David Gregory is one of the great horror film documentarians
of our time. A director of several
behind-the-scenes DVD special features, he has been entertaining and informing for
decades, giving us in-depth documentaries on some of the most popular horror
movies ever made. With Ban the Sadist
Videos, Gregory gives us a comprehensive look at Britain’s crackdown on horror
videos in the ‘80s.
Gregory begins with a glimpse of just how wide open the
video market was in the early ‘80s.
Since the major studios were a little slow on the uptake, independent
companies were able to flood the market with exploitation titles like Last
House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave, and Cannibal Holocaust. Video stores were practically everywhere at
the time, so these films were readily available to just about anyone. Soon, moral crusaders took it upon themselves
to ban the movies in an effort to “save the children”. This led to a government crackdown on violent
videos and police raids on mom and pop video stores, which gave the videos
instant worldwide notoriety.
In America, we didn’t have this sort of hubbub. Our battle was mostly with the MPAA who cut
out all the nasty bits before the movie could even be released. As a Yank, I found this documentary to be
highly informative, but the real reason to see it is for all the cool archive
footage of the old video stores and seeing goriest snippets of the films in
question. I also enjoyed the interviews
with filmmakers like Jess Franco, Wes Craven, and Dario Argento, who talk about
how it feels to have your work censored.
I just wish there was more footage of them because most of the directors
interviewed take the censorship kind of personally.
No comments:
Post a Comment