Video nasties

Social 


Technological 

• VHS

Economical

• Cinema attendance in decline

Political



Video recordings act 1984

Moral panic -> scapegoat: 
"kids aged just five tune into nasties"
Media hyped up the regulation of films because the people who owned the media backed up the conservative government.
Blamed the video nasties on the violence against the government etc, -> miners fighting etc

Mary Whitehouse -> traditional values etc, did not like what younger people and society as a whole could view without the films being regulated

Video nasties -> blood, gore, horror, violence - low budget, unregulated films

Nothing in place to regulate the films, to stop accessibility and graphic images. The video record created a fear about audiences being able to get hold of this.

Implicit -> not showing anything violence or nudity - implied, the opposite to explicit - Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Evil Dead -> biggest selling video of 1983  - people wanted to watch something with violence etc, and thats controversial =  advertisement - pencil stabbing scene = influential and imitable behaviour


What do the trailers Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Last House on the Left have in common in terms of :

style:
-rape 
-violence/imitable violence / dismemberment
-gore
-night / woods
-unknown actors 
-young -> marketing 
-female victim 
-violence - chainsaw
- young -> marketing 
-female victim 
-documentary style - realistic 
-woods
-teenage targets - audience 
- chainsaw 
-based on reality? true story??

budget:
-very low and poor 
-woods 
-VFX = terrible / plasticine animation / stop motion 
-poor low budget 
-No VFX - more realistic 

narrative/themes:
-style over substance 
-banned / moral panics to promote and advertise 
-moral panic - peace symbol??

genre:
-horror 
-targets the morally wrong 
-demonic vs christian belief 
-horror but more realistic
-horror but realistic 

Evil Dead 
Last house on the left 
Texas chainsaw masscare 

Directors and where are they now / what did they go on to do?  
Evil Dead -> Sam Rammy -> Spiderman and Dawn of the Dead -> mainstream Hollywood film direction 
Wes Craven -> Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Hills have Eyes -> popular mainstream hollywood horrors