Ban the Sadist Videos! explores the controversy surrounding so-called video nasties in 1980's England. Numerous films, including such notorious titles as I Spit on Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, Driller Killer, and The Evil Dead, were banned as obscene during a period of moral panic set off by right wing moralists with help from the corporate media.
Those guilty of producing such films could be subject to fines and/or jail time. Films were confiscated, censored, and banned outright. While some of the films, like Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Ferox, can hardly be anything but condemned for their misogyny, racism, and animal cruelty, the documentary does expose the danger posed by allowing conservative religious zealots the power to decide what one may and may not watch. In their hysteria, films that were largely innocent by any standard were caught up mistakenly in the whirlwind. The Dolly Parton musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, for example, was confiscated in a raid on the mistaken presumption that it was pornographic.
The witch-hunt eventually subsided and many of the films were released either with cuts of without depending on the circumstances. Ban the Sadist Videos! is an interesting look at censorship in horror films from the perspectives of both its proponents and detractors.
3 nasties out of 5
Rated R. Contains violence, nudity, disturbing scenes.
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