The NVLA created a moral panic around video nasties. Their main concern was 12-16 year olds getting hold of these films and being influenced under imitable violence. It was said that they replaced party games. Because these video nasties were banned, this created a hype and a status to get hold of and to watch these films. These films were banned but illegally sold by video dealers in garages and sweet shops. Therefore these films were still accessible to 12-16 year olds, even though they had been banned. Pressure groups and activists such as Mary Whitehouse wanted video nasties such as Evil Dead to be censored, due to the concern of imitable violence. However, this became clearly corrupt when the police began to converse with these pressure groups, whilst Mary Whitehouse befriended Thatcher over similar interests.
Campaigns by the NVLA and Mary Whitehouse were put out into the media, in conservative newspapers such as the Daily Mail.
Video nasties created a moral panic and were used by the government and the media as a scapegoat. They targeted the recession, riots and protests as a result of the influence of these video nasties.
As well as political, there was also religious conflict. These video nasties incorporated demonisation and possession, which the religious upper class opposed. The media portrayed video nasties as 'evil' through forms of propaganda. Video nasties were used as an example for everything evil in society.
However, companies and advertisement discovered that the censorship and banning of a film resulted in an increase of demand. For example, Evil Dead was deliberated constructed to be banned and therefore increase the demand and it's number of viewings. With censorship, along came a sense of the thrill of the forbidden.
Home video was unregulated, meaning that anyone could get hold of a particular film. This created a fear of who was watching and being influenced by these video nasties, resulting in a mass censorship of 80 films.
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