about how these movies are corrupting the youth, destroying society, rotting kids’ brains. Politicians jump in, Thatcher-era “law and order” stuff kicks in, and before you know it, the Director of Public Prosecutions has a list (72 titles) movies that could get you prosecuted for owning or renting.
Think about that for a second. You could get in legal trouble for renting a horror movie.
And of course…what does that do?
It makes everybody want to see them more.
That’s the thing about this whole phenomenon that I love. The hysteria, the outrage, the “ban this immediately!” attitude, it created this underground market, this obsession. It turned these movies into legends. If your parents told you not to watch something, you had to see it. If the government said it was illegal? Oh, now it’s a must-see.
And I remember this. I mean, this was a rite of passage, especially for kids just a few years younger than I was.
You’d sneak into the video store, or you’d get the cool clerk who didn’t care, or you’d have an older friend rent it, and then you’d all gather in somebody’s basement and watch this stuff while your parents were out. And it was like, “Oh my God, we’re watching something we’re not supposed to watch.”
Now, here’s the truth (because I’m always honest about this stuff) a lot of these movies are terrible. I mean really terrible. Cheap, badly acted, thrown together just to make a buck and get attention. And some of them were absolutely designed to get banned. More gore, more blood, more shock value, just to land on that list and boost sales.
But…
Some of them are actually great. Some of them are legitimately important horror films.
You’ve got stuff like The Evil Dead, which is now a stone-cold classic. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which is one of the greatest horror films ever made, banned for years because of its intensity.
The Last House on the Left, Cannibal Holocaust, which, yeah, is brutal and controversial and has real issues, but also sparked huge conversations about realism and exploitation. Even something like The Driller Killer, which got targeted as much for its VHS cover as for the content.
And then you’ve got the ultimate example…Faces of Death.
Now Faces of Death is like the king of the Video Nasties. This is the one that everybody talked about. “Is it real? Are people actually dying in this movie?”
That whole snuff rumor (which, by the way, not true) but it didn’t matter. People believed it. And it became this massive hit. Sequels, endless sequels, shelves filled with Faces of Death 2, 3, 4…it became a video empire.
And now, all these years later, we’ve got a new Faces of Death movie in theaters, inspired by that legacy, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. Something that was once banned and hidden and whispered about is now just…another release.
But back then? This was dangerous stuff. Or at least, it was perceived that way.
And it all culminates in the Video Recordings Act of 1984, which basically clamps down on everything. Now every video has to be classified, shops get raided, tapes get seized, people get fined. The Wild West is over.
But the legacy? The legacy is huge.
Because these movies didn’t disappear. They became mythic. They became collectibles. They became cult classics. And now, of course, you can get most of them uncut, beautifully restored, on Blu-ray and 4K, which is hilarious when you think about how terrified people were of them 40 years ago.
And that’s the thing, this whole “Video Nasties” era wasn’t just about horror movies. It was about fear of new technology, fear of changing culture, fear of what people were watching in their own homes. It was a moral panic, plain and simple.
But for horror fans?
It was heaven.
So in honor of the new Faces of Death, and in honor of that crazy, weird, unforgettable time when you couldn’t keep these tapes on the shelves and everybody wanted to see what all the fuss was about…
Here are my picks for the 10 most notorious Video Nasties of all time.
TOP 10 VIDEO NASTIES:
This is the one. This is the granddaddy of controversy, the movie that people genuinely believed was a real snuff film, and honestly…you can see why people freaked out. Ruggero Deodato’s film is ugly, mean, brutal, and unapologetic in ways that still make people uncomfortable today.
The found footage style (which way predates The Blair Witch Project) gives it this sickening realism, and yeah, the real animal cruelty is a huge problem and impossible to ignore. But as a piece of filmmaking?
It’s incredibly influential, it’s a gut-punch, and it absolutely earns its reputation as one of the most notorious films ever made. Whether you think it’s art or exploitation (or both) it’s unforgettable.
Sam Raimi’s scrappy, low-budget, insanely inventive horror film somehow ended up on the same list as some of these truly sleazy exploitation flicks, which is kind of hilarious because this movie is actually brilliant.
