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It\u2019s weirdly ironic that just as I was editing this blog about a doc on banned films on home video in the U.K., news broke<\/a> that Radley Metzger\u2019s The Image<\/a><\/strong> (1975) was reportedly seized by German customs due to the film\u2019s depicting “cruel or otherwise inhuman acts of violence against humans or human-like beings in a way that a glorification or trivialization of such violence expresses or the cruel or inhumane the process in the manner violating human dignity.” (Loose translation provided by Google, since my own German is limited.)<\/p>\n Now, this is utter nonsense because The Image<\/strong> is a mature film aimed at adults based on a published book, and its narrative addresses the psychologies of an increasingly destructive masochistic relationship between three parties. It does feature a finale involving a lot of screaming, but what\u2019s depicted isn\u2019t gory, graphic, or dehumanizing. You just might need some earplugs.<\/p>\n The sense is some overzealous officer imposed his \/ her own conservative sensibilities on a 40 year old movie whose original taboo content \u2013 a blowjob \u2013 was the real shocker in 1974.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the stupidity of the situation: while Metzger\u2019s other and slightly less controversial films are available on amazon.de, so are A Serbian Film<\/strong> (2010) and Human Centipede <\/strong>(2009), and certainly in the case of the latter (which spawned an even more gruesome sequel in 2011), what\u2019s more dehumanizing \u2013 Metzger\u2019s drama showing consensual submissive relationship between three adults, or Centipede<\/strong>\u2019s people who are kidnapped and surgically sewn together mouth-to-arse by a madman, forced to consume the excrement that passes from the rectum of one person to the mouth of the next?<\/p>\n Seems this occurrence in moral narrow-mindedness is proof of the hypocrisies that continue exist for filmmakers and distributors, and plain ridiculousness.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Back in January I reviewed Severin Films\u2019 nice Blu-ray edition of House on Straw Hill \/ aka Expose<\/a><\/strong> (1976), of which the first 3000 copies came with a bonus DVD of David Gregory\u2019s excellent doc Ban the Sadist Videos!<\/a><\/strong> (2005).<\/p>\n Straw Hill<\/strong> was part of a wave of risqu\u00e9 horror films which drew the ire of highly conservative, privileged, and snooty people in Britain who stirred up enough outrage and managed to get the Video Recordings Act passed in 1984 (’tis 30 years old now), after which 72 films deemed depraved were banned.\u00a0That tally was eventually reduced to 39, of which most were eventually released with cuts, and later uncut on DVD and Blu.<\/p>\n Last fall Severin announced a deal to release Jake West\u2019s equally excellent doc Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape <\/strong>(2010) on DVD in North America, replicating the original contents of the Nucleus 3-disc set from Britain, and it\u2019s been well worth the wait for this treasure trove of ephemera, and West’s analysis of the VRA and the way anti-nasties stretched \/ manufactured some facts in a supposedly scientific study to show how kids were already being poisoned by forbidden fruit.<\/p>\n The film production program at my university mandated squandering good money on courses very much irrelevant to the core study of Film, and among them was Man and the Environment and Intro to Psychology. Both required periodic essays, and for one course I crafted an essay which outlined the negative potential effects of kids watching violent TV programs and films.<\/p>\n Anyone with a modicum of imagination and creativity could have fun with existing facts and published theories, and with a little bullshit, present arguments in a convincingly verbose manner. That\u2019s what apparently happened when certain clever conservatives stretched the truth \/ lied to curry the attention and influence of certain MPs.<\/p>\n What can also render bullshit a bit more credible is a series of scandalous events which, when filtered through the shrill prose and lurid images of tabloid news, give the impression that all hell has broken loose.