Cannibal Error is the truly definitive and wholly fascinating chronicling of the Video Nasty phenomena/era. The truly huge tome moves from charting the rise of video culture, to its brief uncensored roll, onto the over-the-top clamp down, and its aftermath. With an in-depth look/analysis of each of the titles on the video nasty list, as well as related stories & documentation. 

The book is a revised, reworked and expanded edition of the year 2000 book See No Evil- pushing this original book's page count up from four hundred pages to nearly six hundred pages. The book comes as either a paperback, E-book or limited-edition hardback, we’re reviewing the first of these.

It’s a fully monochrome affair- bringing together texts, with a fair selection of pictures- taking in video advertising, re-prints of newspaper articles, film stills, and nasty video covers. 

The book opens with an introduction/explanation of the change in its title- basically, the Cannibal films of the ’70s and ’80s were presented by watchdogs & media as a typical example of the video nasty.  As we move into the book, we start off with the chapter Beginnings- this runs at thirty pages, and looks at the fascinating start & development of the Video market in the 70s, with chucks of interviews with those who set up companies/ connected with the video market in the UK.

Moving on we come to the chapter Unease- which looks at the beginning of the backlash to the rather lurid publicity around the horror/ exploration films. With the rise of Mary Whitehouse and the organisation National Viewers And Listeners Association, she set up in the early 1960s. The growing negative/ often untrue/ skewed press around the video market. 

Clampdown (subtitled Privately Funded  By  Individuals And Churches) is the next chapter. Here we look at the Video Recording Act of 1984, which grew out of the Obscene Publications Act.  The drawing up of the first video nasty’s lists, and its initial impact. 

Chapter four is entitled Siege. It looks at both the growth in more lurid cover artwork, and self-censorship by the releasing labels themselves.  The next chapter is the forty-one-paged Black Market & Pirates, and this takes in some of the most fascinating elements of the book- interviews with film collectors who got tangled up with law due to their involvement with films on the list, and as you can imagine many of these are very eye-opening indeed- due to the way people were treated by authorities.

Chapters six and seven of The Big Influence & Sex & Wreaks deal with the press coverage of the time regarding nasties & the often lazy/knee-jerky journalism that tried to blame violent crimes/tragedies on the nasties. As well as the impact of the Video Recording Act as it settled in. You have to read some of these headlines/pieces to truly believe how ridiculous/ panicked certainly factions of the press got. And really the proof is in the pudding- as a lot of the nasties have now been released (often fully uncut), and we haven’t seen a sudden abnormal growth in violent crime….with our streets full of deranged fiends.

The eighth chapter of the book takes in the lion's share of this tome, and it’s entitled The DPP39- running at nearing two hundred and twenty pages. Here we find in-depth & often informative write-ups about each of the thirty-nine films on the video nasty list. With cover artwork & stills- these reviews are fair & often brutally honest, and I very much see them as balanced/ definitive write-ups of these films.

The remainder of the book takes in a series of shorter pieces- for example, two interviews with both independent video distributors & staff from the BBFC.  And a most interesting/worthy look at the release state of the nasties today. 

See No Evil has been a book that I’ve come back to again and again over the years. So, it truly is wonderful to have this new/ improved version of that book. Simply put if you have any interest the video nasties, press manipulation/ government control, and censorship in general, Cannibal Error: Anti-Film Propaganda and the 'Video Nasties' Panic of the 1980s, is a completely must-buy item.  Head here to buy direct from the fine folks at Headpress