Box Of The Banned 2 (Box Set) (DVD)

In the first Box Of The Banned, a collection of six of the better known previously banned movies were bought together. For this second in the series, five lesser known titles have been collected for your viewing pleasure.


Movies that offend certain audiences have always been banned; but during the early 1980’s more movies were banned in the UK that at any other time. The birth of video bought a variety of unusual movies to ...
...deserves to be in this box set.

Molly is played by Millie Perkins, who holds the unusual title of being one of the only people in history to appear in a video nasty and receive an Oscar for previous works. In recent years her work has dried up but occasionally appears on U.S. soap The Young And The Restless.


Ban The Sadist Video’s Part 2

This second instalment on the Box Of The Banned box sets ... more

In the first Box Of The Banned, a collection of six of the better known previously banned movies were bought together. For this second in the series, five lesser known titles have been collected for your viewing pleasure.

Movies that offend certain audiences have always been banned; but during the early 1980’s more movies were banned in the UK that at any other time. The birth of video bought a variety of unusual movies to the living rooms of normal everyday people. Most never saw the light of day at the cinemas; but with their carefully artistic covers the video renters of the country were magnetically drawn to these unusual movies.
The broadsheet newspapers were keen to examine the phenomenon and watched a variety of these movies. Having been offended by theses movies and acting as a moral guardian for everyone these newspapers took it upon themselves to raise a campaign to get these movies banned. Their biggest issue was to express that children could access these movies, and what a terrible existence for them this would be. How would they cope with the mental scarring? My answer was then as it is now, if the movies are that bad hide them; and if you don’t like what your seeing turn off.

The result of this witch-hunt bought about a form of censorship that the world had at that time rarely seen. Not only were a few hundred movies taken from our shelves (some have never returned) other innocent titles with similar or identical titles to movies considered offensive; one movie was even completely deleted out of existence by mistake because it shared the same title as another movie, due to be banned.

In the late 1990’s and early years of this century, many of these films were considered less harmful and released back onto the market. For some movies, banning meant they received notoriety that they otherwise may never have seen. For others however the artistic value was never appreciated as they were cut off in their prime; the witch hunt cost careers and in some cases lives.
Interestingly enough over half of all the movies that were banned in the UK came from Italy.

The Contents

Tenebrae

Dario Argento’s ultimate Giallo movie finds a popular American author the victim of a crazed fan.

Pete Neal heads out from New York to Rome to promote his latest novel Tenebrae. Having had a somewhat unusual encounter at the airport before arriving at Rome, Peter is horrified to discover that all his clothes have been slashed to ribbons. Un-phased by the situation Peter gets on with the task he has come to Italy for.

However Peter’s plans are being ruined by the arrival of a serial killer, who seems so fixated with Peter’s writings that they are killing people in similar ways to that of his novels.

Tenebrae is one of my favourite horror tales, its compulsive viewing trying to get to the bottom of who the killer is; and just when you think you have got to the bottom of things the person you suspect turns up dead. One thing is for sure few people correctly identify the killer in this fantastic piece of Italian horror culture.

Tenebrae upset the censors due to some unusual oral sex scenes involving shoes instead of sexual organs. There was also a big issue over the removal of a woman’s arm. The censors believed that similar acts could be carried out at home. And to use the immortal words of Barry Norman “And why not?”

Audio Commentary by someone whose name escapes me, however its interesting enough. The topics include the legendary scene, in which Argento made history by filming 4 different sides of a building in one shot, using a revolutionary crane device,

Tenebrae Theatrical Trailer – This is the European trailer, that we never got to see here in the UK, this makes the movie look thoroughly impressive.

Dario Argento Interview – A subtitles interview with the horror maestro in which he talks with passion about his movie and the response of the audiences.

Contamination

A boat load of coffee arrives at New York Docks; but an accident onboard soon proves that something a little more sinister is behind this arrival. Instead of coffee the crates actually contain what look like giant watermelons. They are in fact eggs, for a disturbing alien life form; these eggs explode on contacts causing death to anyone in the area.

Contamination is a jolly Sci-Fi/Horror tale that on a first viewing is quite exceptional and very fast paced, in fairness however it seems fast paced because its quite a disturbing piece, it keeps you on your toes. I have found however that further viewings and the movie becomes more of a chore than a treat.

Survivors star Ian McCullough a man who’s career was almost destroyed by the video nasty campaign (all of the films he made in a two year period were banned) plays a blinding performance (unintentionally humorous) ; which is unlike anything else I have seen him in. His cries of “HAMILTON” drip of cheese as he recounts an adventure he and a colleague had on an Alien planet.

Special features:
• 'Alien Arrives On Earth': an interview with director/co-writer Luigi Cozzi – This short interview allows the now shop keeper to recall some tales from shooting the movie. They discuss filming permissions (or lack of them), special effects and securing cast members.

• Behind the scenes documentary – Again nice and short, and not really behind the scenes per say, however it does go into a bit of detail about the filming of the movie. But mainly again features bits of footage linked with conversation.

• Poster and stills gallery – Always a pointless addition in my view, I mean who wants to sit through 20 minutes of pictures and posters having watched the movie. If the photographs were in a format that you could use on your PC then I could understand the inclusion but otherwise the presence just baffles me.

• Original theatrical trailer – This shows the movie in its full menacing glory, and I cant overstate the fact that this is a very disturbing film.

• DVD-Rom content: Graphic novel – This is great, put the DVD in your PC and you can see the story in comic book format, this is quite a nice addition I’d like to see addressed more in the future.

• Film notes – Boring text stuff that you have already been told in the movie and the features that have followed before.

