UK’s 72 VIDEO NASTIES prosecuted in the 80s
"Video nasty" is a term that refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that were criticised for their violent content in the UK’s early 1980s.
These films came under fire in particular from the conservative pressure group the National Viewers and Listeners Association and its founder, campaigner Mary Whitehouse. It was she who first coined the term "video nasty" and in doing so, ironically, created a perfect brand for the enticingly prohibited works.
The DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) list of "video nasties" was first made public in June 1983. The list was modified monthly as prosecutions failed or were dropped. In total, 72 separate films appeared on the list at one time or another.
These films came under fire in particular from the conservative pressure group the National Viewers and Listeners Association and its founder, campaigner Mary Whitehouse. It was she who first coined the term "video nasty" and in doing so, ironically, created a perfect brand for the enticingly prohibited works.
The DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) list of "video nasties" was first made public in June 1983. The list was modified monthly as prosecutions failed or were dropped. In total, 72 separate films appeared on the list at one time or another.
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72 titles
- DirectorHerschell Gordon LewisStarsWilliam KerwinMal ArnoldConnie MasonAn Egyptian caterer kills various women in suburban Miami to use their body parts to revive a dormant Egyptian goddess while an inept police detective tries to track him down.Prosecuted.
2001 - Cut version (23 s. cut)
2005 - Uncut version. - DirectorAndy MilliganStarsVeronica RadburnMaggie RogersHal BorskeThree married couples are forced to spend the night in a Victorian-era house where they start getting killed off by a deranged psycho who's bent on claiming an inheritance they are all entitled to.AKA Blood Rites.
Prosecuted.
No UK re-release. - DirectorLee FrostStarsBob CresseMaria LeaseKathy WilliamsTwo female Army agents go undercover at a Nazi prison camp to get information from a scientist being held there.Prosecuted.
Refused a video certificate in 2002.
Refused a certificate for streaming in 2020.
Although certain later nazisploitation movies (particularly those out of Italy) would outdo 'Love Camp 7' in terms of excess in virtually every department, the film still offers enough depravity, sleaze and general schlock to please most fans of the genre.
It is famous for being the very first in the wave of sleazy nazisploitation movies and for being classified as a video-nasty in the UK. - DirectorRené CardonaStarsJosé Elías MorenoCarlos López MoctezumaArmando SilvestreA doctor tries to save his son's life through a complicated heart transplant operation, the involuntary donor being a gorilla. Eventually, the young man turns into a violent hybrid beast.AKA Night of the Bloody Apes.
Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
1999 - Cut version (3 minutes)
2002 - Uncut version. - DirectorMario BavaStarsClaudine AugerLuigi PistilliClaudio CamasoThe murder of a wealthy countess triggers a chain reaction of brutal killings in the surrounding bay area, as several unscrupulous characters try to seize her large estate.AKA A Bay of Blood.
AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve.
AKA Blood Bath.
Prosecuted.
Originally refused a cinema certificate in 1972.
1994 - Cut version (43 s.)
2010 - Uncut version. - DirectorEloy de la IglesiaStarsVicente ParraEmma CohenEusebio PoncelaA meat factory worker accidentally kills a taxi driver, and begins gradually killing people close to him in order to cover up his original crime. He starts getting rid of the mounting corpses stored in his bedroom through his day job.AKA The Cannibal Man.
Prosecuted.
1993 - Cut version (3 s.) - DirectorWes CravenStarsSandra PeabodyLucy GranthamDavid HessTwo teenage girls heading to a rock concert for one's birthday try to score marijuana in the city, where they are kidnapped and brutalized by a gang of psychopathic convicts.Prosecuted.
Originally refused a cinema certificate in 1974 and again in 2000.
Refused a video certificate in 2001.
2002 - Cut version (31 s.)
2008 - Uncut version. - DirectorUmberto LenziStarsIvan RassimovMe Me LaiPrasitsak SingharaAfter a photographer is captured by a primitive tribe, his life is spared and he's accepted into the village after the chief's daughter falls for him, but he has to survive the jungle's harsh life, including the cannibals.AKA Deep River Savages.
AKA Man From Deep River.
AKA Sacrifice!
Non Prosecuted.
Originally refused a cinema certificate in 1975.
2003 - Cut version (3 m. 45 s. of animal cruelty)
2016 - Cut version (3 m.)
Umberto Lenzi is often cited as originating the cannibal genre with his 1972 film 'Man from Deep River', while Antonio Climati's 'Natura contro' from 1988 is similarly regarded to have brought the trend to a close. - DirectorS.F. BrownriggStarsBill McGheeJessie Lee FultonRobert DracupA young psychiatric nurse goes to work at a remote asylum following a murder. There, she experiences varying degrees of torment from the patients.AKA Don't Look in the Basement.
Non Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
2005 - Uncut version. - DirectorPaul MorrisseyAntonio MargheritiStarsJoe DallesandroUdo KierDalila Di LazzaroBaron Frankenstein creates two "zombies" - one male, one female - planning to mate them in order to create a master race.AKA Andy Warhol's Frankenstein.
Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
1996 - Cut version (56 s.)
2006 - Uncut version. - DirectorJorge GrauStarsCristina GalbóRay LovelockArthur KennedyA cop chases two hippies suspected of a series of Manson family-like murders; unbeknownst to him, the real culprits are the living dead, brought to life with a hunger for human flesh by ultrasonic radiation being used for pest control.AKA The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue.
AKA Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.
AKA Don't Open the Window.
Non Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
1985 - Cut version (1 m. 53 s.)
