Censoring the Horror Movie Cover Art

The introduction of The Video Recordings Act (VRA) had played havoc with an adults right to watch a simple horror film for roughly 3 years when the late James Ferman (then head of the BBFC) decided that the cover art should also be subject to the censors approval.

During the nasties hysteria which led to the introduction of the VRA itself in 1984, the cover art had caused controversy in Video Trade Magazines and had been printed frequently in tabloid newspapers along with the latest article concerning the infamous video nasties, so its quite surprising how long it took for them to come scrutiny.

Stunning Video Nasty Cover Art

I was brought up on videos as the family opened a video shop in the early 80s. I remember a lot of the horror covers, The Bogey Man, Anthropophagous the Beast, Cannibal Holocaust and especially the dazzling cover art for The Evil Dead and Don’t Go In the Woods.

Most of the horror movie cover art which graced the shelves of high street video stores, featured a graphic image or caption promising gut-munching horror! Just what the horror fan wants. Its fair to say that the video nasty cover art certainly grabbed your attention.

The Last House on the Left and Cannibal Ferox, both released by Replay Video in the UK, featured a plain black cover with a warning printed on the front, this warned potential customers that the material may be unsuitable even for the hardest of gore-hounds. On the other hand, who could resist taking a peep inside to see.

The VPRC – Censorship Gone Mad

The Video Packaging Review Committee (VPRC) was introduced to regulate the film cover artwork, it was a voluntary scheme, but only in name. You did not have to submit your cover for approval, but many big retailers would not take a video that did not have the VPRC logo on the cover, Catch 22.

The idea of the VPRC on the surface was a good one, although to horror fans and collectors like me, the cover art in the pre-VRA era were a delight to see, although not suitable for children… So why not put them near the top shelf like they do with adult films?

The House By The Cemetery

When the VPRC was set up, it would go way overboard (sounds familiar?) and reach laughable levels of censorship. The heavily censored re-release of Lucio Fulci’s ‘House by the Cemetery‘ was further censored in a very different way when the VPRC insisted a tiny, thin line of blood was removed from the blade of a knife on it’s cover. The World was a safer place.

Dario Argento’s Tenebrae

On the re-release of Dario Argento’s ‘Tenebrae‘ the slim trickle of blood on the neck of the dead girl is replaced by a red ribbon. The famous advertisement for Re-Animator showing a severed head in a dish. The face was removed, instead being covered in hair.

UK distributor ‘Colourbox‘ had one of the most infamous example of laughable cover censorship when their heavily cut version of ‘Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers‘ had the word ‘Chainsaw’ removed and a picture of a chainsaw put in it’s place!

The VPRC also took offence to many of the movie stills put on the back of covers, resulting in many removals. Larger companies would have to re-design the cover but due to the costs this would mean most smaller distributors would simply put black squares over any offending stills resulting in many covers on a low budget label (normally found for sale on market stalls) being turned into a dreadful looking mass of black boxes such as the re-released version of The Forest, amongst others.

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