The DPP 39: Video Nasties Part 2

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’) Six of the titles begin with the letter ‘B’, here are the first three!

Title: ‘A Bay of Blood’ (1972)

Director: Mario Bava

Uncut running time: 84 minutes

Alternative titles: ‘Bloodbath’, ‘Twitch of the Death Nerve’, ‘Carnage’, ‘The Ecology of a Crime’, ‘Last House on the Left Part 2’, ‘Reazione a Cartena’, ‘Antefatto’, ‘New House on the Left’

Arguably the very first ‘slasher’ film this bizarre effort from horror legend Mario Bava plays a lot like a gory version of ‘Ten Little Indians’ with pretty much every character a suspect AND a victim. Lots of highly inventive and gruesome deaths, all involving weapons to be utilised in future slasher films including a knife, spear, hook, machete and a noose! You can see its influence, particularly on the ‘Friday 13^th’ franchise, in later films.

It didn’t start well for Bava’s film, refused a UK cinema certificate in 1972, it was released by Hokushin as ‘Blood Bath’ in February 1983, surviving for an entire year before it was seized and prosecuted in March 1984. It was a decade before Redemption Video tried to release an uncut version under its ‘Bay of Blood’ title, managing to distribute a version which was missing 43 seconds. Cuts included a throat slitting, machete in the head and two impalements by spear. Arrow video finally managed to get it passed uncut in 2011.

It’s difficult to say how many versions there are as it is almost impossible to keep up with the number of alternate titles!

Current status: Uncut in the UK since 2011 on Arrow video, uncut in the US on Kino

Title: ‘The Beast in Heat (1977)

Director: Luigi Batzella

Uncut running time: 86 minutes

Alternative titles: ‘SS Hell Camp’, ‘SS Experiment Part 2’, ‘La Bestia in Calore’, ‘Horrifying Experiments of the SS Last Days’

One of the harder nasties to get hold off, the original VHS release can fetch hundreds of pounds on eBay and is highly collectible. I’ve not had the ‘pleasure’ of this film but apparently it has something to do with a female SS officer who somehow creates a sex-crazed manbeast which she uses to rape and torture female prisoners by feeding it aphrodisiacs! An odd entry to the subgenre of Nazi exploitation which has never been something of particular interst to me but was strangely popular in the late 70s.

There’s not much of a history to this one, with no cinema release it was brought out on VHS through JVI completely uncut. Needless to say this was quickly seized during the moral panic in October 1983 and remained on the DPP list throughout. Nobody has even attempted to get this past the censors, no doubt because they would have little chance of a coherent release but also because there simply isn’t much an appetite for this kind of film anymore…certainly not in the form it would likely be released.

Current status: Banned in the UK, uncut on Full Moon and Exploitation in the US under the name ‘SS Hell Camp’.

Title: Blood Feast (1963)

Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Uncut running time: 67 minutes

Alternative titles: ‘Egyptian Blood Feast’, ‘Feast of Flesh’

The oldest of the video nasties, this wonderfully bad film is incredibly amateurish but the first of its type. Introducing the world to the splatter film, an insane caterer is commissioned to produce an Egyptian feast, the client unaware that he intends to resurrect an ancient Goddess by laying on a buffet of human flesh – see my more in depth review by clicking here.

Released by Astra in 1982 it was prosecuted in July 1983 and remained on the list throughout. A slightly silly decision as, yes, gruesome though it is it clearly has its tongue placed firmly in its cheek and with, quite frankly terrible special effects that have the potential to offend no one! This makes the decision to remove 23 seconds for its Tartan release in 2001 even more ridiculous; it would have been passed uncut were it not for a successful prosecution at some point within the previous ten years – a genuine law!!! Finally passed uncut for Odeon DVD in 2005 with everyone who bought it, though undoubtedly entertained, wondering what all the fuss was about.

Current status: Uncut in the UK as part of Arrow’s ‘Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast’ uncut and unrated in the US as part of the Blood Trilogy.