Episode Twentythree - Video Nasties

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater … H-O-T … your “hot” horror podcast! Today is all about the "video nasty" phenomenon that swept through Britain in the 1980s.

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Graphics by Jacob Hedges

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theatre H O T, your hot horror podcast. This is Paul. And Cody and I are going to come at you today talking about censorship. And specifically talking about a period in British history where they got all up in arms about so-called video nasties. And that's going to be uh really fun to talk about here in just a minute. I was kind of adjacently aware of this topic, um, but never really did a deep dive on it. And as I did that deep dive this week, I just found out some fascinating things, and I'm immensely interested in in this. And I hope y'all all are too. It's gonna be it's gonna be fun. But real quick, let's do this day in horror history. Late on, Paul. Today is the release date of Chopping Mall. Chopping Mall? That's an old classic, isn't it? Yes, sir. Yes, I'm gonna do it. I watched Chopping Mall maybe last year, maybe two years ago. So it hasn't been too terribly long since I watched it. But there was definitely a trend in the 80s of um like technology being the horror, you know. And Chopping Mall was one of those. Is that just being kind of that future kind of what's around the corner field? I think so. I think the 80s were kind of future obsessed, right? You know, and uh I remember another one, I think it was called Class of 1999, where the teachers were robots. Oh but the robots like go crazy and terrorize the students. Is it a comedy kind of yeah? That one was kind of comedy horror. But yeah, so I think you could lump that in with Chopping Mall. Okay, and movies like that. Gotcha. But Chopping Mall was great fun. It is a really fun movie. Yeah, I think that one is a blast. Man, it's good to hear that one. I haven't thought about chopping mall. Thank you. Wow, and there's some good Scream Queens in that. Um, I think Barbara Crampton's in that, I think. And Linnea Quigley, I think. Yes, I know she is for sure. Yeah, anyway, but it's it's there's there's big name uh actresses in that. Yeah, yeah, and that's a good one. It is for those of the of you that don't know. Um there's a mall that has robots as their anti-theft prevention team. And these are not like humanoid robots, these are like what was that robots? What was that show where you would like build your own robot and then make the robots fight each other? Robot wars. Robot wars, yeah. So these are like robots off of robot wars, Johnny number five. Yeah, and so then uh uh these teenagers basically lock themselves in the mall overnight for shenanigans, for the sake of shenanigans, and the the robots kick in and say, Hey, you're not supposed to be here. So uh if you haven't seen it, it's super fun, yeah, super fun movie. It's not gonna scare your pants off. It's got some good gore, and obviously it's all practical, um, but you'll have a blast watching it, I promise you. If you bring that kind of attitude, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So uh let's get to the rewatch segment here. Cody, you mentioned to me that you've been sick all week, and so that you got to re-watch tons.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

I got to re-watch tons. I'm gonna there's one I'm pretty sure you haven't seen. The first one I'm gonna talk about, I rewatched uh Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I wanted, I I do love this movie uh maybe for different reasons than you do. I wanted to ask you this because I was really, really young when this movie came out, and not calling you old or nothing, but I could imagine being such a huge fan of that first one, and then oh, the second one, even that because I went back and I watched the trailer and it doesn't have a comedic feel to it. And this movie is more comedy than horror to me. Absolutely. So, how did it feel going into this going, oh, what did I just watch? That's the main question I have for you on that movie.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah, well, I don't remember like the public reaction. I don't think I was old enough to be aware of that. For me personally, I do remember being surprised by how different it was. Good surprise. But good surprise, yeah. I I love part two. Um I don't want to say more than the first, but I think I love them equally, but just for different reasons.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah, and they're two could be two different kinds of horror movies.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

So I don't know what Toby was trying to go with.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Like Well, I've heard him say that when he made the first one, he thought he was making a comedy. And when people didn't take it as such after it came out, he I wonder how he thought that film. Like I know you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

