The Cutprice Guignol

It’s hard to think of a time when people have been more obsessed with horror in the UK than at the height of the video nasties panic in the 1980s.

Horror movies were at the centre of a moral panic, with dozens of films landing on the wrong end of legislation by the BBFC and the 1984 Video Recordings Act and earning near-mythical status amongst horror fans and haters alike. Whether you were one of those concerned members of the public terrified that Driller Killer or Cannibal Holocaust would spread terror, violence, and general degeneracy throughout the land, or one of the degenerates (me) seeking them out, obsessing over horror cinema, at least in the UK, was at an all-time peak.

Which is what makes the era such a perfect backdrop for Video Nasty, a recent Irish horror series written by Hugh Travers. As a ridiculously obsessive horror fan myself, the premise grabbed me as soon as I heard about it: Billy (Justin Daniels Arene) and Con (Cal O’Driscoll) take a surreptitious trip from their native Ireland to a small town in the UK to complete their collection of the video nasties, only to encounter people on the other end of the video nasty scale waiting for them at the other side.

It’s a show that, for me, feels almost nostalgic – not because I grew up in this era (being a young, delicate flower glistening with dew in my personal life), but because I was a teenager who bonded with friends over horror. If, like me, horror took centre-stage in your formative years, the hunt for the unpleasant and the transgressive filling up time when you should have been studying for exams and cleaning your room, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The dick-measuring contests of who can handle the most gore, the sneaking off to someone’s dad’s garage to watch something so unfathomably nasty you can’t risk it in the living room, the breathless sharing of trivia – that kind of passion is hard to put into words, but what Video Nasty captures that effusive adoration and the little communities it forms beautifully. I love the slightly dysfunctional relationship between Billy and Con – that bridge between them, as they grow in different directions, still the horror movies that they both love so much.

But where the show really kicks into high gear to me is how it explores the moral panickers of the video nasty era – represented here by a family slightly more murderous than one might hope, led by the formidable Ethel (Simone Kirby), a concerned citizen who just wants to stop the spread of the fearful influence of the nasties. By killing people. Which certainly does bring the issue to an abrupt halt, I have to give her that.

Kirby is sensational, a soaring villainess in a housecoat and curlers, and Milo Callaghan as her son Joe really deserves to go on to bigger things based on this genuinely imposing and unsettling turn. Video Nasty finds the space to delve into the horror tropes that fill out the movies it’s based around – it never feels too beholden to endless quote shots or tiresome references, but the tone, the look, and the acting is spot-on for the gorefests of the 80s in a way I just can’t resist.

Video Nasty is one for the horror lovers – and it does it by indulging the hate. With that cliffhanger ending, I’m hoping we’re going to get a season two (and hopefully one with a little more budget to really get into the setpieces the next time around), but, in the meantime, I’d love to hear what you make of it in the comments below!

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(header image via Northen Ireland Screen)