Set in 1985 during the home video boom, Video Nasty follows three teens on a mission to complete a cult VHS collection. Instead, they’re drawn into a murder investigation, becoming prime suspects in this dark, deadpan, retro comedy about today’s chaotic, nostalgic world.
Dublin 1985. Teenager Billy is cultivating an obsession: he’s tracking down VHS tapes of films branded Video Nasties – some might remember the ruckus conservative activist Mary Whitehouse created in the early home video days about the harmful influence of certain horror films deemed extreme.
Billy is now on the track of the last film missing in his collection, William Asher’s Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981). Together with Con and Con’s older sister Zoe, he sets out on a journey that more and more begins to resemble the films they watch… Imagine a New Wave version of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stumbling into the village in Wickerman (Robin Hardy, 1973) and you have a pretty good idea of what Christopher Smith and Megan Kathleen Fox’s coming-of-age folk horror miniseries plays like.
The two genres are balanced just right: whenever things threaten to go Ken Loach, a masked assailant switches the mood and whenever the horror feels overwhelming, reality shows the youngsters how disturbing daily life can be. A total treat, and not only for 80s nostalgics and VHS fans!
– Olaf Möller
Film details
- Countries of production
- Ireland, UK
- Year
- 2024
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2025
- Length
- 180"
- Medium/Format
- Digital