I know, I know. He's got so he really went out his way to make sure people got exactly okay. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Okay. I think he's just got a really twisted sense of humanity. Probably we love him for it, though. We do love him for it, but but I think that yeah, he he was his the first film was, in his opinion, the first film was misunderstood.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Wow, I I I uh next time I watch it, I'll have to go in thinking this is a comedy. I don't think it'll work for me though. Okay, second movie, really quick. I don't think you've seen it. If you have, let me know. 2015 Lumberjack Man. No. And this movie, it's a seasonal movie for me because it takes place during springtime, but it's uh the story of a lumberjack uh revenge story back in like the 30s. This it's it's over the top goofy, over the top kills, boobs. But this guy gets killed because of his pancake recipe, and it's lit, and that it's a Catholic church. Oh my god. And every 30 years he gets to come back and kill for a couple of days, but he kills for the blood to put on his pancakes. What? And it is Michael Madison's in it, um, Adam Sessler from Attack of the Gang's in it. Yeah, it is so fun, dude. Oh, but it's like a trauma film. There are gore, gore, gore, but boobs, boobs, boobs, over practical kills, yeah. Which just it's this lumbering lumberjack, Dingman. It's fun, man. It is such a fun movie. I really right now's the time to watch it.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

I have not heard of this at all, but it sounds like uh when you say trauma, that gives that really lets me know what you're getting into. Yeah, okay. For sure, for sure. So, what about you? Um, I didn't re-watch anything. Uh, I watched two films that I hadn't seen before. One of them I'm gonna save for the video nasties segment because it was a video nasty. Save it for the nasties, the other one is a little movie I saw in the theater called Scream 7. Oh, yeah, let's hear it. Yeah, so I did go see it. And spoilers or none? Uh no, I won't I won't spoil it. I will say just a couple quick things. Number one, I don't know what people are complaining about. I thought it was fantastic. Love to hear that, dude. Um, number two. Because the reviews have been yeah, uh, don't listen to the reviews. Never do. That's our motto here on make your own review. Yeah. Um number two, I would say, is it's probably the scariest of the scream movies. Out of more than one? Yeah. This one is pretty devoid of humor. Whereas, you know, one is one is scary, one is a bloodbath, yeah, but one is also funny. Right. This one is not so funny. They take that out, and it's more is that intentional? I think so. I think so. I think it's more of a serious slasher. Dude, maybe I need to go watch it then? Yeah, I would. I definitely would. I think it was worth seeing on the big screen. Um, it's really good. I would say it's probably if you take all seven movies, I'd say this one probably makes the top three. Wow, that is saying something in this franchise. I got high praise for it. I'm I'm again, don't listen to the reviews. It it was good. And Sydney makes her triumphant return from this one good. She's the main character in this movie in this movie. She's not just here for fan service. Like she's she's the main character. I'd like to hear that. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll check it out. Yeah, I it was great. Um, so yeah, so the other movie I watched was was a certified video nasty. Uh, I went and looked at the list, and I specifically picked out one that A, I hadn't seen, and B, was supposed to be one of the more outrageous. Well, I hope it made my list too. You want to get into it right now or save it? Let's yeah, let's go. I'll I'll get into that particular movie here in a minute, but let's get into video nasty.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Let's do it. And can you mind if I kind of break that down? Please do. The term video nasty refers to a group of low budget horror exploitation films that were banned or heavily censored in the UK during the early 1980s under the Video Recordings Act in 1984. These films were considered exclusively violent, disturbing, or morally corrupting at the time, especially because they were widely available on VHS without regulations.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

That's correct. That's a perfect definition of it. I found a fantastic documentary on YouTube. I did too. And it's British produced, so it's it's not like the American view of what was going on in Britain. It this is their story, this is them telling their story, and it was fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Is it called Video Nasties, The Moral Panic Censorship, and Videotape? That's what I saw. This one was different.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

