This is a historical listing of all films that were deemed to be ‘video nasties’ in the UK. Read the story of the ‘video nasties’ here.
When horror films began to be seized by police under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act, it was something new – previously, only sexual material was thought to be ‘obscene’ (“taken as a whole, the work has a tendency to ‘deprave and corrupt’ ‘ – that is, make morally bad – a significant proportion of those likely to see it.”). In order to ‘help’ the video trade – which of course had no idea which horror films would suddenly be considered ‘obscene’ – the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) drew up lists of titles that had either been successfully prosecuted or had prosecutions pending, starting on June 30th 1983 and ending o December 1st 1985. This list would change according to convictions or acquittals, and peaked at 62 titles. The final list that existed by the time the Video Recordings Act 1984 came into force featured 39 films, and this final list is the one used by most cult movie collectors as ‘definitive’.
Naturally, most shops began clearing their shelves of the films on the list – even those that were never successfully prosecuted – and so all these movies are amongst the most collectable VHS releases.
The final 39 official ‘video nasties’:
Absurd (uncut)
Buy as Horrible on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy Anthropophagous the Beast on DVD from Amazon.com
Axe (aka California Axe Massacre)
Buy Axe on DVD from Amazon.com
The Beast in Heat (SS Hell Camp)
Buy SS Hell Camp on DVD from Amazon.com
Blood Bath (1971)
Buy on Blu-ray from Amazon.com
Blood Rites (aka The Ghastly Ones)
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Bloody Moon
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
The Burning (uncut)
Buy on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Cannibal Ferox (uncut)
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy Cannibal Holocaust and the Savage Cinema of Ruggero Deodato book from Amazon.co.uk
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Don’t Go in the Woods
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy The Driller Killer on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Evilspeak (uncut)
Buy on Blu-ray from Amazon.com
Exposé (House on Straw Hill)
Buy uncut Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com
Buy 30th Anniversary Edition on DVD from Amazon.com
Fight for Your Life
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Forest of Fear (aka Bloodeaters)
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
The Gestapo’s Last Orgy
Buy SS triple-bill on DVD from Amazon.com
The House by the Cemetery
Buy on Blu-ray from Amazon.com
Buy on Instant Video from Amazon.com
Buy I Spit on Your Grave uncut with commentary by Meir Zarchi on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Love Camp 7
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy on DVD from Amazon.com
Mardi Gras Massacre
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain
SS Experiment Camp
Buy SS Experiment Camp + SS Girls + SS Hell Camp triple-bill DVD from Amazon.com
Tenebrae
Buy Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide on Nucleus DVD from Amazon.co.uk
The remaining films that were removed from the ‘nasties’ list over the 18 month period were (dates removed from the list included where known):
The Beyond (removed April 1985)
Cannibal Terror (removed September 1985)
Dead and Buried (removed June 1985)
Death Trap (removed December 1985)
Deep River Savages (removed September 1985)
Delirium (removed May 1985)
Don’t Look in the Basement (removed December 1985)
The Evil Dead (removed September 1985)
Buy uncut The Evil Dead trilogy on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk
Frozen Scream (removed October 1984)
Funhouse
I Miss You Hugs and Kisses (removed October 1984)
Inferno (removed September 1985)
The Living Dead (aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue – removed April 1985)
Nightmare Maker (removed December 1985)
Possession (removed October 1984)
Pranks (removed September 1985)
Prisoner of the Cannibal God (removed May 1985)
Revenge of the Bogey Man
The Slayer (removed April 1985)
Terror Eyes (removed June 1985)
Toolbox Murders (removed May 1985)
Unhinged (removed December 1985)
Visiting Hours (removed November 1984)
The Witch Who Came from the Sea (removed June 1985)
Women Behind Bars (removed October 1984)
It’s impossible to list all the films seized by individual police forces, of course – Manchester, under the grip of fanatical Christian police chief James Anderton (later immortalised in music as “God’s Cop” by the Happy Mondays), operated a list in excess of the DPPs (including a blanket ban on the softcore Electric Blue series, Werewolf Woman, Dawn of the Mummy, Massacre Mansion, Night of the Seagulls, Mother’s Day, Rosemary’s Killer and Superstition), while other films confiscated by police forces included Maniac, The Hills Have Eyes, Xtro, The Thing, Friday the 13th, Madman, Basket Case, Emmanuelle 2, Children of the Corn (which had been further cut by distributors EMI after gaining BBFC certification), Suffer Little Children (seized by police before it was even released and while negotiations over cuts were taking place with the BBFC) as well as numerous softcore and hardcore adult movies.
Buy The Art of the Nasty book from Amazon.co.uk
Most notoriously – and evidence of the incredible ignorance of the police carrying out these pointless raids – were the seizures of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (allegedly mistaken for Cannibal Apocalypse!), Lee Marvin war film The Big Red One, Burt Reynolds comedy The Last Little Whorehouse in Texas, Disney movie The Devil and Max Devlin (after a mischief-making complaint from anti-censorship journalist Liam T. Sanford) and An Unmarried Woman!
David Flint, Horrorpedia
Read the story of the ‘video nasties’ here | ‘Nasty’ episode of The Young Ones BBC comedy series | Video Nasty (comic book)
