Skip to main content

Cannibal Error: A Social History of the ‘Video Nasty’

Image
By

Moral panic, myth, and the macabre: Video nasties in the 1980s and beyond.

Thursday 21 November 2024

6.30 pm doors. 7 pm start. 

£10 / £7 Concessions Advance Booking

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

Tube: Holborn

London Fortean Email List

When the widespread introduction of the VHS cassette changed the face of home entertainment in the early 1980s, it wasn’t long before video rental store shelves were filled with lurid tapes promising orgies of sex, violence, and terror.

In this talk, authors David Kerekes and Jennifer Wallis explore how the panic over ‘video nasties’ developed: prompting raids and arrests, implicating films in real-life murder cases, and targeting film dealers, distributors, and viewers. They will ask how far policies and campaigns directed at video nasties — not forgetting the marketing of these films — created a mystique and mythology of their own, as fans sought out every tape on the famed video nasty ‘list’ produced by the Director of Public Prosecutions, for example. Indeed, the allure of the video nasty continues today, with collectors snapping up titles for significant sums, and modern horror franchises such as V/H/S drawing on the nostalgic appeal of the VHS era.

David Kerekes is co-author of Cannibal Error: Anti-Film Propaganda and the ‘Video Nasties’ Panic of the 1980s (2024) and founder of Headpress Publishing. 

Jennifer Wallis is a historian, and VHS collector, and Press & Marketing Officer for Headpress.

Hosted by Deborah Hyde of UnCanny. Deborah Hyde wants to know why people believe in weird stuff. She attributes her fascination with the supernatural to having spent her childhood with mad aunties. During the day, she’s a film/TV industry coordinator / production manager who has worked in makeup effects and scenery.



Thursday 21 November 2024

6.30 pm doors. 7 pm start. 

£10 / £7 Concessions Advance Booking

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

Tube: Holborn

London Fortean Email List

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Haunted Landscape 2025: Ghosts, Magic and Lore

By
Whose claws are scratching at the church door? What’s that ghost tumbling over the moor? Who’s that figure cut into the earth? What can I do to lift this curse?  Join us for a legendary trip through the seventh Haunted Landscape, our day of expert talks on British ghosts, magic, and folklore. Photo by Henrik L. on Unsplash The Haunted Landscape: Ghosts, Magic and Lore 22 November 2025 10 am - 5 pm  In advance: Standard £25 / Living Support £17 / Student £21 (inc. £2 venue levy) Advance Tickets Online: £12   (inc. £2 venue levy)  Advance Tickets Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn London Fortean Email List Age Recommendation: All ages. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult. Photo by AJO JOSE on Unsplash E. Jay Gilbert – Ghost Stories and Their Afterlives Mark Norman – The Folklore of Churches and Churchyards Jeremy Harte – The Devil in Church Rachel Poulton – Unseen: In Search of the Sublime and Spirit of Place in the Haunted La...
Post a Comment
Read more

Time-Slips

By
  Time-Slips 26 November 2024 In the early years of the 20th century, two ladies visited the gardens of Versailles. Whilst there, they apparently slipped back in time to the late 18th century. They published a book describing their experience, which in later years was debunked as misperception and hallucination. Case closed. Or is it? There are a plethora of similar contemporary reports of apparent slips through time, from brief glimpses to full interactive experiences. Most reports describe features from the past, but a few describe possible slips forward in time. Dr Ann Winspe r has been researching people apparently travelling through time for the last 20 years. She describes some of these fascinating cases and looks at possible explanations, as well as how not all can be explained through misperception and psychology. Venue: The Bell 50 Middlesex Street E1 7EX (Tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East) Date: 26 November 2024 Doors: 7.30pm Start: 8pm Tickets: £5/£...
9 comments
Read more
By
  *** TUBE STRIKE *** Although the tube strike has been called off, we'd already shifted the date of our next meeting at the Bell, Jeremy Harte speaking on Gypsies and the Supernatural , from Tuesday July 25 to Tuesday August 1 . Please note that we're sticking with this new date.
96 comments
Read more