<\/p>\n The video nasties were no different than the shockers released in the U.S. and Canada: we had the same lurid covers that were perused by kids on school lunch breaks (or after school), and many were rented by parents unaware of what lay within that magnetic videotape.<\/p>\n Most were bad qualitatively \u2013 the banned Don\u2019t Go in the Woods<\/strong> (1981) is absolute shit; the wannabe director lost the soundtrack and made do with amateurish dubbing recorded in a sterile room \u2013 but some were genuinely shocking, if not a little wrong, and as some interview subjects recall in West’s doc, having seen a nasty was a badge of honor.\u00a0You survived a brutal shocker. You actually saw the indescribable happen in the vivid colour of VHS (or Beta).<\/p>\n Well, sort of.<\/p>\n When I watched The Burning<\/strong> (1981) with Steve, Brandon and Sal, it was through the cracks in my fingers and maybe a pillow; and when I first saw Alien<\/strong> (1979) with Karolyn, the gory stuff was glimpsed from the images reflected in the glass of my Timex watch. Pure cowardice, but I could say \u2018I saw Alien<\/strong>, and you wouldn\u2019t be-lieve<\/em> how gross it is!\u2019<\/p>\n I talked about scenes I had sort-of seen (I heard the sound, so that have me 50% of the credit, right?) in Mrs. Flazer’s after school craft glass, and it\u2019s kind of amazing she never told me to shut up \u2013 because I really<\/em> went on about the chest-buster sequence and Yaphet Kotto\u2019s intestinal trauma. It\u2019s no different than kids renting the entire run of the Saw<\/strong> series, although again, the shock tends to come from the shit quality of the story and acting, and the increasingly moronic plots, and yet the ease with which the Saw<\/strong> films \u2013 the ultimate pioneering torture porn franchise \u2013 can be rented and watched in a post-VRA world is striking.<\/p>\n One last point: a buddy who used to run his own rental shop in Brampton (R.I.P. Penguin Video) had a diversity of customers, but he recalled one couple who made a point to rent the most graphic horror films for their nephew, a kid who clearly wasn\u2019t crazy about another weekend movie night with his aunt & uncle. The kid didn\u2019t want to see Lamberto Bava\u2019s Demons<\/strong> (1985), but here were adults determined to have fun at the expense of a minor who theoretically couldn\u2019t rent the film on his own.<\/p>\n Supporters of the VRA who believed their act would safeguard kids from disturbing images forgot the one type of person for whom the rules were clearly irrelevant: the adult that doesn\u2019t care<\/em>. In North America, film & video ratings are primarily a guide, charging adults with the responsibility to decide what kids and teens can \/ shouldn\u2019t watch, but at this stage banning and censoring is almost irrelevant when anything goes on cable TV.<\/p>\n Besides, you can pretty much order any shocker online, unless it’s rights issues. For a while Amazon would not ship VCI’s edition of the 1950 A Christmas Carol<\/strong>\u00a0to Canada because Cooke Media owned the Canadian rights, but Joe D’Amato’s Emanuelle in America<\/strong> (1977) was easily available. No Dickens, but snuff was okay.<\/p>\n Apparently the pendulum is swinging a little farther back again in Britain due to some \u201cwell-meaning\u201d legislation meant to upgrade the BBFC\u2019s current classification system and apply more stringent rules to the documentary material that makes the special editions produced by Britain\u2019s indie labels so amazing. <\/span>This isn\u2019t a happy situation<\/a>. Hopefully wise minds will prevail in realizing the destruction of an important section of the home video industry does no one any good.<\/span><\/p>\n In the prior edition of Video Tales<\/a> (plus the related blogs for International Independent Video Store Day, Parts One<\/a>, Two<\/a>, and Three<\/a>) I included some scans of ephemera, and here in Part II I\u2019ve uploaded another scanned rental catalogue from one my old rental shops, Video One, circa the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n The full catalogue will be available as a downloadable PDF file<\/a> for a few weeks this month. Here are some sample pages (note the steady horror content) and original rate sheet (and yes, I\u2019ve more vintage catalogues that\u2019ll be uploaded in time):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n