The DPP 39: Video Nasties Part 6

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. To view the rest of the series…

Part 1: ‘Absurd’, ‘Anthropophagus’ and ‘Axe’, click here
Part 2: ‘Bay of Blood’, ‘The Beast in Heat’ and ‘Blood Feast’, click here
Part 3: ‘Blood Rites’, ‘Bloody Moon’ and ‘The Burning’, click here
Part 4: ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’, ‘Cannibal Ferox’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, click here
Part 5: ‘The Cannibal Man’, ‘The Devil Hunter’ and ‘Don’t Go in the Woods’, click here

Title: ‘The Driller Killer’ (1980)

Director: Abel Ferrara
Uncut running time: 96 minutes (100 minute ‘pre-release’ version available)
Alternative titles: None

Arguably the film that signalled the start of the video nasties era thanks to its graphic cover art which simply featured a still from the infamous drill through the head scene. This is less an exploitation film, bordering on arthouse territory as it explores the deteriorating mental state of a frustrated artist struggling to make ends meet in a society riddled with violence and decay. It has a lot in common, thematically, with Martin Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’ and gore hounds may find it a little dull. It’s incredibly slow and very gritty, the titular power tool making only a brief appearance during his frenzied killing spree midway through the film.

It was VIPCO who put out a virtually uncut version, missing a single scene of character development, in February 1982, it was pounced upon in July 1983 and remained unavailable until 1999 when a pre-cut version missing 54 seconds of violence was released on VHS by Visual Entertainment. Needless to say it was all culled from the drill murders other than a single scene of Reno and his flatmates entering a nightclub. Since then several uncut versions have been put out in varying degrees of quality since the film slipped into the public domain. Finally Arrow Video got hold of it and, more by luck than design, found a pre-release version with some extra footage (non-violent) which was remastered with new special features and a commentary that didn’t sound like it was recorded in a public toilet!

Current status: Uncut in the UK and US from Arrow Video.

Title: ‘Evilspeak’ (1981)

Director: Eric Weston
Uncut running time: 89 minutes
Alternative titles: ‘Evilspeaks’


Not a bad film which sees a bullied cadet at military school dabble in Satanism to take revenge on his attackers. It’s fair to say that it’s a bit ‘out there’ at times but it is one of the better made ‘nasties’ and stars Clint Howard who was the little lad from ‘Gentle Ben’! What got this into trouble was some pretty good gore effects including some very graphic flesh eating by wild boars as well as the theme of Satanism, much of which was cut when the film was resubmitted following its inevitable ban.

Videospace put this film out uncut in 1983 before resubmitting a pre-cut version, presumably in response to the growing video nasties panic. It didn’t work as both versions were seized and prosecuted in March 1984. Horror classics rereleased it relatively quickly in 1987, but not before more than three and a half minutes was removed, including a gory checklist of a head chop, neck break, bovine intestinal feasting, nail in the head, more beheadings and a heart being ripped out. Also missing was some satanic text on a computer screen. This version was released on DVD a couple of times before a shortened version (all gore intact) was released by Anchor Bay and 88 films along with a composite cut, the shortened version containing the director’s commentary.

It didn’t fare much better in the US where an ‘R’ rated version was passed missing just under three and a half minutes before the dependable Shout! Factory released it uncut in 2014

Current status: Available in the UK uncut on 88 Films and in the US uncut on Shout! Factory.

Title: Expose (1975)

Director: James Kenelm Clarke
Uncut running time: 84 minutes
Alternative title: ‘House on Straw Hill’, ‘Trauma’


Here’s another one that I know very little about having not seen it but I do know that the plot sees a reclusive writer become involved in a rape revenge situation where his secretary is attacked and kills her assailants. She then has sex with our scribe’s estranged wife before he is killed in a car crash and his wife murdered in the shower…it certainly sounds interesting! It’s got a decent cast headed by Udo Kier and was remade in 2010 directed by Martin Kemp.

This movie has never seen an uncut release in UK cinemas with three minutes missing from its original theatrical release, including around a minute and a half of pre cuts. The main problem has always been the rape scene and its associated sexual violence although an uncut version was released by Intervision in 1980 before it was prosecuted in March 1984. Cut by just under a minute for its 1997 re-release on VHS, mainly for cuts to the rape scene and the shower scene (the BBFC have always had a problem with blood on breasts) this is the same version that has persisted on DVD to this day.

Current status: Available on Village DVD in the UK, cut by 51 seconds, uncut on Severin under its alternate title ‘House on Straw Hill’ in the US