Ban the Sadist Videos!

Jesus Franco:
I don't think it's acceptable to ban any film, not just mine, mine too of course, but any film.

Sergio Garrone:
I hold the English in very high esteem, for their democracy and their seriousness. But censorship is not democracy. What are we? Kids? Are the English stupid?

Ruggero Deodato:
The fault for "Cannibal Holocaust" lies on my son, because at that time we used to watch TV a lot. He was only seven then, and he would complain about prime time news. They often showed victims of the Red Brigades... It was a very gory time. The film was directed at those journalists, the journalists who caused all the fuss. Back then my aim wasn't to do a commercial film, no. I wanted to make something hard-hitting.

Sergio Garrone:
I wanted to make something with tough imagery. Absolutely not for kids. It was strong stuff, but life is tough, isn't it?

Romano Scavolini:
I said "Look, I don't want the usual hypocrisy of American genre films where at a certain point you see the knife and not the wound. Let's do something really... if we have to go down that road, let's go all the way without hypocrisy".

Romano Scavolini:
That was the first time that the camera did not turn away from the horror, but remained there to witness, watching and to give it to the public.

Sergio Garrone:
Of course 99% of it is politics, because it's spectacular. All these pompous crusades are a show. Politics need to be seen, to be read, to be heard. If it's silent no one notices.

Sergio Garrone:
Even Mrs. Thatcher, if it's her who came up with this law. She was violent to her enemies, because she sent British people to fight in South America. She got people killed. Isn't that violence, Thatcher? So what's better, my film or sending a ship to shoot the Argentinians?

Jesus Franco:
It's so stupid. What's the use? Who does it help? It's based on a puritanical, inherited, old world Christianity...

Sergio Garrone:
I very often go to England. It's a good thing they don't inspect my passport or arrest me as the author of... who knows what? I'll ask, I'll write to the British embassy.

Dario Argento:
This was the system that the previous English government introduced. Her name was Margaret Thatcher, she introduced censorship to very violent films, including my films.

Mary Whitehouse:
I have never seen a video nasty. I wouldn't.