""Video nasty" was a term coined in the United Kingdom in the 1980s that originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by various religious organizations, in the press and commentators such as Mary Whitehouse. While violence in cinema had been subject of censorship for many years, the lack of a regulatory system for video sales combined with the possibility of any film falling into children's hands led to new levels of concern. Many of these "video nasties" were low-budget horror films produced in Italy and the United States."
