Lawrence D. Foldes's ultra-low-budget horror film became notorious not because of a famous star scandal, but because British authorities treated its contents as a censorship emergency. Shot in Los Angeles in 1979 on a budget of roughly $200,000, the film presented an unusually bleak mixture of cannibalism, incest, child endangerment, sexual violence, and graphic disembowelment. Its story follows prehistoric siblings who preserve their youth by eating the entrails of young victims, while the climax involves a father attempting to use his own daughter in a ritual sacrifice. Film scholars David Kerekes and David Slater later argued that the movie also contained disturbing 'subliminal paedophilia,' citing suggestive behavior involving the child character Nick, voyeuristic staging, and the unsettling relationship between Nick and the older historian Taft.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The 1979 Horror Film That Became a British 'Video Nasty'
Don't Go Near the Park / 1980s
Lawrence D. Foldes's ultra-low-budget horror film became notorious not because of a famous star scandal, but because British authorities treated its contents as a censorship emergency. Shot in Los Angeles in 1979 on a budget of roughly $200,000, the film presented an unusually bleak mixture of cannibalism, incest, child endangerment, sexual violence, and graphic disembowelment. Its story follows prehistoric siblings who preserve their youth by eating the entrails of young victims, while the climax involves a father attempting to use his own daughter in a ritual sacrifice. Film scholars David Kerekes and David Slater later argued that the movie also contained disturbing 'subliminal paedophilia,' citing suggestive behavior involving the child character Nick, voyeuristic staging, and the unsettling relationship between Nick and the older historian Taft.
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