• Biographies – A text overview of the lead actors careers as well as the career of Luigi Cozzi.

• Conceptual drawings – A series of images used to design the Aliens, and when planning certain scenes, a nice addition especially to someone interested in budget film-making.

Evilspeak

Ron Howard’s little brother Clint Howard stars as Stanley Coopersmith in this twisted tale of school bullying in a military academy. Stanley is always the brunt of the jokes, and one day this gets too much for him to bear. While considering an exit (suicide) Stanley uncovers a chamber in his school used by a devil worshipper from the 16th century. Immediately Stanley uses 20th century technology and mixes it with the spells found in the chamber to exact his revenge.

Evilspeak got a lot of attention because of a scene involving pigs, in a brutal scene pigs rip a human body apart and it looks 100% genuine, its in fact one of the most graphic scenes I think I’ve ever seen in celluloid history. However with this shocking diversion out of the way the film fouls just slightly above awful. The performances of the cast are terrible, and the storyline is lacking in some serious directional skills.

• Widescreen Presentation (1.77:1) enhanced for widescreen TVs – I know these seems like a strange thing to mention; but the movie had never been seen in Widescreen even when shown at the cinema.

• Audio Commentary with Writer, Producer, Director Eric Weston and Star Clint Howard – A nice audio commentary which is actually a lot better than the film itself. They talk about the stresses of work, the horrific pig scene and the storyline in general.

• Theatrical Trailer – The theatrical trailer paints quite a different picture of the movie from the reality.

• Poster and Stills Gallery – I’ve moaned about this before, I wont bore you with my views again on this one.

• Biographies of Clint Howard and R. G. Armstrong – Text biographies as usual, nothing special, nothing interesting.

Don’t Go Near The Park

As if Evilspeak had not been enough to bring the boxset down, the next movie practically buries it. Don’t Go Near The Park is just bloody awful, initially banned because of its graphic scenes of flesh ripping this movie should only really have been banned for being so terrible.

The disjointed, confusing, and just plain boring story is not helped by the large amount of inconsistencies and general warped view of things. The story sort of follows the adventures of a group of pretty much immortal cannibals that happen to live in a park. The daughter is involved in a pretty terrifying rape attempt near the start of the movie, and begs her father for help via telepathy; he helps her in the form of blowing her and her potential rapists up. So I think a key thing to address here is that if you happen to have telepathic abilities make sure your very specific on the help you need.

The special effects are just diabolical, featuring skin coloured upholstery foam; in place of human flesh, inside the foam are a big pile of delicatessen meats covered in tomato sauce. At the time the movie was banned the term “terrifyingly life like affects” was used to promote the removal of this movie from video shop shelves.

The special features here include a really lengthy set of deleted and restored scenes. This is possibly the best thing about the movie. Also present is the theatrical trailer, and it just goes to show painting a turd is pointless.

The Witch Who Came From The Sea

Another movie that should never really been banned; in honesty a little cutting in two places and this movie would quite happily sit on the TV schedules as a moving afternoon movie. This very 70’s tale of a woman obsessed with the events of the past was banned because of a insinuated castration scene.

Molly tells tales to her two loving nephews about their grandfather, an honest hard working adventuring sea captain. While he was a captain of a fishing boat, he was far from adventurous on the water. However as a child Molly was subjected to years of beatings and sexual abuse at the hands of her father. What triggers off in Molly’s mind is unclear, but for some reason she decides that all men must pay for the abuse she received; first seducing then killing several men.

I hear people raving about this movie about how ahead of its time it was, but to me it just looks terribly dated. Its not a compelling movie and I seldom manage to stay awake through viewing of this “classic” that being said I do believe unlike the previous movie that the movie genuinely deserves to be in this box set.

Molly is played by Millie Perkins, who holds the unusual title of being one of the only people in history to appear in a video nasty and receive an Oscar for previous works. In recent years her work has dried up but occasionally appears on U.S. soap The Young And The Restless.

Ban The Sadist Video’s Part 2

This second instalment on the Box Of The Banned box sets is less watchable than the previous documentary. There is little or no footage of movies, and it’s a more political approach to the story of Video Nasties, talking in length about the Jamie Bulgar case at the potential links to the movie Childs Play 3. It also addresses similar tales including the Hungerford Massacre, and follows the journeys through the House of Commons on its attempt to ban certain movies.
This is another awful addition to the box set, its too high brow for the average person (including me) to enjoy. It gives little reason for banning movies, and no addressing of specific movies. The worst of the video nasties i.e. Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, I spit On Your Grave, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre don’t even get a look in.

Box Of The Banned 2 is not as good as the original, but for Video Nasty fans it’s a great and affordable way of getting a collection of movies that individually would cost you about £80 for a princely £13.99 from most online retailers; I purchased mine from Play.com. It’s nice that most of the discs have special features usually something that is forgotten, or just not included in box sets.

A FINAL POINT

In the early 1980’s we were subject to a terrible legacy on movies for 20 years, some movies have never been re-released in this country due to the rights falling out of the owners hands, and into deceased persons.

Now in 2007 the Labour party are trying again to affect the way we view movies, currently racing its way through Parliament is an act banning sexual violence for viewing pleasure. Initially you may think that this is not a bad thing, but think again some of our most fondly thought of and highly acclaimed movies could end up either banned or heavily cut. Movies that will be affected if the law goes through include Thelma & Louise, The Accused, Silence Of The Lambs, American Pie, Porky’s, Dracula, Get Carter, Blow Up, Rita, Sue & Bob Too. These are just some of the names being banded about, if you don’t want some of your favourite movies to be banned or heavily edited please sign a number of online petitions that will be online during May. 

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