DEEP DIVE: Video Nasties, Pt. 1

In the era of rising authoritarianism that so many of us around the world find ourselves in at the moment, I've been thinking a lot lately about banned media. One of the most interesting examples to me has always been the infamous Video Nasties episode in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. I highly recommend reading up just a bit on it before the discussion, and the piece at the bottom of the page by Kim Newman of the BFI does a great job of explaining it. While this crackdown may not be as extreme as the banning of, say, The Great Dictator in Nazi Germany or Jafar Panahi's films in Iran, I find it so fascinating how a tabloid-induced moral panic spiraled into the police raiding video stores to impound these titles.

To be clear, these films are (mostly) on here for a reason. Almost all of them are not for the faint of heart and some of them have...questionable artistic merit to say the least. However, many of them are also cult classics and regarded as era-defining genre films full of substance to disect. We may end up sampling a bit of both! In part one of this series, I'm going to mostly start off with well-regarded titles that might shed the most light for an interesting discussion on censorship and the deeper meaning behind the films themselves. I'll also throw in one title I haven't seen, but have heard is mostly liked and very schlocky, just for fun. If this discussion goes well and there's more interest, maybe we can dive into some of the trash in the future!

Please try to watch all four films before the discussion, but you're still welcome to come if you've only seen 1-3. As these titles are more common than some of the others on the list, you should be able to find them, but let me know if you need help!

Blood Feast (1963, Herschell Gordon Lewis): In the sleepy suburbs of Miami, seemingly normal Egyptian immigrant Fuad Ramses runs a successful catering business. He also murders young women and plans to use their body parts to revive the goddess Ishtar. The insane Ramses hypnotizes a socialite in order to land a job catering a party for her debutante daughter, Suzette Fremont, and turns the event into an evening of gruesome deaths, bloody dismemberment and ritual sacrifice.

• Stream for free on Kanopy

The Driller Killer (1979, Abel Ferrara): An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.

• Stream on Mubi or for free on Kanopy

The Evil Dead (1981, Sam Raimi): In 1979, a group of college students find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they’ve rented for a weekend getaway.

• Rent on Prime, YouTube, or AppleTV

Tenebrae (1982, Dario Argento): A razor-wielding serial killer is on the loose, murdering those around Peter Neal, an American mystery author in Italy to promote his newest novel.

• Stream for free on Kanopy

We'll meet at Barquentine Brewing at Edgewater Public Market. It is a reserved space, so please make sure your RSVP is up to date well before the event as a courtesy to the business.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/history-british-video-nasties

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls051364249/