The Home Video Boom of the 80s
By itsonlyamovie
The Home Video Boom saw the mass import of a new breed of horror film, sick and disturbing video material known as Video Nasties. Here’s where it all began!
Home videos were becoming the most popular form of home entertainment, and many brave new entrepreneurs set up their own video shop. This new wave of businesses saw some of the wealth being distributed in the opposite direction.
In the beginning there was no enforced film classification system like they had at the cinema. The industry had just started and no real regulations were put into place regarding video releases of film material.
Uncut and Uncensored Horror Tapes
Major film companies at the time wouldn’t produce films in the video format due to concerns of piracy. This gave way to a mass import, flooding the video market with low-budget horror films from smaller independent film companies.
Some of these films had already been granted a cinema certificate by the The British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), but most of them were uncensored, having been refused certification.
The cinema classification system was run by the BBFC, and their role was to recommend cuts to films in order to be granted a certain certificate: X, A or U. Once a film was granted a cinema certificate it was up to the local authority to allow screenings.
The Horrors of Home Video
The home video boom in the early eighties gave the public a chance to see uncensored material, 100’s of uncensored tapes were flooding into Britain, viewable by anyone of any age with access to a home video player, which included the ability to freeze-frame specific scenes.
The cinemas on the other hand had full control over the viewable material, all the films had been passed as suitable for a specific age, and underage viewing was rare.
This was the basis for the reshape of the video classification system, the fact that video material could easily be viewed by underage people, and the effects it could have on children’s minds.
Film critic Derek Malcolm, thought differently, he said “The whole thing has a class basis, the idea that contentious material goes out to ‘ordinary’ working people who are assumed to be incapable of controlling their own lives and making their own choices.
A previous censor once actually said to me:
“It’s all very well for sophisticated middle-class people going to the ICA to see Andy Warhol’s ‘Trash‘, but think of the effect on the, working-class man from Manchester” .
A statement which was backed up by the ‘Hysteria-Lives‘ website: “There was always the suspicion by the ‘ruling class’ that the ‘common man is unable to take control over his own life, and unable to view certain material without it having an adverse effect”.
The Nasties Become a Media Scapegoat
Around the same time, Britain was shook by a series of riots in some of our major cities and much of the widespread unrest had its roots in social and economic deprivation.
The media reported on several incidents of violence in society, attributed to the viewing of the video nasties by minors.
So was it the effects on children, or the effects on the working-class that seemed to be the problem? Was the material really as bad as the ‘Tory press’ made out, or were they being used as a scapegoat, something to blame for the social collapse of Thatcher’s Britain.
New Video Legislation is on the Way
The furore created by the moral crusade against video nasties led to the introduction of the Video Recordings Act 1984 which imposed a stricter code of censorship on videos than was required for cinema release.
Several major studio productions ended up being banned on video in the UK, falling foul of legislation that was designed to control the distribution of video nasties.
As a child I was brought up on videos, we had a family video shop back in the 80s, and it played a huge part in my early life. When the video nasties became public knowledge, the subject became somewhat of a legend in the playground!
After all if a film is banned then it must be extremely unsuitable for anybody to watch, right? The scenes must contain unbelievable amounts of grotesque horror, right? The answer to both of these questions is no.
If the Video Nasties were ignored, would they of created such a stir? The nasties hysteria created desire amongst the young, and also created a much sought after product.s Britain in the 1980s
Thatcher’s Britain
In the early Eighties, Britain’s Government was run by Margaret Thatcher, and to some, particularly the ordinary, working-class people, 80s Britain was seen as a class-driven society.
The ruling class had their suspicions about the working class, or lower class, many believing that they were unable to account for their own actions.
Britain in the Eighties, to some, was seen as a class driven society, you have the upper class, or ruling class, and then you have the lower class, the ‘common man’ of society.
John Martin, author of ‘The Seduction of the Gullible’ recalls “Thatcher’s Government began in 1979 to dismantle the whole post-war consensus of British social and political philosophy.
Rioting across Brtain in the summer of 1981
The Tories Election campaign was centred on reducing unemployment, but the jobless figures continued to rise and the Summer of 1981 saw major social unrest and full blown rioting in major Cities throughout Britain.
The BBC website reported “Britain was shook by a series of riots up and down the land, much of the widespread unrest had its roots in social and economic deprivation as acknowledged in a report by Lord Scarman.
The report led to major changes in policing and they included an end to the hated “Sus” law which allowed officers to arrest anyone they suspected of loitering with intent – young black men said officers used it to unfairly target them.
In April 1981 nearly 400 people, including 150 police officers were injured during three days of rioting in Brixton, three months later In July 1981 riots raged in Toxteth for nine days.
The people in the middle of Thatcher’s experiment weren’t becoming more industrious and entrepreneurial – they were out of work. Possibly a huge embarrassment for the government, who couldn’t accept that their theories might be wrong.
They began to seek out alternative explanations and they could of found an answer. The Tory press were soon stalking another scapegoat… the Video Nasties.
Read Next:
The Video Nasty Media Frenzy
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