I am sure most of you out there have never heard of the term video nasties'. It is natural as these were popular only among a certain section of society. Let us discuss about video nasties, their brief history and their significance in today's world of cinema.
In the early eighties when video was in its inception stage, a flood of European, American and Italian horror movies were made and they were openly available in auto garages, sweet shops sporting good stores etc and the best part of thee movies is that they were uncensored. This made them popular and soon it became a rage among children who watched them after school and in parties. These movies basically dealt with themes like multiple murder, gang rapes and acts of violence and mutilation. Thus in 1980 a new genre of movies called the video nasties came into prominence but it was vehemently criticized by moral crusaders as they were leading to moral decline of the society.
Video nasties became so popular among the young generation that they started avoiding the general sitcoms which were shown in television. Films like the Cannibal Holocaust became so popular that governments decided to ban them as they projected blood, gore and murder in the most gruesome and crude manner. These films intended to deprave and corrupt the minds of the young generation. The crime rates in Western countries was rising at an alarming rate, and the parents were the most concerned as their children behaved in the most unruly manner and were proceeding to commit heinous crimes after watching these video nasties.
In order to solve this problem it was decided that the film reviewers be overpaid so that they would review the films properly. Even the films makers of the video nasties were arrested and kept behind bars when they tried to promote and distribute these films in public.
These films were mainly criticized for their violent and gory content especially by religious bodies. Violence in cinema was not a new concept but the main problem was that these video nasties were falling in the hands of the wrong audience like teens and children with impressionable minds and they did not have the capacity to judge what was right and what was wrong for them.