‘Video nasties’... a quarter of a Century on, the very words still chill the blood. After all, Snuff was a genuine “snuff” film, wasn’t it? People were really eaten in cannibal films, weren’t they? The judge in the James Bulger murder case specifically linked this notorious crime to the film Child’s Play 3, didn’t he? Hungerford killer Michael Ryan was obsessed with Rambo, right?
As it happens, the answer to all of these questions and scores of similar ones is a resounding “no.” Now it can be revealed how kids went “crazy over death for kicks videos” (some of which didn’t even exist)... what really happens when you burn your “video nasties”... how the Daily Star dreamed up an unholy alliance of paedophiles, the IRA, Colonel Gadaffi and Argentina’s military rulers... how, not to be outdone, The Guardian came up with a bogus “snuff movie” exclusive... how Burt Reynolds, Dolly Parton and Lassie became “nasty” stars... and how people killed themselves because they’d seen The Deer Hunter - several years before Michael Cimino actually shot it!