This is pure DIY filmmaking, with wild camera work, crazy sound design, gallons of fake blood, and a group of young filmmakers just going for it. It’s intense, it’s funny, it’s terrifying, and it launched an entire franchise and the career of Bruce Campbell.
The fact that this got labeled a “Video Nasty” tells you everything you need to know about how ridiculous the panic was. This is a masterpiece.
AKA: Day of the Woman.
Yeah…this is a rough one. This is one of those movies that you either see as a powerful revenge story or you see as pure exploitation, and honestly, it’s both.
The assault sequence is long, grueling, and incredibly difficult to sit through, and that’s part of why it became such a lightning rod. But the revenge half of the film flips the script in a way that is undeniably effective and, for some viewers, cathartic.
It’s not an easy watch, it’s not a “fun” horror movie, but it is one of the most talked-about and debated films in this entire category.
This one became infamous almost entirely because of its VHS cover...which is one of the greatest pieces of exploitation marketing ever.
The movie itself, directed by and starring Abel Ferrara, is actually more of a grimy, slow-burn character study about an artist losing his mind in New York City.
It’s gritty, it’s sleazy, it’s got that late ‘70s urban decay vibe all over it, and yeah, when the violence hits, it’s nasty. But it’s also weirdly hypnotic and much more interesting than its reputation suggests.
AKA: Nightmare.
Now this…this is pure grindhouse insanity. This is the kind of movie that gives Video Nasties their reputation, it's cheap, mean-spirited, loaded with gore, and just completely unhinged.
The special effects are actually pretty impressive in that old-school, practical way, but the movie itself is just relentless and ugly. It’s the kind of thing you’d watch at 2 a.m. on a bootleg tape and go, “What the hell did I just watch?” Not a great film, but absolutely a quintessential “nasty.”
Lucio Fulci, the godfather of Italian gore, at his absolute peak. This movie is a nightmare... literally. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, the narrative is all over the place, but that’s not the point.
The point is atmosphere, dread, and some of the most insane, eye-melting gore effects you will ever see. Fulci doesn’t care about logic, he cares about mood and shock, and The Beyond delivers both in spades.
This is one of the few films on this list that I would call genuinely beautiful in its own bizarre, horrifying way.
This is one of the sleaziest, most disturbing character studies ever put on film, and Joe Spinell’s performance is a big reason why. He’s not playing a movie monster, he’s playing a deeply broken, terrifying human being, and that makes it even more uncomfortable.
The kills are brutal (Tom Savini's practical make-up effects are legendary), the tone is grim and oppressive, and the whole thing just feels dirty. But it’s also incredibly effective. You feel like you need a shower after watching it, which, I guess, is kind of the point.
If the title doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, I don’t know what will. This is another grim, low-budget horror film that leans heavily into psychological trauma and then cranks up the nastiness with a flamethrower. Yes, a flamethrower.
It’s one of those movies that feels like it was made to shock people (and it succeeds) but there’s also this weird undercurrent of tragedy to it. Still, it’s mostly remembered for being exactly what the Video Nasties critics were afraid of: nasty, exploitative, and completely unapologetic.
This one is kind of a mixed bag, but it definitely earned its place on the list. It’s got that classic low-budget supernatural horror vibe, with trauma, childhood fear, and a killer mirror as the centerpiece.
The editing is chaotic, the storytelling is messy, but there are moments in this that are genuinely creepy and effective. It’s also one of those movies that became infamous more for its availability and shock value than its actual content, but it still fits right into that Video Nasties era.
And here it is: the legend. The one everybody talked about, the one everybody whispered about, the one that you were absolutely not supposed to watch. Faces of Death is this bizarre mix of fake footage and real archival material, presented as if it’s all real, and that’s what made it so controversial.
People genuinely thought they were watching real death on screen, and that rumor fueled its massive success. It’s not really a traditional movie, it’s more of a shock documentary, but its impact is undeniable. This is the ultimate Video Nasty experience, it is half myth, half exploitation, all controversy.
And of course...the video is age-restricted!
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