It was I think it was called um, I think it was called like Ban That Movie or something like that. So there's two of them, nice. Oh, I'm sure there's multiple versions of it, but yeah. Um, so just real quick, you defined it, but how did this come about? And that's what I think is really, really interesting. So, real quick, I'm just gonna give you my notes here. Uh, in the late 70s, early 80s, there was huge amounts of unemployment in the UK because factories and mines were closing left and right as life became more urban. And so there was all these people who, for you know, their whole uh adult life had been either working in the factory or working in the mine. Now they found themselves unemployed, but they found themselves with severance check. And VHS was a brand new medium at the time. And a lot of these uh people with severance money, they opened videotape rental stores. Okay. This was a a new thing at the time, probably a sure way to make money, too. And a sure way to make money, and it the the the industry, the tape renting industry exploded like overnight in England. Um here's what was interesting though, is because VHS was brand new, um, there was a loophole that they didn't have to be classified in the same way that uh films shown in the cinema or films shown on the BBC had to be classified. Right. So there was no censorship censorship on VHS tapes uh at the time. And so that's where the story really begins. Okay. Uh this guy named Peter Chippendale, who was a writer for the Sunday Times in England, he went to a video trade show and came back and wrote an article about what he called quote unquote video nasties being available on VHS. So he coined the turn. So I just wanted to shout him out, Peter Chippendale. Uh and then the legitimate film studios, like the Warner Brothers and the Disneys and all then, they felt that their brand would be tarnished or contaminated by sharing shelf space with these video nasties. This one guy, specifically on the on the documentary, came on and said, Oh, I went to the video store and Mary Poppins was on the shelf right next to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And so, you know, Disney was like, Well, we can't have that, right? You know. Um, the other thing was because they were totally unregulated, and because, as you mentioned, these films were low budget, a lot of them didn't have big studio money behind them, a lot of them didn't have directors or actors that people were familiar with. So the whoever was in charge of the cover art for these VHS boxes thought the best way to get people to choose that movie off the shelf was to have the most salacious cover. Yeah. So they had these crazy covers. Um, there was a lady named Mary Whitehouse, and she took up the cause calling for new laws to keep these films out of the hands of children. That was her stated aim.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Now, whether that was really what she was trying to do, you know, we don't know. Because we can get it. Yes, exactly. And we can get into the whole censorship thing here in a minute. But that was what she said. She came out and said, basically, think about the children, is what she said.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

So we've got that. I'm gonna ask you, I've got questions here, and I got me a little list. I want to ask you, what would make a film a video nasty? I'm glad you asked that.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

What they ultimately uh what it ultimately came down to was the I think they got Scotland Yard involved in the whole nine yards. But there was an old law, I think it was they said it was from 1959, and it was about you know what's decent and acceptable. And they defined it as does it deprave and or corrupt? So if they if they decided that it had the ability to deprave or corrupt the viewer, that's every horror movie. It was a video nasty, and herein lies the problem because now we're talking about something that's completely subjective. It is, and what is depraved and corrupt in one person's eye is not going to be to the next in the next person's eyes, yeah. So therein lies the real issue. Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So I would I put that they were looking for that graphic gourd, the violence, sexual violence to disturbing themes, and it was usually low budget exploitation style. Yeah, yeah, and a lot of it was imported from Italy or the US.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Yeah. So yep. And the one I watched that I want to talk about is an Italian film. But I will say that it's not a Giallo. We talked about Giallo once before on the show, and um this was uh this didn't have the marks of a of a Giallo, but it but it was an Italian film, and we'll get into that here in a second. What else you got? I've I've got a long list of ones that I found because I think of the actual video analysis. Yes. Yeah, I don't want to I I want to name them, but not quite yet. Okay. We'll we'll get into that list here in a second. Okay. So the issue that arises when you're saying think about the kids, you know, Mary Whitehouse says, think about the children. The issue that arises, at least for us who are fans of horror, is what's the counterargument to that? How do you come out on the right side of history, you know, when your opponent is saying, well, you gotta think about the children? Right. Well, how do I how do I uh, you know, how am I a proponent for horror without sounding like I'm anti-kids? You know, that's that's that's ridiculous. They paint you in a bad light, doesn't it? And then the other thing I think they were trying to do. That's exactly what they were trying to do, let's face it. Um The other thing is they would, I guess they would say, Have you seen it? And if you said, No, I haven't seen it, they'd say, Well, how can you pass judgment on it if you haven't seen it? But then they would say, Have you seen it? And if you said, Yes, I have seen it, then they would say, Oh, so it's okay for you to watch it, but you want you don't want to let anyone else watch it.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

So, like they had you, like you said, they had you painted into a corner. Um, there was no way to win.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

