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Trash or treasure is a wide-ranging historical study of the British circulation of the video nasties - a term that was originally coined in order to ban a group of horror videos in Britain in the 1980s. Through an exploration of the range of historical materials, the book examines how this unusual genre category was formulated in a particular context and then used (for different reasons) by moral campaigners, distributors, critics and fans.
By examining the discourses that inform the circulation of a group of banned films, the book argues that censorship is not just about rules and regulations, but also about the discourses that generate censorship, and the cultural and commercial consequences of a censorship act or law.
The book will be of great interest to lecturers and students of film and popular culture, as well as enthusiasts of horror films and those interested in film censorship debates.
Introduction: the video nasties and the consequences of censorship. Producing the nasties
1. The British art of policing cultural boundaries: the legacy of British horror film reviewing
2. Reconsidering ‘the plague years’: the marketing of the video nasties
3. A ‘real horror show’: the video nasty press campaign. Cults, collectors and cultural memory
4. Mapping out the territory of a fan culture: video nasties and the British horror magazine
5. Facts, lists and memories: ‘masculine’ identities and video nasty websites
6. The celebration of a ‘proper product’: exploring video collecting through the video nasties Re-releases and re-evaluations
7. Previously banned: remarketing the nasties as retro products
8. Low or high? Film Four, film festivals and the nasties
Conclusion: the nasties, British film culture and cross-cultural reception