Prano Bailey-Bond’s feature debut, Censor, is now available on VOD. It stars Niamh Algar as Enid, a video censor working at the height of the video nasty craze that takes great pride in her work. The latest horror film up for review triggers memories of Enid’s long-lost sister, blurring the lines between nightmares and reality as she’s drawn into a bizarre mystery.
While the film at the center of Censor is fictitious, Bailey-Bond uses footage of actual Video Nasties to establish worldbuilding. Videocassettes exploded when they entered the marketplace, unregulated. That meant no preexisting guidelines in place for distributors trying to market their tapes through salacious cover art. VHS’s popularity correlated with the rise of panic and censorship in the UK, known as the Video Nasties craze, where horror and exploitation films were targeted and demonized in the media. Films were targeted and prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act; some were banned outright, and some passed with strict edits.
This week’s streaming picks belong to the most notorious section of the Video Nasties, the successfully prosecuted films of Section 1. Here’s where you can stream them this week.
Nightmare – Tubi
Also known as Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, this gory Video Nasty briefly appears in Censor. It’s the precise type of Video Nasty that earns its reputation. The plot sees George released from his mental institution after being deemed reformed, only to embark on a murder spree from New York to Florida. This supremely violent slasher didn’t just run afoul of censors, but gore effects legend Tom Savini, too, when he was credited for providing the special makeup effects. He vehemently denied this credit, but the gore is fantastic either way.
The House by the Cemetery – AMC+, Roku, Shudder
It should surprise no one that the Godfather of Gore graced the Video Nasties list more than once, including the final entry in the “Gates of Hell” trilogy. The plot follows a family who recently moves into a New England home that’s been host to a series of murders in the past, unaware of the dark secret lurking in the basement. It’s a haunted house story in the way only Lucio Fulci could deliver, full of brutal kills, a basement-dwelling monster, and a screaming child protagonist you either love or hate.
The Driller Killer – Arrow, Kanopy, Tubi
Not even a list that features only a select handful of Video Nasties would be complete without at least one movie to prove how overblown the censors could get, making their decisions based solely on the title and cover box. Released stateside without controversy, Abel Ferrera starred in his feature about an artist’s downward spiral into insanity. Crumbling under the pressure of creating art, paying bills, and caring for his roommates, Reno takes to the streets at night to relieve his stress by murdering people with a drill. The Driller Killer is more psychological character study than a splatter-filled slasher, and it’s bloody great.
A Bay of Blood – AMC+, Kanopy, Shudder
Also known as Twitch of the Death Nerve, this Giallo was also Mario Bava’s most violent. When a wealthy woman is murdered by her husband, it triggers a series of murders where no one appears safe in the surrounding area. It features a gory body count filled with beheadings, stabbings, and strangling. A Bay of Blood‘s influence extends beyond Giallo and into the American slasher, both in specific kills and POV shots.
Tenebrae – AMC+, Shudder
If there’s one thing that the Video Nasties list makes abundantly clear, it’s that Italian horror excels at gore. This Dario Argento film is regarded as one of his best for a good reason. Plenty of blood spilled, a satisfying murder mystery, a great score, and another outstanding performance by Daria Nicolodi. The plot sees American horror novelist Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) in Rome promoting his latest release, with his literary agent Bullmer (A Nightmare on Elm Street’s John Saxon) and assistant Anne (Nicolodi) in tow. Unfortunately, his arrival coincides with the start of a series of gruesome murders, and the bodies bear pages of his novel Tenebrae.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3670044/stay-home-watch-horror-5-video-nasties-stream-week/
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