It wasn't. And and an interesting twist twist, and I found this researching a lot of these films were banned more because of media hysteria than actual content. Today, many are widely available, some even praise for creativity and the influence. Yeah, some of the directors will talk West Cravens on this list, uh, multiple times. And it really solidified him, I think. Um doing this, I think it's helped whore more than they ever thought. If they could have known, they probably wouldn't have done this because it makes you want to see these movies. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Absolutely. I think it this has really helped whore. They did everyone a favor, yeah, they did is essentially what happened. No, I totally agree. Um, Margaret Thatcher, when she was prime minister, she took up Mary Whitehouse's cause and um she said, Yeah, let's let's start a war essentially against these video nasties. And that's exactly what happened. Um but here's something else that's interesting. The media in in the UK saw this whole war on video nasties as an opportunity to shift the blame for all of society's problems, and put it right there on whore.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yep, exactly. Yep, because they did the same thing in the early 90s with video games.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, yep. And even lawyers in the UK were um trying to use video nasties like as a way to get their something passed, I'm sure. Well, they were like they're defending criminals and they're trying to uh get acquittals for their for their defendants based on video nasties. Really? Yeah, so there's you know, if if you were if you'd been arrested for on suspicion of rape or murder, and you're being tried in these British courts. Oh well, I watched this movie new or something. Yeah, the lawyer might come up and say, Well, it's not his fault. It was he he watched video nasty.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, I remember there was a case and it was the scream case because uh I think it was some friends kill people and they said, Well, we watch Scream and Cause we watch Scream. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

So that was that was crazy. That was really crazy. And it got so bad. Um back to the does it deprave and corrupt? It got so bad that Scotland Yard got involved and said, Yes, indeed, it does deprave and corrupt. And they gave police forces the authority to seize tapes with that with impunity.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Really?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yeah. So the cops were showing up. If you're a video store owner, I mean how think about the the man behind the counter at our video store when we were kids. You know, I mean, these are like the most harmless people on the right. The cops were showing up confiscating their entire VHS tape collection, and then either finding them or putting them in jail.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

And they're just trying to make a living. You like to start off the show like hard times for everybody. That's crazy, man. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

That is crazy, super crazy, super crazy. So that's when we get to the point of when is censorship overreaching, right? You know, and that's really what this boils down to. When are when have we taken it too far? When that's taking it too far. Yeah, that's taking it too far. And um Evil Dead, you mentioned Sam Raimi, that was one of the main kind of stars of the show, not only because you know it was on the list, but because when they finally took this thing to court, which is inevitably what had to happen, you know, they had to sit down in front of a court and say, we gotta make a decision on these video nasties once and for all. They showed Evil Dead or used Evil Dead as the poster child for all video nasties. They picked it really. Yeah. I wonder if it's because of the rape scene with the tree. Probably, you know. And I think that like the gore is very fake looking, but it's very over the top. You know, I mean I could just think of a couple more that are on my list that I'm surprised they didn't pick. Well For whatever reason, this is the one that they cl clung to. Maybe because it was an American production. I don't know. But Evil Dead was the one that when they went to court, they were like, This, let's let's talk about this movie as an example. I can just see all these. Uh-huh. Well, no, the opposite. Awesome. The jury watched it and said, What's the big deal?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

What are you guys whining about?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

And so the whole thing pretty much fell apart and disappeared overnight. That is now how much should that help people dead? Huge. That had to have been huge for Sam Raimi. But um the British Video Association Association, in the wake of this decision to kind of let video nasties off the hook, they did say, you know what? We will self-censor ourselves from now on. We will go ahead and and and they they submit submitted to the classification system, which is similar to our rated R, PG 13, PG thing. I think they have they call them certificates or certifications, and they're based on an age. So like if it's an R-rated movie, what we would consider an R mate R-rated movie, it had an 18 certificate. So you had to be 18 to watch it as essentially same same thing like the NC17 kind of thing. Yeah. But eventually Parliament did um get involved and say if you want to get your movie released in the UK, you're gonna have to submit to cuts, possibly. And that created a lot of uh alternate versions, like we've talked about. Right. You know, there's a it was a 90-minute film, but now it's only 75-minute long.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Well, most of our favorite horror movies have been created like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah, and a lot of them ended up with multiple titles because they would they would submit it and it would get rejected, then they'd recut it and submit it under a different title. And then it would pass. Or sometimes it wouldn't, and they'd have to do it multiple times. Oh, okay. So, like the movie, so now I want to talk about the movie I watched because it has multiple, multiple, multiple movies. Um so I chose this movie, like I said, I hadn't seen it, and I saw on a list that it was particularly disturbing, so I was like, I gotta watch it.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

