Censorship, in all of its manic misguided fervor, is documented and skewered in Cannibal Error, an exhaustive tome by David Kerekes and David Slater. Cannibal Error presents the history of the UK’s home video business in the 1970s and 1980s all the way through the notorious times of the Video Nasty.
Now, most horror fans have seen their fair share of Video Nasties. They’re easy to access on streaming services or physical media. But in the 1980s, movies like The Evil Dead, The Driller Killer, and H.G. Lewis’s ridiculously campy Blood Feast were excoriated in the British press as mind-altering pieces of excrement that no one, particularly children, should be allowed to see. Public outrage was fueled by Mary Whitehead, the living embodiment of the “won’t someone please think of the children” mindset, and British legislators. In 1984, the Video Recording Act was passed, strongly condemning movies with adult content and gratuitous sex and violence. Copies of those “depraved” films were seized from video shops.
Kerekes and Slater document the frenzy of that time when any crime was blamed on the influence of movies. Rapists said they got the idea for their crimes after watching I Spit On Your Grave. Even more mainstream films caught flak. First Blood was called out for inspiring murders, even those committed by people who may not have seen the movie.
Included in Cannibal Error are interviews and comments from people who were involved in the tape trading black market during that time. Harrowing accounts of police harassment and property seizures are shockingly relevant in the 21st century. They’re still banning books in the US because why not place creativity in a box?
[Author’s Note: Maybe don’t watch the trailers for these Video Nasties at work.]
Fans of the era will appreciate the inclusion of a list of the 39 Video Nasties, lovingly and humorously described by Kerekes and Slater. Their entry on the still controversial Cannibal Holocaust is particularly incisive with the authors wondering “why one scene should be cut and another left intact.” That’s a good point. Why are some images fine for an audience to see but others are not?
Interviews with members of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) help shed light on the editing and rating process. There’s more of an emphasis on the context of violent scenes now than there was in the 1980s. Reading how the mindset of the BBFC has changed and how it has remained the same makes for fascinating reading.
Cannibal Error is dense, nearly 600 pages long, and packed with information. Far from being dry or academic, Kerekes and Slater infuse the book with caustic humor and a sense of disdain. “Look at how silly all of this was,” they seem to say. “All this fuss over movies.”
However, people will always find something to be angry about. Egged on by social media or a sense of entitled outrage, the environment that spawned the Video Nasty era could arise again. Cannibal Error serves as both a history book and a warning. If the sentinels of public morality can come for celebrated director Andrzej Zulawski (Possession), they can come for anyone.
Cannibal Error by David Kerekes and David Slater is a reworked and revised edition of See No Evil, which was published by Headpress in 2000. Cannibal Error can be purchased wherever books are sold, including directly from Headpress.