Tag: moral panic

Video Nasties Live Debate From 1984

Video Nasties Live Debate From 1984

It used to be really popular in Britain when I was growing up for the hottest topics of the day to be debated and discussed live in a studio with experts on a stage and an audience who would ask questions and contribute. A famous example is the debate regarding certain religious figures calling for the Monty Python movie The Life Of Brian to be banned on the grounds of blasphemy. John Cleese and Michael Palin debated the issue with Roman Catholic journalist and satirist Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood.

A debate that was televised in 1984 regarded the Video Nasties furore and I actually remember watching it at the time! The link is below.

It’s so great to see representatives from both sides of the argument being in the studio and arguing their cases (notice those against the release of horror movies trying to talk over those who wanted them to be released).

I read Martin Barker’s seminal book Video Nasties around this time as I did the publication of Clifford Hill’s flawed study to see just how many kids falsely claimed to have seen the hotly debated cinematic shockers such as The Evil Dead and The Driller Killer.

VideoNastiesMartinBarker
A seminal text
VideoViolenceandChildren
A deeply flawed study

There’s also great footage of a video store of the time, a very funny reenactment of children watching said Video Nasties and some hilariously macabre music to accompany this. This creepy music is even played over the start of the TV debate.

But my favourite line from the whole programme must be MP Graham Bright asserting that these corrupting films not only affect children but also dogs. I do remember my dog at the time being somewhat murderous after we all watched Nightmares In A Damaged Brain for the first time but that might be because we had forgotten to feed her.

KeepNastiesFromOurKids

The hysteria of the time must be unbelievable for people to comprehend in 2021 but these horror movies were Public Enemy Number 1 at the time and this moral panic lasted for years. I remember a local newspaper article complaining about the evil effects of horror movies in 1987 which launched an avalanche of angry and disapproving readers’ letters in the next issue. The editor noted that not one letter standing up for the movies had been received.

And of course, the whole furore erupted again in 1993 after James Bulger was abducted and murdered with Child’s Play 3 becoming the 90’s version of The Evil Dead and a target of society’s scorn and bile.

Thankfully common sense prevailed. Or could this hysteria happen again?

This programme is here and my Video Nasties documentary playlist is here.

Advertisement

Poster of the Week- Maniac (1980)

Poster of the Week- Maniac (1980)

I can still remember the first time I saw the poster for Maniac. The killers legs and crotch, his hand holding a severed head, his other holding a knife with the tagline of ‘I WARNED YOU NOT TO GO OUT TONIGHT’ in the deranged scrawl of a psychopath. What was not to like for a horror/exploitation film fan?

ManiacPoster

I actually first saw the poster in a film magazine in the mid 80’s. Maniac was actually banned when it was submitted for cinema release in 1981. It was also banned when submitted for video release in 1998. It was then cut by 58 seconds when it was resubmitted for video release in 2002. And all of this brouhaha was only what happened in the UK. 

In the US it wasn’t just the film that sparked protests, pickets and disapproving TV programme segments but also the poster as even that was seen as being so massively offensive! Now that’s style! More can be seen about the moral panic regarding the film here.

Some theaters would only carry censored posters outside their cinemas.

ManiacCensoredPoster

In fact, the L.A. Times wouldn’t even carry any advertising for the film. The film’s marketing department used that fact as the basis for another poster! ‘See the film The L.A. Times won’t carry ads for!’ All publicity is great publicity especially for an exploitation film. As if there could have been a higher kind of recommendation. 

I finally got to see the uncut film many years after first seeing the classic poster. Was the film as good as the poster? No. It was even better. Maniac is the grimier cousin of Taxi Driver and is not a million miles away from a film like The New York Ripper. Noo Yawk is especially fun on film when it’s crime-ridden and more like Gotham than Disneyland.