The Video Nasty Era – A review of the best horror movies of the 70’s and 80’s!
If you are of a certain age, possibly mid-forties, and a film fan, then you probably look back to the heady days of the early 80’s with some fondness. Video was beginning to boom around 1980 and there seemed to be a Video shop on every street corner. For my friends and me, all who had grown up watching the likes of Hammer films and the Horror Double Bill on BBC2 (which I'll also be looking back on), the prospect of even more shocking movies was very enticing!
The lurid covers and graphic images of gore were particularly fascinating and in secrecy from our parents we tried to hire as many films as we could. Who could forget the outrageous cover for The Driller Killer or the rotten green hand thrust from ground on the cover of Zombie Flesh Eaters? How about the cartoon cannibal for Cannibal Holocaust munching on entrails or the Silver Sphere from Phantasm? There were two establishments in our local village both of which had no qualms in lending out the worst and excessive videos to us, who being only twelve at the time thought it a bit strange even then. I can remember hiring Driller Killer with a friend from a video store in a well to do shop in my home town. When asked if the film was gory, the respectable owner replied in a disapproving tone, 'It's horrific', followed immediately by, 'that'll be a pound please'. I still chuckle today when reminiscing, it was a much simpler time back in the 80's!
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| Munching |
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| Boy! |
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| Don't blink |
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| Black & Decker cordless? |
During the period of 1980 to 1984 and before the dreaded Video Recording Act 1984 (which turns out wasn’t even legal as the correct paperwork wasn’t finalised by European courts) I remember watching a slew of films that were to become banned and put on the ‘Nasty’ list. Maybe the films were better back then, or nostalgia has given some titles a rosy glow but I prefer the old classics to modern day horror movies. The art of the horror movie has gone in recent years with film makers plumping for the H.G. Lewis approach and just throwing in some guts, torture and vomit without the fear element that makes the best films truly memorable.
I’ve seen some okay movies from recent years but mainly they’ve been poor. Ever since Eli Roth set the genre back a decade with the awful Hostel series (if you’re going to set a movie in Amsterdam then film it in Amsterdam, we Europeans know when you’re conning us), horror films have been getting steadily more implausible and frankly laughable. The Saw franchise of movies are as unimaginative as they come, relying solely on an audience’s reaction of disgust rather than scaring them. It’s cheap and exploitative movie making at its worst (or best if that was the intention). Even the celebrated French ‘new wave’ of movies is just derivative of other European countries better and earlier attempts at stylish horror, although Martyrs is an excellent if gruelling film.
I’ve seen some okay movies from recent years but mainly they’ve been poor. Ever since Eli Roth set the genre back a decade with the awful Hostel series (if you’re going to set a movie in Amsterdam then film it in Amsterdam, we Europeans know when you’re conning us), horror films have been getting steadily more implausible and frankly laughable. The Saw franchise of movies are as unimaginative as they come, relying solely on an audience’s reaction of disgust rather than scaring them. It’s cheap and exploitative movie making at its worst (or best if that was the intention). Even the celebrated French ‘new wave’ of movies is just derivative of other European countries better and earlier attempts at stylish horror, although Martyrs is an excellent if gruelling film.
So, what is the point of this blog? It’s to celebrate those glorious and fondly remembered horror flicks from the 70’s and 80’, not just those on ‘nasties’ list, with all their sleazy gore ridden silliness and bask in the glow of a nostalgic childhood long since passed.