And you actually watched the movie. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Okay, oh yeah, and it was free on uh screenbox. Okay, what do you got? It's called Okay, here's all the different titles. The it's an Italian film, the original Italian title is Anthropophagus. Anthrophus, which means um flesh eater. Nice, okay. And it was released under multiple other names. One was called Maneater, okay, one was called uh The Grim Reaper, and the one that I think we got here in America, it was called The Savage Island. Okay, and so those are all the different names for this movie. Gotcha. And I watched it, and uh, first of all, I will say, just as a horror film, it's pretty great. It's a pretty good movie. Um one of the names that said zombie flesh eaters, isn't it? No, that was on the list. Okay, that was on the list. No, this is not a zombie film, this is a cannibal movie. Um as a horror film, and uh and me as a horror fan, I will say if you haven't seen this movie, I have not go check it out. It's good. Um, I will say from the video nasty standpoint, this thing is so low budget and so uh I mean it's an older film, it's just not it's just not believable as far as the effects and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

I'm glad you said that because out of all I watched 10 of these movies out of the list that were the top of them. I watched 10 of them, and out of 10, there's only one, and I was trying to be unbiased where I was seeing from their point of view, like, man, okay, I could understand. There was only one, and the only one that I could go, yeah, this doesn't need to be shown to kids or this really needs to be censored, is one of my favorites, Cannibal Holocaust.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah, I figured that's what you're gonna say. And yeah, Cannibal Holocaust is very realistic, and I agree. Like, like my daughter is 11, going on 12, she's into the screen movies, and I have no problem with her watching the screen movies. But I would not let her watch Cannibal Holocaust, never, not at all. You know, that's something that if she ever wants to watch that, she can make that decision on her own as an adult, right? She's not, I'm not gonna sit down and shove her camera. You gotta watch this, yeah. Definitely not. Um, but like just for instance, there was a there was a scene where one of the guys comes up missing, and the girl's out looking for the guy, and she finds his head in a bucket of water, and it is so clearly a mannequin head. I mean, they didn't even like put any makeup on this thing to try to make it look real. This is a mannequin head very low budget, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah, and there you go.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

This is a mannequin head in a bucket of water, and there's nothing scary about it, right? You know. Um, so that's the kind of thing that they were looking at and saying, this is depraved and corrupting.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

And we have to stop it.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

This right, are you kidding me? You know, I will say I think that this movie made the list for one specific scene. So this guy's a cannibal. He's all these people are trapped on this island with him, and he's you know, trying to hunt them down and eat them one by one. And but there's one of the ladies is pregnant. Oh, see, and so there's a scene where he gets to the pregnant lady and he actually pulls the baby out of her and eats the baby.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

See, that's yeah, that's but again, it's not very realistically. Like you're not seeing, like we I'm thinking of today's standards, we would go, oh my gosh, like in a violent nature kind of kill where you would actually see a fetus.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

You don't see, well, you do see what they want you to believe is a fetus. But there's no like, you know, ripping the torso open and pulling the thing out. It's not like that. It's it's like it's implied that he's and you hear the noises right now. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And but then they do show him with something in his hands, and he bites into it. And I looked up. I looked up what it actually was, it was a rabbit. So they they they used a dead rabbit, they they had a real rabbit that was yeah, dead, yeah, and they had cooked it and then they had covered it in like fake blood. And that's what the guy bites into. But to me, they weren't rebelling against what was actually being shown on screen, they're rebelling against the idea of what we're seeing, right? You know, it's not that it really looked like this poor pregnant lady had her baby ripped out of her and eaten.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

It's the idea that human beings could be like we don't want to give any more influence to to help these sick depreciate people who watch these movies.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Exactly. Okay, I think that's what it was. And I think that again, if that's what we're talking about, then you know, we have to have a whole conversation about censorship. Right. And is it reaching too far? You know, for for I'm not watching real videos of people eating babies, I'm not doing that. Right. But you can't tell me that you have control over what I'm gonna my choice to watch a video that depicts somebody eating a baby. Right, you know. Now, yeah, if I if I'm watching the real thing, then we have a problem. If I'm watching a very obviously fake depiction of it, you know, that's my choice.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Quick question here. What if like I love thinking of the the alternate universe kind of if it would have stuck and they would have won, would we be having this podcast today? Probably. How different would I mean we'd have horror, but what would horror be? What would horror look like? Yeah, if they would have okay, you guys won. We're gonna censor everything down to the dirt. Yeah, have would we have goosebumps whore?

