VHS Nasty

Far too long and dull. Manages to make a fascinating subject utterly boring. Quite a feat.

I didn't know this is the third part of a series. (which is baffling to me that it could go any longer) A bunch of nobodies talk about their personal opinion if video nasties should be banned and censorship for the entire running time. I got to almost 30 minutes before I started scanning for some kind of change of topic. Nope, no value of any kind.

This was a documentary that I checked out while working. It was late in the day and I used these like podcasts. I'll listen to what the people interviewed are saying and look down if there is something interesting. This is covering an interesting concept of the 'Video Nasties' over in the United Kingdom. This isn't the most important one that is considered the definitive one. We are getting a lower budget take here.

Now if that little bit there came across harsh, that wasn't my intention. There is a two-part documentary that details this with primer names in film theory and critiques that broke down this section of UK history. What we're getting here though is how it affected the people that are interviewed. Now we do get a couple people from the UK who grew up in this era. It is interesting hearing their story. We also have one guy from Australia and then the rest from the United States. I personally didn't know much about the Video Nasties until getting into podcasts. There are films on the list that I saw growing up and then starting seeking out when I got into college. We have people here who are older than me who were into the 'tape trading' era who had to work harder to seek out these titles.

Let's discuss filmmaking aspects. This isn't working with a large budget. I do find the interviewees to be interesting, but I also don't know them well enough. Their stories don't hold as much weight for me. I'm not going to come down as hard as I'm seeing others though. They are saying the same thing for the most part which is a common complaint. Everyone here agrees that censorship is bad. This should fall to the parents, not the government or an appointed body. I agree. Other than that, I did appreciate the editing of clips to help show things that are being said. There are a couple of the interviews with sound issues. That doesn't ruin this though.

I can truly only recommend this if you are fans of the people that are in this or the filmmakers themselves. I'd direct you to docs that delve deeper into the history and explanation rather than just people who are sharing their experiences.

My Rating: 5 out of 10.

Feels like someone got a camera and interviewed their friends about horror films. The absolute worst part of this is I'm not sure the makers of it understand how film works. Throughout almost the entirety of the film they added a bad tracking effect to the picture, which is fine on its own. However, at the same time and throughout most of the film, they also added the sound of film playing through a projected in the background. So...I'm confused, are they trying to make it look like an old and worn VHS tape or a film playing in a theater on a projector? Just plain stupid.

A bunch totally unknown guys talk about horror movies. The End. It's hard to imagine how a documentary can get more boring.