Video Nasty is a term that is applied to films that were banned under the Video Recordings Act of 1984. The act was introduced by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and was designed to protect audiences from overtly sexual or violent films that were considered inappropriate for public viewing audiences. There was also an increasing concern that, thanks to the popularity of VHS players in homes, such videos could potentially fall into the hands of children.

Before the act was passed, a list of 74 films shortlisted for censorship was compiled, which was dubbed the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) ‘video nasties’ list, which is of course, where the term originated. Of these 74 films, 39 were successfully prosecuted and subsequently banned, which saw them being removed from rental and retail stores and making the distribution of them a criminal offence.

Recently, a lot of these ‘video nasties’ have been re-released and are available to the public either partially cut or completely uncut. Of course, there are some films which are yet to have their bans lifted and due to their nature, may never be re-released.

List of successfully banned films:

• Absurd
• Anthropophagous the Beast
• Axe
• The Beast in Heat
• The Beyond
• Bloodbath
• Blood Feast
• Blood Rites
• Bloody Moon
• The Bogey Man
• The Burning
• Cannibal Apocalypse
• Cannibal Ferox
• Cannibal Holocaust
• Cannibal Man
• Cannibal Terror
• Contamination
• Dead and Buried
• Death Trap
• Deep River Savages
• Delirium
• Devil Hunter
• Don’t Go in the House
• Don’t Go in the Woods
• Don’t Go Near the Park!
• Don’t Look in the Basement
• Driller Killer
• The Evil Dead
• Evil Speak
• Expose
• Faces of Death
• Fight For Your Life
• Flesh For Frankenstein
• Forest of Fear
• Frozen Scream
• The Funhouse
• The Gestapo’s Last Orgy
• The House by the Cemetery
• House on the Edge of the Park
• Human Experiments
• I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses
• I Spit on Your Grave
• Inferno
• Island of Death
• Killer Nun
• The Last House on the Left
• The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue
• Love Camp 7
• Madhouse
• Mardi Gras Massacre
• Night of the Demon
• Nightmare Maker
• Nightmares in a Damaged Brain
• Night Train Murders
• Possession
• Pranks
• Prisoner of the Cannibal God
• Revenge of the Bogeyman
• Shogun Assassin
• The Slayer
• Snuff
• SS Experiment Camp
• Tenebrae
• Terror Eyes
• The Toolbox Murders
• Unhinged
• Visiting Hours
• The Werewolf and the Yeti
• The Witch Who Came From the Sea
• Women Behind Bars
• Xtro
• Zombie Creeping Flesh
• Zombie Flesh Eaters