Comments on: When Slashers Turn Nasty pt.1

By: Amanda By Night

Amanda By Night — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:05:52 +0000

Whenever I read articles like this about Video Nasties, I am always reminded by how much better we had it in the states. There were some protests and stuff, but nothing like England had to deal with (or Australia apparently, which I wasn’t aware of)… Wow.

By: Christian Sellers

Christian Sellers — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:55:13 +0000

I agree, the internet is the way to go! One thing that baffles me with the video nasties is how much opinion has changed over the last thirty years. For instance, Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination was included on the list but has since been re-released uncut with a 15 certificate. So how can it not be the danger they had once feared? Makes the whole thing seem all the more ridiculous.

By: glenn

glenn — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:44:56 +0000

Though no where near as bad as it was, if you’re British and you want New York Ripper uncut you still have to get it as a region 1 import. And loads of 80s or older horror is simply not put out in Britain.
he censorship thing was always so arbitrary, Th intruder was released uncut here and edited in the US. Thank god for the Internet and online shopping.

By: Christian Sellers

Christian Sellers — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:51:25 +0000

Yeah I am horrified how bad censorship is in Australia. The thing with the video nasties was not so much the films being unavailable, it was the prosecutions and police raids that took it to a Nazi level.

By: John Klyza

John Klyza — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:07:19 +0000

You Brits were lucky you had a list of their targets. There was no catchy name or public campaign here in Australia, just major censorship going on silently.

By: Christian Sellers

Christian Sellers — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:06:39 +0000

That’s one thing America have been fortunate with, the option of releasing a movie unrated on video. Our video censorship is just as bad as the cinema and even when we release American movies in the so-called ‘unrated’ form it still has a classification on it, so of course it has been rated. It’s not as bad as it was twenty five years ago, that was just ridiculous.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:52:56 +0000

I remember Fangoria sounding the alarm bells about this type of censorship back in the early 80s. The big fear was the US government would follow the British in the witch hunt. While it did cause problems for slashers at the cinema, the video market managed to thrive in the states during this period.