'VIDEO NASTY' is the name in the UK referring to video movies (predominantly horror) criticized for violence by the media, social pundits and religious organizations -- all with an agenda. The name was popularized by the NVALA (National Viewers' and Listeners' Association) in the early 1980's, who themselves were first founded in 1965 by Mary Whitehouse as a pressure group to clean-up TV. As the videos were not originally brought before the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) in an unregulated market, this led to public debate regarding concerns over availability to children, and a morals campaign by Whitehouse and the NVALA (who also went after music and porn) saw local jurisdictions begin prosecuting for obscenity. Beginning in June 1983 (making 2018 the 35th anniversary), the DDP (Director of Public Prosecutions) helped these authorities by releasing a list of 72 movies said to violate the OPA (Obscene Publications Act of 1959). The first 39 where those prosecuted. And the remaining 33 where either still banned & removed from video shops, and either not prosecuted, or unsuccessfully taken to court. Additional changes to this censorship list led to Parliament passing the VRA (Video Recordings Act of 1984) forcing all video releases to appear before the BBFC for official certification. This new ruling saw stricter codes imposed on videos -- more than what was required for films in cinema release.
Even as movies had been acquitted of obscenity or had been legally certified, they remained on the list. A further supplementary list was released with another 82 movies that although they couldn't be prosecuted, were liable to be seized and even destroyed after confiscation. In subsequent years, a relaxing of criteria saw many offending titles undergo minimal editing or heavy cuts. In August 2009, a legislative mistake was discovered resulting in the VRA being repealed, but again re-introduced without change by a VRA of 2010. And as for the legacy of 'video nasty' owing its existence to controversial advocate Mary Nuthouse? She is now overwhelmingly regarded as barely seeing even a handful of ALL the films she insisted needed to be banned. In her drive to have all that was horror removed, by today's standards, her crusade and the movement built around her can be seen in a certain sense as having a failing, lasting impact that currently amounts to little more than a hill of beans. When Grandma Windbag took up the mantle of being both thought-police and morality squad for the nation, it is we monster kid film buffs who would get the last laugh as her targeting would prove her undoing. As well, it also exposed the hypocrisy of many a political charlatan and clergyman that hitched their wagon to hers.
And some of these same sanctimonious individuals would later pop up in the news for their involvements in whatever particular flavor-of-the-month scandal. [Always ironic when skeletons-in-the-closet of the self-righteous elite turn out to be the blessings in disguise for the self-aware everyman]. What was more stupidly/laughingly hysterical than credible serious hysteria, the ultimate demise of the 'video nasty' should owe no real credit to Mary and her gang of cohorts ringing an alarm bell, but instead to (A) the actual decline of the slasher movies which nearing their end were an already oversaturated market that had routinely churned out lousy inferior crap, and (B) to the numerous video shop owners, distros and sellers either driven out of business, or those switching their inventory feeling the horror trend had run its course, and due to bullshit charges that piled up in the Courts which often resulted in constant personal financial drain. As a staunch social conservative who was criticized, ridiculed and regularly presented unflatteringly, Nuthouse died at 91 in November 2001. Her life was dramatized in the 2008 BBC film, FILTH: THE MARY WHITEHOUSE STORY. She was an author of 5 books between 1971-93, and is also the subject of a 2012 book, 'Ban This Filth!: Letters From The Mary Whitehouse Archive'. In a further tribute of mockery, a British porn magazine, and a 4-man BBC sketch comedy troupe were named after her as well.
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