NASTY PIECE OF WORK

BAN VIDEO SADISM NOW!” screamed the cover of the Daily Mail in July 1983, at the height of the furore over so-called “video nasties”. With home video in its early days, not subject to any official control, enterprising independent labels coined it in distributing low-budget horror films using the twin draws of gruesome gore and lurid cover art.

The ensuing moral panic saw a total of 72 films at one time or another deemed liable to contravene the Obscene Publications Act, and placed on a list by the Director of Public Prosecutions, putting them at risk of seizure by the police. In 1984, legislation was passed requiring all videos to be officially certified.

takes place the following year, when the British Board of Film Classification became responsible for awarding those certificates. It centres on one of the examiners tasked with the job: Enid (Niamh Algar), whose tragic backstory makes her especially