The DPP 39: Video Nasties Part 4

In 1984, the Video Recordings Act ushered in a terrifying new era in UK home video entertainment.  The regulation and subsequent censorship of home videos by the British Board of Film Classification led to a number of films being seized by the authorities and prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. In total, 39 of these films were successfully prosecuted, over the coming months The Horror Video will look very briefly at the release history of each film and its current status. We’ve already covered the A’s (click here to check out ‘Absurd’, ‘Anthropophagus’ and ‘Axe’), here for the first half of the ‘B’s (click here for ‘Bay of Blood’, ‘The Beast in Heat’ and ‘Blood Feast’) and here for the second half (click here for ‘Blood Rites’, ‘Bloody Moon’ and ‘The Burning’). Now onto the Cs and we enter the bizarre sub-genre of the cannibal movies!

Title: ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’ (1980)

Director: Antonio Margheriti
Uncut running time: 96 minutes
Alternative titles: ‘Invasion of the Flesh Hunters’, ‘Slaughterers’, ‘The Cannibals in the Streets’, ‘Savage Apocalypse’, ‘Apocalisse Domani’

This is an interesting one as it plays more like a zombie film than its cannibal cousin in that the flesh eaters in question are infected rather than dead. Viewed as a reaction to the Vietnam War, a veteran returns suffering from a strange condition that makes him prone to moments of rage and attacks during which he bites his victims. As much a comment on the horrors and chemicals veterans were exposed to during that conflict as it is a reflection of their mental health and feelings of isolation about what they saw or were made to do, it works very well as both. Very gory with some effective set pieces, most notably the flesh eating and standout gunshot wounds.

Released uncut on VHS by Replay it fell foul of the authorities, probably more by association with other cannibal films than by content and was added to the DPP list in July 1983 where it remained until 2005. Cinema Club submitted an uncut version to the BBFC who demanded just two seconds of cuts (a rat being set on fire by a flamethrower). The same version was released on Optimum DVD and it has been screened on the UK Horror Channel in its prime time 9pm slot.

Current status: Cut by 2 seconds on UK DVD since 2005, uncut in the US since 2002 on Image.

Title: ‘Cannibal Ferox’ (1981)

Director: Umberto Lenzi
Uncut running time: 93 minutes
Alternative titles: ‘Make then Die Slowly’, ‘Let the Die Slowly’, ‘Woman from Deep River’, ‘Cannibal Feroz’

Where to start with this one! At least ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ has something to say, this one is genuinely nasty and deserve its status as perhaps the most banned film in film history. Lacking any kind of social comment it features three friends who encounter two men being hunted by a tribe who are after revenge after the duo subjected them to torture and rape. Terrible acting and very cheap looking it is incredibly gruesome, including a great deal of sexual violence and genuine animal cruelty which often leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Amazingly, this was available uncut in the UK when Replay put it out in August 1982 but it was swiftly withdrawn before a BBFC-approved version with almost seven minutes of cuts was released just a month later! Within a year the cut and uncut versions were both prosecuted and the movie didn’t see the light of day until the year 2000 when VIPCO brought it out of retirement. True to form it was a lazy attempt, submitting the version already missing seven minutes, the BBFC still insisted on a further 6 seconds of animal cruelty cuts. No further attempts have been made to release the film and it’s not difficult to see why with a blend of flesh eating, sexual violence and animal cruelty – the BBFC would never go for it!

Current status: Unavailable in the UK due to deletion of VIPCO release cut by 6m 57s, uncut and unrated on Grindhouse blu ray.

Title: Cannibal Holocaust (1979)

Director: Ruggero Deodato
Uncut running time: 95 minutes
Alternative title: ‘Cannibal Massaker’, ‘Holocausto Cannibal’

As divisive a movie as you could find, critics dismiss it as exploitative trash as often as they praise it for its social comment and absolute realism – don’t forget the makers of this film were prosecuted by the Italian courts who genuinely believed the actors were killed! The bulk of the film is found footage from a group of documentarians who went missing in the Amazon whilst making a film about local tribes. What they find is a barbaric attempt to portray the tribesmen as brutal savages, instead showing themselves to be the aggressors who have the tables fatally turned. Incredibly powerful, possibly too much so, it’s very tough to watch yet difficult to tear yourself away from. You’re left feeling like you need to take a shower after watching it and hating yourself for that voice in your head telling you that what you’ve seen is an incredible piece of cinema.

It’s never seen an uncut UK release after Go Video put out a pre-cut version in February 1982. It lasted less than five months before it was seized, prosecuted and locked up. VIPCO did a predictably bad job of releasing it in 2001, suffering from 5m 44s of cuts, largely to the flesh eating and animal cruelty although, just like abortive attempts to censor ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, it did little to dampen the overall tone of the film. That could have been in the back of the BBFC’s collective minds when Shameless managed to get it past the censors with just 15 seconds of cuts, restoring all of the flesh eating and even most of the animal violence, just one scene involving a Coati suffering any cuts. They also presented a new edit approved by Deodato that removes most of the animal violence, apparently tinged by guilt at the footage he filmed – this version was passed uncut. It has to be said that there is usually an outcry amongst the horror community when a cut version is released but hats off to Shameless, they put out a version that I never thought would get past the UK censors. Click here for my full review of this movie.

Current status: Available on Shameless in the UK missing 15 seconds with Deodato’s new edit passed uncut, both versions uncut in the US on Grindhouse.