"Video-Nasties" on VHS

Summer Holiday VHS

Park Road Video Store rented out movies for £1.00 and in 1982, with no rating system, the world of movies was ours.

We had £3.00 in our pockets, a membership card and a whole day set aside to watch horror movies.

That's what the summer holidays provide, days of hedonistic movie madness.

I was thirteen years old, there was five of us, all into horror.

We turned to the shelves. It being Tuesday, the racks were full. Video stores only had one copy of each movie, if it was out, it was out. Lots of people had video machines, Saturday nights meant empty shelves, but Tuesday morning was a full house.

Andy reached for The Thing but got shouted down by four 'Seen it's. His parents didn't have a machine. Reluctantly he put it back up on the shelf.

My mind flipped between casting a vote for Driller Killer, Cannibal Ferox, or SS Experiment Camp. I'd seen The Burning and The Last House on the Left when my brother rented them, so needed to steer the crowd away from those.

"This one?" Terry pointed to The Night of the Demon. It was about a Yeti on a bloody rampage. Cool.

"Alright," Sean seconded.

Terry grabbed the case from the shelf, a done deal.

Nobody objected.

"Hey, this is new, I heard about this," Chris said, "The Evil Dead."

"I never heard of it," someone said.

"Cool cover," someone else added.

"This is better," I said and grabbed Cannibal Ferox. "This," I told them, " is proper scary."

I handed it to Terry, two down one to go. The Evil Dead would have to wait for another time.

Then Chris reaches up to the top shelf and placed a pointed fingertip on the holy grail - I Spit On Your Grave. The ultimate in sex and violence. In fact, it went beyond the ultimate, when a rating system was introduced, it was banned. But today it was available for hire to anybody, of any age, with a membership card.

We looked at each other. It was a big moment. We all knew that we had never seen anything like this movie. Watching it, experiencing it, could change us.

"Yeah let's do it!" I said.

"Alright," said four voices.

Chris takes it down from the shelf and hands it to me.

Terry hands me the two other cases and three-pound notes. "We'll be outside."

I guess it was down to me to do the deed.

The store owner stood at the desk.

What he was about to do wasn't illegal, not in 1982, but morally, that was another question for another day.

For me, watching scary movies was fun, especially with my mates. Nobody became a serial killer or demented sex-fiend.

I put the cases on the counter with the money.

The owner raised his eyebrows and one by one fetched the cassettes from the rack behind him.

When he handed me "I Spit On Your Grave" he held on it. "You do know that this is a very nasty movie, right?"

"I bloody hope so for three quid."