The British Horror Film - Xtro, 'video nasties' and the pleasure of the horror film

Britain has had a long-standing tradition of horror films, particularly throughout the late 1950s to late 70s when British-based studios dominated the global horror market with landmark titles such as Hammer Film Productions' The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - which holds the distinct honour of being the first horror film in colour - and Amicus' Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965); the first in a series of anthology films that would come to an end in 1974. The landscape of British horror consisted of Gothic tales which made the likes of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee every bit as iconic as the monsters that were depicted; and occult folk horrors such as The Wicker Man (1973) and The Blood On Satan's Claw (1971) which melded a rural sense of social realism with sinister horror. 

Despite Britain being a wellspring for the horror genre, censors had a clear disdain for it. For the most part, the censors took issue with horror films coming out of the US but there have been instances where British horror films were held to the same level of scrutiny. For instance, Britain's then chief censor, John Trevalyn had ordered nearly 2 minutes worth of cuts for Witchfinder General (1968) but it wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that 'the most sustained campaign against the genre was to be waged' (Kermode, 2002).

Xtro poster

A small exploitation film called Xtro (1982) emerged from British shores at a time when Hammer's reign had declined and the slasher craze was ever-present in the US. This sci-fi/horror hybrid about the return of a young boy's father after being abducted by aliens left a sour taste in critics' mouths. Donald Guarisco's review called it 'pure trash' while Roger Ebert went as far as to describe it as 'a completely depressing, nihilistic film, an exercise in sadness.' But controversy for the film didn't end there.

 

Upon the advent of VHS technology in the home, a slew of unregulated videotapes began to surface. On these tapes were film titles such as Cannibal Holocaust (1980), The Driller Killer (1979) - which was considered to have been responsible for the Video Recordings Act 1984 - and Evilspeak (1981); films that had not appeared before the BBFC for certification and were considered by concerned parties to have violated the Obscene Publications Act 1959.
Xtro became one of two British titles that made its way onto the 'video nasties' list, though not prosecuted for obscenity like the aforementioned 'nasties', it was banned for a period of time.

Word-of-mouth surrounding these titles ran amok and a cult reputation developed as a response to their lack of availability in the UK. There was a fascination for what extreme contents these tapes may possess - bolstered all the more by the hyperbole of the BBFC. But the genre's standing in Britain wouldn't reach a fever pitch until some tragic circumstances in 1993. That year saw the vicious murder of toddler James Bulger at the hands of two ten-year-old boys. The inspiration for the murder, tabloids said, was none other than horror film Child's Play 3 (1991) - a claim disputed both by the film's director and the local Merseyside police.

As far as the inherent pleasure in horror pictures is concerned; - particularly in the cult appetite for actively seeking out the ‘video nasties’ - it ultimately varies from person to person. Considering the British censors’ backlash against this type of transgressive material, and the tabloid’s fixation on the controversy surrounding it, it’s not hard to see why a Glamour article stating a lack of understanding to the genre’s appeal comes about.   

But articles and studies around the psychological investigations into the pleasure derived from the horror film suggests the genre to be a coping mechanism for anxiety sufferers. This may not explain the cult around the ‘video nasty’ phenomena but it at least suggests not all horror fans are of a ‘perverse’ nature and should go some way to showing that horror films are not always to be scrutinised as a ‘corrupting’ artifact of cinema.

Works Cited: 

Kermode, M. (2002). 'The return of the repressed? British horror's heritage and future'. In Chibnall, S, & Petley, J (Ed.), British Horror Cinema. London: Routledge, p.17.