SPEAKER_01 30:47

I yeah, that's a great question. I mean, they they made a distinction on the documentary that I watched. Um, one of the guys he was talking to, he was like, This is not hammer horror. This is way beyond hammer horror, you know. So maybe that's what we're what we'd be talking about. You know, we wouldn't have the in a violent nature like you mentioned, but we'd still have Christopher Lee. We'd still have Christopher Lee as as dragon. Right now, okay. Um, so maybe that's what it would look like. But yeah, I mean, this at this is uh this is not again, I don't want to deprave or corrupt anyone, but at the same time, I don't want anybody telling me what I can and can't watch for my own entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

And just from watching these movies, how horror evolves and has to adapt and it has to keep pushing those limits to to shock audiences to go, man, this is what we have to do. And where does it end?

SPEAKER_01 31:49

I think that was part of their concern is that you know, as we become desensitized, we are men, then they have to push the envelope further. Right. And they do. And they do. And I think that was part of their concern, and I get that, I get that. But um, by their own admission, this lady Mary Whitehouse even came on by her own admit and said, like, I get that we're talking about a tiny, tiny fraction of people who might actually be influenced by what they see.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

And why, though, that would be music. I mean, it could be anything, so it's not just a single out that's the beast. Where does it end? Right. It doesn't. Right. You start censoring everything.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Okay, so I don't have the complete list, I just have a few that were mentioned on the documentary that I watched Evil Dead, which we talked about. Um, you mentioned zombie flesh eaters, that was a big one. Did you get to watch it? I did not, but I've seen the scene.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

There's one scene with an owl eye gouge.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah, I've seen that scene. Okay, and you're like, okay. Because that's a famous scene. But other than that, it's yeah. You mentioned Cannibal Holocaust, um I Spit on Your Grave was one that they singled out quite a bit. Last House on the Left. Last House on the Left. Um, two more on my list that they singled out in on the documentary that I watched. The Driller Killer. Oh, yeah, that's nice. And then this one that I've never even heard of, which is kind of even hard to believe that this exists.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

SS Experiment Camp. That's the movie I just wanted to talk about. It is a crazy. You can watch this on YouTube. Okay, so you have seen these, you go for it. So I'm the first one I want to talk about, SS Experiment Camp. It's about this uh uh lieutenant, some high-ranking guy in the Nazi ranks. He uh gets um what's that called, were your testes neutered pretty much. Oh, okay. And so the very first minute of the film, he's he's getting these American and Nazi women and German women and electrocutinum, but he's wanting to figure out how to do transplants. So he's taking organs from them because his ultimate goal is to get his testes back, and he's trying to figure out how to do transplants.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

He's trying to transplant someone else's manhood back onto himself.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

That's what the whole movie's about.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

It's crazy, dude. So I mean like there's nudity, but again, our we're we're rebelling against the concept, right? Because that sounds ridiculous. That doesn't sound like something that's gonna corrupt me.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

No, and when you watch it, you're like, what were they thinking?

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Like So you actually watched it. Yeah, oh yeah, I watched it. And good, bad, ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

I wouldn't watch it again. Okay, but I mean, it's just like it wasn't horror to me. It's the the idea behind it, it's like those sick Nazis, you know what? I I hate those guys.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

And that's what Wes Craven said. They had they actually interviewed Wes Craven for the documentary, and he said, Who watches these and thinks, oh, that's a good idea? He said, He said, I want you to watch this and think that's a terrible idea. I would never do that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

And a normal person does do that. Right. A normal person does do that. Driller Killer, I didn't. Um it's very punk rock. And it's got this band of punk rock, and they use the band way too much. Uh why it stands out, gritty New York City vibe. Okay. The psychological breakdown equals that violence. It isn't very super graphic at all, but it's just raw. Almost like a um uh uh like you're someone's actually videotaping it, it's a real kind of feel. Like a mockumentary kind of thing. But you watching that, I was like, how did that make the like I didn't get it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

When I when I think of a driller killer, I think of Slumber Party Massacre.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