2002 - Uncut version. - DirectorMiguel IglesiasStarsPaul NaschyMercedes MolinaSilvia SolarWaldemar, the renowned adventurer, joins an expedition to find the Yeti in the Himalayas. While hiking the mountains, he's captured by two cannibalistic demon nymphets guarding a remote Buddhist temple and becomes their sex-slave. They transform him into a werewolf setting him loose to roam the mountain where he encounters a sadistic bandit.AKA The Werewolf and the Yeti.
AKA Night of the Howling Beast.
Prosecuted.
No UK re-release. - DirectorMichael FindlayHoracio FredrikssonSimon NuchternStarsMargarita AmuchásteguiTina AustinAna CarroA so-called "snuff" film involving the exploits of a cult leader leading a gang of bikers in a series of supposedly real killings on film.Prosecuted.
2003 - Uncut version, but no UK release to date. - DirectorAldo LadoStarsFlavio BucciMacha MérilGianfranco De GrassiA pair of psychotic hoodlums and an equally demented nymphomaniac woman terrorize two young girls on a train trip from Germany to Italy.AKA Last Stop on the Night Train.
AKA Night Train Murders.
Non prosecuted.
Originally refused a cinema certificate in 1976.
2008 - Uncut version. - DirectorJesús FrancoStarsLina RomayMartine StedilNathalie ChapeA small-time hood brings the attention of the law with an insurance scam and diamond theft, but things become even more interesting when his moll murders him and is slammed behind bars where she faces all manner of electric shock treatments to various parts of her anatomy.AKA Women Behind Bars.
AKA Hell Diamonds.
Non prosecuted.
2017 - Uncut version. - DirectorFrank RoachStarsRenee HarmonLynne YeamanWolf MuserMad scientists turn people into frozen zombies and the zombies wreak havoc and kill people.Non prosecuted.
No UK re-release. - DirectorMatt CimberStarsMillie PerkinsLonny ChapmanVanessa BrownA disturbed woman is haunted by memories of childhood abuse, which culminates in a murder spree.Non prosecuted.
2006 - Uncut version. - DirectorJames Kenelm ClarkeStarsUdo KierLinda HaydenFiona RichmondA paranoid writer is unable to get started on his second novel. He hires a secretary and then his troubles really begin.AKA House on Straw Hill.
Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
1997 - Cut version (51 s.) - DirectorTobe HooperStarsNeville BrandMel FerrerCarolyn JonesA psychotic redneck, who owns a dilapidated hotel in rural East Texas, kills various people who upset him or his business, and he feeds their bodies to a large crocodile that he keeps as a pet in the swamp beside his hotel.AKA Death Trap.
AKA Starlight Slaughter.
Non prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
1992 - Cut version (25 s.)
2000 - Uncut version. - DirectorSergio GarroneStarsMircha CarvenPaola CorazziGiorgio CerioniNear the end of WW2, prisoners of war are used in experiments to perfect the "Aryan" race.AKA SS Experiment Camp.
AKA SS Experiment Love Camp.
Prosecuted.
2005 - Uncut version.
This Italian nazisploitation got plenty of nudity and soft-core sex. It is an infamous video-nasty that is hardly worth calling a shocker. The repulsiveness is limited to a few sequences while the rest of the film is talkative dullness about the superiority of the Third Reich. - DirectorNico MastorakisStarsBob BehlingJane LyleJessica DublinA couple of perverted and maniac killers get loose on a Greek island.AKA Devils in Mykonos.
AKA A Craving For Lust.
Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
Refused a video certificate in 1987 under the title Psychic Killer II.
2002 - Cut version (4 m. 9 s.)
2010 - Uncut version. - DirectorCesare CanevariStarsAdriano MicantoniDaniela PoggiMaristella GrecoA Jewish woman who survived the horrors of a concentration camp revisits the ruins of the camp, along with a former SS officer, and recollects the humiliation, the torture, and the constant abuse she went through.AKA Gestapo's Last Orgy.
AKA Last Orgy of the Third Reich.
AKA Caligula Reincarnated As Hitler.
Prosecuted.
Refused a video certificate in 2021.
This Italian video-nasty is a unflinching look at the atrocities committed in a Nazi concentration camp with harrowing scenes of sexual abuse, violent death and torture. This one is mean-spirited and rawer and nastier than other nazisploitation films of the same era. - DirectorLuigi BatzellaStarsMacha MagallGino TuriniEdilio KimA beautiful, nefarious senior female SS officer/doctor creates a genetic, mutant human hybrid; the beast is a, squat, mongoloid hyper-sexually-driven fiend which she uses to torture and molest female prisoners while get fellow Nazis watch.AKA Horrifying Experiments of S.S. Last Days.
AKA The Beast in Heat.
AKA SS Hell Camp.
Prosecuted.
No UK re-release.
In this Italian nazisploitation a female SS doctor are performing experiments on naked women and feeding them to a caged man-beast.
It is infamous due to its inclusion on the video-nasties list in the UK during the 80s and didn’t get a UK release. Its badly made, boring, got plenty nudity, tasteless sadism, lengthy rape scenes and nasty tortures. - DirectorFrederick R. FriedelStarsLeslie LeeJack CanonRay GreenThree criminals on a murder spree arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl is living with her paralyzed grandfather.AKA Axe.
AKA California Axe Massacre.
Prosecuted.
Originally passed with cuts for cinema.
1999 - Cut version (19 s.)
2005 - Uncut version. - DirectorRobert A. EndelsonStarsRobert JuddCatherine PeppersLela SmallA mean trashy exploitation picture about three convicts who escape from jail and hole up at the house of a black minister. There are a few nasty scenes where the minister's family is being repeatedly terrorized by the thugs. In the end the minister turns the tables on the 3 convicts and gives them their just desserts.Prosecuted.
Originally refused a cinema certificate in 1981.
No UK re-release.