A History Of Bootleg VHS

[Susan Foreman]

I used to get VHS bootlegs from someone who advertised in the small ads of 'The Dark Side' magazine, back in the 80's

He used to charge £15 for two films on a 180 minute tape

I got copies of (amongst others) 'The Exorcist', 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'The Beyond', 'Cannibal Holocaust' (which was a Japanese release, with heavy pixilation over the sex scenes and a very saturated red colour over the violent scenes, making it impossible to watch!), 'Nekromantik' (in the German language, with no subtitles)

He was also do 'tasters' - if there was any space left on the end of a tape, he would include scenes from other films. I had my first experience of 'The Guinea Pig' series and 'Faces Of Death' this way

As well as films, he also offered illegal drugs and steroids thru the post as well, but I ignored them. I was only interested in the film

Sadly, he got busted by the police, and was taken to court so obviously his trading days came to an end...and my mum was terrified that one day there would be a knock at the door, and the plod would be waiting to question me about owning illegal films!

[gag]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

I used to get VHS bootlegs from someone who advertised in the small ads of 'The Dark Side' magazine, back in the 80's

He used to charge £15 for two films on a 180 minute tape

I got copies of (amongst others) 'The Exorcist', 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'The Beyond', 'Cannibal Holocaust' (which was a Japanese release, with heavy pixilation over the sex scenes and a very saturated red colour over the violent scenes, making it impossible to watch!), 'Nekromantik' (in the German language, with no subtitles)

He was also do 'tasters' - if there was any space left on the end of a tape, he would include scenes from other films. I had my first experience of 'The Guinea Pig' series and 'Faces Of Death' this way

As well as films, he also offered illegal drugs and steroids thru the post as well, but I ignored them. I was only interested in the film

Sadly, he got busted by the police, and was taken to court so obviously his trading days came to an end...and my mum was terrified that one day there would be a knock at the door, and the plod would be waiting to question me about owning illegal films!

Lol i did the same, i swapped films they gave me copies i gave them copies, and when all the nastie brigade started and my mum knew i had these films she was guess like youre mum, flapped and was worried police might come to her door as well, and i got my contacts through Darkside magazine,

[MrBarlow]

When we did family trips to Blackpool guaranteed there would be stalls on the street or in boonystreet market selling bootleg VHS tapes. Last two I got was Beethoven 2nd and Robocop 3. Best copies I got.

[lister69]

what amazed me about the "video nasties" era was how inconsistent censorship was (and still is). For instance, in Australia (before A Clockwork Orange was officially released on VHS) you could still watch it at cinemas! We never banned TCM (although TCM2 was banned for a while) but we banned Baise Moi and Ken Park (still to this day)!

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by lister69

what amazed me about the "video nasties" era was how inconsistent censorship was (and still is). For instance, in Australia (before A Clockwork Orange was officially released on VHS) you could still watch it at cinemas!

'A Clockwork Orange' was NEVER censored or banned by the BBFC in England. Instead it was withdrawn by Stanley Kubrick himself, following a number of reports about copy-cat attacks (that were attributed to the film) and death threats were made against him and his family

It was only after his death in 1999 that the film was re-released theatrically and made available on VHS and DVD

*NOTE - During the time that the film was unavailable in England, there was an unauthorised screening at 'The Scala Cinema Club' in London. A direct result of this was the the club closed down and went into receivership after losing a legal battle regarding this

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE was probably the most sought after bootleg in the UK.
It was also one of the easiest to get! And one of the shabbiest in quality!

It was also one of the few legit videotapes sold by Cult Video in Amsterdam.
Most of their films were 'booters'.

Yep old 'Lenny' down the barras was a character.....had a halloween mask stall and once he had sussed you weren't a copper,you'd pay him and his wee boy would run off to a car boot and bring back the order!
Family-run business!

Once you had his trust he would give you a photocopied list which had a couple of hundred different titles on it!
Yes,thanks to Lenny I was able to watch such state-censored goodies such as NEW YORK RIPPER,BLOODSUCKING FREAKS,CANNIBAL FEROX,STRAW DOGS and of course THE EXORCIST.

Those were the days-knowing you flipping the bird to the Orwellian authorities who tried to mollycoddle us all......

[Demoncrat]

What spiffing memories all.

The only three boots I ever had were ....
A Clockwork Orange (nth generation....practically black and white it had been copied that much )

The Exorcist .... Plainly taken from the old WB vhs...somewhat better in quality than ACO, but still a bit "watery" in places

And
Cannibal flipping Holocaust ... this is the one that's still in the house somewhere. Absolutely shocking quality (compared to my EC dvd anyhow )
A mate came round with it .... I'm sure I've told you all this before...I stuck it on. Just before the turtle scene, another mate came in, eating a burger . What's this? etc....to this day have never seen anyone turn green so quickly
He stuck it out though...and twas only when I stuck on Targets (1968) after that he turned to me and said " Haven't you got anything nice??"

And that is that. ET did the rounds in my area, but never wanted to see it...and never have.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

I worked in a tile warehouse back in those days and had a young guy named Stuart who was the weekend gofer.
He knew I had hundreds of videos and said he had seen loads of horror films.

I told him he'd seen feck all until he's seen Cannibal Holocaust,so I loaned him my uncut Dutch VHS.
The ****ing idiot told his ma and pa he had a good film for Saturday night and they settled down to their curry and movie.....

His dad's words?

'Take that to **** back to wherever you got it and DON'T EVER bring anything in here like that again!

Stuart from Banton,just north of Wicker Man territory,Kilsyth,who left to go and work in Debenhams,where presumably they had no bad influence co-workers who provided illegal tapes,if you're reading this,hopefully your old man enjoyed his Born Free epics the rest of his merry days!

[Rik]

Ha ha, brilliant

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Beware of evil bastard warehouse-tape-supplying bastards Rik!