Ban the Sadist Videos!

Seemingly a two part tv documentary sewn together to a feature length experience for streaming. The first part looks at how the video nasty controversy came into being in the UK and the reaction to the sadistic violence and explicit sex that came with this being made available in the high street without any form of censorship. The second part looks at how this issue continued once laws were changed and the British Board of Film Censors / Classification approached their responsibilities.

Actually quite informative for any film fan and demonstrates what a complete pig's breakfast the country made of the matter. The videos were distributed with no controls by a thriving new industry with morally upstanding and seemingly ignorant MPs seeking voter kudos by slamming just about anything that wasn't family entertainment and with the populist press using it to create alarmist headlines around unsubstantiated claims that everyone from naughty children to mass murderers did what they did because they watched violent films. Clearly there was a need to protect children and the government did nothing about this until it fell into the public conscience and get the attention of the press. Thereafter innocent people were arrested, films banned and then not banned endlessly with the police having no idea what they were doing, seizing or arresting.

Then James Ferman took on the BBFC as a leader who was in no way hampered by false modesty and doubt and cut and banned all over the place.

As a country, the UK looked ridiculous with a confused mess from government, our dreadful populist press over reacting with little or no evidence to back up their claims resulting in the greatest amount of film censorship in Europe. The 2 key things I took away from this were, surely the distributors didn't seriously expect this to go unchallenged but secondly how little challenge there was from liberals challenging why grown adults can't see what they want to see. Nanny state at its most appalling with the UK looking idiotic - makes you proud to be British.

"According to the media the "Video Nasties" are a new low in sick entertainment!" And so screamed the tabloid press in Margaret Thatcher's Britain back in the 1980's, a country hit by strikes, mass unemployment, race riots and war. A scapegoat was needed and it was found in the form of horror movies on video cassette. I discovered (classic) horror at an early age, then from my mid-teens I was visiting my local video shops weekly, I can remember seeing some of the "Nasties" looking down at me from the shelves. Over the years I built up a sizeable collection of horror movies on VHS, including quite a few Nasties. They are still highly sought after, I have now sold most of my collection, including several to the director of this documentary, but have hung on to a few of my favourites. I can remember the so called moral crusaders who campaigned against violent movies. Mary Whitehouse, who admitted to never actually having sat down and watched a Video Nasty, was a household name. Then in the early 1990's MP David Alton wanted to pretty much ban all violent films on VHS, he was a member of the Liberal Party but his attitude was anything but liberal. And of course the most famous British film censor of all, James Ferman, gets plenty of screen time. Despite his love of cutting movies it is maybe a little ironic that he prevented Alton's bill from becoming law (thanks goodness!). This film is very well made. For video collectors, horror fans or people with an interest in British media history this is a fascinating watch, though many of us will already know much of the content. I have just watched it 20 years after its release, I enjoyed it very much but thankfully since 2005 a lot more progress has been made on the relaxation of censorship in the UK, many of the films have since been passed by the BBFC uncut. This does date the movie somewhat, a revised edition would be nice.

This was a documentary that I learned about when searching online for documentaries about horror films. I'm fascinated by the Video Nasties' movement in the United Kingdom after learning about it from podcasts. This was doc was streaming on Tubi, so I decided to give this a watch while working, treating it as a podcast.

What I like here is that we're getting an in-depth look at this scandal during the 1980s in Great Britain. Something that this documentary does better than others I've watched recently, it presents both sides of the argument. I can see the side of those that are in favor of banning certain movies like Driller Killer or Cannibal Holocaust. I disagree with banning them though.

This should fall to the discretion of parents. I don't think that the government should prevent adults from seeking out what they want. There seems to be that those in power are looking down on people that they consider to be 'simple'. This brings up a good point that censors are watching this film. Why would they be okay as opposed to the masses? Many of the movies referenced here I've seen. Cannibal Holocaust is great. Driller Killer is solid. There are many others that aren't very good, just using shock as their only gimmick.