It's not like yeah, totally different. Totally different that should have made the list.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Uh one I know you have seen, and it made it um Last House on the Left.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

And it's why is it why is it known for it? It's gritty, almost documentary film. It's not uh a fun horror vibe, it's cruelty, and it's inspired by the real-world violence tone. And I could kind of get this one because this movie, there's not a lot of horror movies that make me feel I I I would say that the original Last House on the Left is the most realistic depiction of rape that I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

And it's uncomfortable, and it's very uncomfortable, and it's intended to be very uncomfortable. And when when I watch it and it makes me uncomfortable, then I'm having the appropriate response to it.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Exactly. And that we talked about kids and stuff. I wouldn't let my kid watch this unless she was an adult and I said, I'm gonna warn you, there's stuff on here you're not gonna like. Yeah, and I don't want to watch it with you, but you're an adult now, you can do that on your own.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

I would never even recommend it. If like my if my like I have a 20-year-old daughter, if she came to me and said, like, oh my gosh, dad, I just watched this terrible movie, blah, blah, blah. You know, I would I would probably use it as a teaching moment to say, there's really sicklos out there like that that would want to do these things in their own. Yeah, if you're not careful.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

That is a cautionary tone. Exactly. Absolutely. Uh, another one I know you've seen, I spit on your grave. Yeah. And why is it disturbing? It's extremely long, uncomfortable, assault scenes, raw, mean, spirited tone. It's revenge, it's brutal, but doesn't make it easier to watch. Very mean spirited. That's that's it's more emotionally disturbing than gory.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Yeah. I mean, it's got a lot of blood, but it's like that old red paint blood. Yeah. It's like you you know what you're watching is not real. How how do you feel about that movie? I think it's a classic. I mean, it's that's again, there's the 70s had all these revenge flicks. Exploitation kind of where that was the subgenre that it was hot at the time, you know. And I enjoy them, you know, I enjoy them. But again, you look at these things where it's like this isn't even like corn syrup with red dye in it, this is like red paint.

unknown 37:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

They don't even try to make it look real.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

It doesn't look real at all.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Why do you think they is it just because it's that low budget and they're like, this is what we got, this is what we're working with, or do you think they did it on purpose now?

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Well, I think that that was the best that they either was available to them at the time or the best that they could afford. And so they roll with it. And for anyone to objectionably look at it and say, like, that's crossing a line, that looks too real. Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

That's you're really pushing it. Yeah, you're totally pushing it. You're reaching this. Uh the last one I want to I brought it up, we talked about, but I I'm really wanted to get more to it is cannibal holocaust. Yeah. And to me, this is one of the ones that you could really argue and go, okay, that a lot of people don't need to watch this movie. Yeah. This is one that it feels real, it's shot like real film footage. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

I would I wouldn't say that this crosses the line because it's still um it's still, you know, a piece of entertainment. It's not like an actual snuff film.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Yeah, I think a lot of people thought it was a snuff film. Well, and that's that's why And they didn't we talk, they went to court over this, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:08

That's why this is, in my opinion, the only one on the list where the censors might have a legitimate grid.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Because it was so real seeming. It seemed very real. To the point, like you mentioned, and I think we've talked on the podcast before, they the courts actually demanded that the producer or the director have the stars appear to make sure they were alive in person to prove that they were still alive. That's how realistically. Well, they did use real animal killings, and that that did get them in some hot water. Right. They did actually the turtle. Yeah, they did actually kill some like jungle animals on screen. Is this a movie you go back and rewatch? Is this one that you go, okay, I know? No, I think I saw it, I saw it as a teenager because you know, you hear about these things and you're like, I got it exactly, you know, exactly. And then I think I watched it once, maybe 10 years ago, because I was like, I'm gonna watch it again as a as a full-on adult, you know.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

It did it, it it it did it hit you totally different?

