September 6th, 2011Getting Up Close and Personal With Video Nasties and Pop Culture
You and probably 75% of the population have no idea what a video nasty is. The eighties were a legendary time because there are many things to come out and make a statement.
It is safe to say that video nasties was also a term that was coined and created in the early 1980’s which means the number of films that were distributed and have been criticized for the distribution and showing of violent scenes and content. These “video nasties” were mainly scary movies that have been made on a very tight budget especially in Italy or the U.S and they proved to be very controversial.
Receiving the widespread attention, these movies caused the Video Recordings Act in the year of 1984. This act supposedly claimed to have stricter rules which meant that violent content could not be shown any longer without the necessary repercussions. There have been consequences of the serious kind and now the censorship board has the full responsibility of rating and scaling such films.
Other than horror films made, topics and ideas that were part of “pop culture”. Therefore any fashion, hot gossip, and taboo issues were discussed in such short films. Pop culture introduced a new dimension to video nasties because they gave a new niche upon which things could be discussed.
The video nasties had been revised day in and day out by the censorship board where rules and regulations of obscenity and inappropriate content had been applied and implemented. Many prosecutions have also taken place because some video nasties were in breach of the rules. Those films and short movies that had been in breach were then rewritten and re-filmed, if they had passed the new scale and level authorized then they would be shown in the cinemas and on television.
Nowadays video nasties cease to exist maybe because every movie goes through the censorship board anyway. Ratings are applied and if they pass the requirements, they are then allowed to be shown but this revolution only came about when wrong content had been shown. Therefore every movie is weary and careful.