Shifting back to parents needing to be allowed to oversee their children and not the government idea. Now I've had cart blanche to watch almost anything that I've wanted to. There were just things like Cannibal Holocaust or The Last House on the Left that my father didn't want my sister and I watching. I'm glad that he did, we weren't prepared for those. Things like Dawn of the Dead or Zombie, they didn't do damage outside making most everything we saw after that tamer. My mother would get mad when she sent me in to rent or buy something, then had to force her to come in. I can see both sides here, but this doc brings up good ideas.

I'd say that this is well-made. I love that this presents both sides of the arguments. Explaining why this was being done and then using clips to help present those points is good. This is a solid documentary that I'd recommend for sure.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

Highly informative and relatively interesting "Ban the Sadist Videos!" approximates us with details about the infamous social and politic acts against what was considered to be a risk to the British society: violence, gore, sex, drugs, shocking and disturbing things...presented on recurrent films of the 1970's and 1980's. Thatcher government started to regulate what could be and what couldn't be presented on home video entertainment, something that only occurred on films released on theaters with films being edited by BBFC.

It is established here that films like "The Driller Killer", "Evil Dead" and "Cannibal Holocaust" were the major responsible for a wave of control on the films later called of "videos nasties" after lots of appealing publicity on newspapers urging its viewers to rent and watch a film with shocking scenes (theaters weren't so interesting anymore, now with VCR's available in most homes).

Silly moral crusader Mary Whitehouse and her extensive and successful campaign to forbid these films on British territory is greatly presented here, giving some insights on how dumb some moralists were since they never saw those films, only hearing what people would say about them. Laws were created, BBFC also censored or even banned some of the films (the funniest case was "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" considered as pornographic because of its title). The criterion of which films should be allowed or not to be released or edited was ridiculous and even "Apocalypse Now" had some troubles with this persecution.

All that in the name of the children's sake since they were exposed to them constantly, and society feared possible copycats (oh dear...) who were starting to appear, imitating film serial killers but this time killing real people in real life, finding their inspiration on films. Bottom of line: our society is dangerous because of the films it produces and not backwards, the moralists were saying.

The discussion stretches out for so long (there's the second "Ban the Sadist Videos!" which deals with more on this last subject of 'danger to the society'). Well made and providing classic moments of horror films and nice archive footage of news covering the subject this documentary is quite restrained in its presentation, lack so much energy that it almost becomes boring; and some informations and scenes are quite repetitive. The short interviews with Deodato, Craven and other masters of horror were very good just as much as the interviews with people who were part of the conflicts over the videos.

It's quite good but it only works if you don't know anything about the incidents portrayed here. I believe that people more versed on the subject won't find it much amusing or appealing. 8/10

It's a bit of a shame this is split into two parts - but be that as it may, the documentary is quite eye opening. I imagine those who followed (either back then or have read upon that time) what happened during the "video nasties era", will know most of the stuff that is discussed here.

Having said that, it is always refreshing seeing and hearing from experts. And getting things debunked - either from others or by your own common sense. Like when one of the censors replies to those who say he can't judge the things he hasn't seen with: "a doctor does not need to have had cancer to diagnose it". I may be paraphrasing, but that is the essence of what he said. Now that equivalence is completely off. Because his comparisons would only be true, if he meant: I do not have to kill someone to watch those - or something along those lines. His comparison to the doctor would only be right, if he said it like this: A doctor can only diagnose cancer, if he has seen it before. If he knows what it looks like - if has read up on it, if has dealt with it on some level". But that comparison would not suit the censor, because it would make him look as bad as he does look, while claiming the things about movies, he has no clue about.

There is even more here and the documentary tells us and shows us a ... well "witch hunt" of movies, if you'll excuse the pun. Really worth the watch, if you are a fan of movies and even more so of horror movies ... crazy things happened, that still are not totally resolved it seems.