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Not really. Okay, I mean, both times it was kind of just like this is pretty shocking, yeah. But at the same time, it's not real. It's right, it's and you can tell now definitely. Yeah, and on the uh um documentary that I watched, they talked specifically about this movie, and they actually talked to the director of Cannibal Holocaust, and he said he made the movie as an indictment of um journalists at the time, because his he said him and his seven-year-old son would sit and watch the news, and they would show the craziest stuff on the news. Right, that's a good point, man. And he was like, How can the journalists responsibly show this stuff to us on the evening news where my seven-year-old could see it? Right. So he made Cannibal Holocaust kind of as a as an indictment of the journalists, and then he got in trouble, you know, for showing for showing what he should show, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

That's um, I don't know. I just kept thinking about going through all this. Where would we be if that hadn't passed? Yeah, where would honestly as or fans right, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:32

No, I'm it's it's something to definitely ponder, but I but I going back to your initial comment, which is uh this didn't set the genre back, really advanced the genre.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

All right, man. Well, my final take on all of it was that um the truly disturbing ones rely on realism, cruelty, and very taboo topics. I got that. The less disturbing ones got caught in the panic just for being homework at the wrong time. Yeah. And a lot of the fear came from the parents, the media thinking, VHS equals no control.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

And I think that's the my biggest takeaway from all this.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Yeah, I mean, it really was a panic. It really was a uh just a uh state or mentality that got out of control. Right. You know, and that's how it often is, you know. The the American equivalent was just a few years later we had the satanic panic. You know, and it was the same kind of thing as the video nasties. Um but yeah, man, this is this was a super interesting. Will it ever come back, not to interrupt you? No.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

You don't think there's gonna be a movie one day where they go, this cannot be shown?

SPEAKER_01 42:41

No, I think that as a society, we are past that limit. I mean, I'm sure there's some things that are gonna shock even us old whore hounds, but I don't think there's gonna be anything that's gonna cause like an entire nation to panic.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Come and be like, yeah, we've got to stop this.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Yeah, because I think we we really have just kind of too much money in it now, too, though. Isn't everything about money? That's the other thing. It's it's big business, you know. You're not gonna Hollywood's not gonna let that ball stop rolling. No, you know, no way.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Uh what it's sinners. Do you see the Academy Awards and Well that's yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because um that's right on brand with what we're saying right now.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

You know, here we have uh uh a legitimate horror movie that just won four Academy Awards over the weekend. So yeah, they're not gonna pull the plug on that.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

And someone's gonna help it.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Yeah. And uh yeah, what a what an excellent thing as a horror fan to see uh centers with the big win. Michael B. Jordan, best actor, Ryan Kugler, best uh original screenplay, yep, and a couple of other awards. These are big. Awards. For a horror, this is huge. This is massive. Yeah. And congratulations to those guys. Uh and again, if you guys haven't watched centers, do yourself a favor this weekend. It was both of our number one pick for last year, and and uh it just got its flowers. So it's it's well deserved. Well deserved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

So one thing that we didn't talk about beforehand was what are we gonna talk about next week? I have no idea. So y'all get to y'all get to either be surprised by what we talk about next week, or y'all get to listen in right now as we come to a decision on what we're gonna talk about next week. Uh I think we'll just surprise you. Let's surprise them. Everyone has a good surprise. Yes, yes. So all right, y'all. Um, do yourself a favor and do a deep dive on this video nasty thing, because I think you'll be fascinated. I think you'll learn a lot, and I think that you will um come away with a new perspective on censorship. Definitely, I did, uh, for sure, yeah. And um yeah, watch some of these movies. Go go check some of these movies out, and yeah, I mean, be be prepared to be a little shocked, depending on what you choose to watch. But at the same time, I think you're gonna see, like we saw, that what's the big deal? Right, you know, and it really was a case of you know, kind of almost like mob mentality getting the best of people. It was, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

This was a fun one.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

I really enjoyed yeah researching all this. Me too, me too. It was really, really enjoyable. All right, thank y'all for tuning in, and um, oh, one more thing. We have not been getting much traction on Instagram, and I was talking to my 18-year-old daughter about this, and she said, Dad, that's because everyone's on TikTok. TikTok. And so this is TikTok. My daughter has convinced me to start a TikTok page for Haunted Ozark Theater. So either she's gonna show me the ropes or she might even just kind of run it for us. We'll see. Dad, no one's on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

That's exactly what she said. That sounds like a teenage dog.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

She said I'm basically an um for being on we're dinosaurs, dude. Yeah. So um after you listen to this, go look up our TikTok page. I didn't even know this. Okay, cool. Yeah, we're gonna try to get some content up on that. So, all right, y'all. Thanks for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Have a great weekend, guys.