Cannibal Error: A Social History Of The ‘video Nasty'.

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.

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 an 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.

Presented by Conway Hall.

This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.