https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty I think it is an interesting read on what we had access to in the early 1980's. To give some context as to my experience at this time, I was 13 in 1982 and 16 in 1985. Myself and a couple of schoolfriends regularly hired 2 or 3 videos, stayed over at one of their houses on a Saturday night where we watched videos, drank cider and ate pizza. These videos were not difficult to get hold of at the time although it is true that only the smaller independent stores stocked them, which as a teenager you tend to know about these small stores in obscure places somehow.
I'm pretty sure 'first blood' and perhaps even rambo were considered video nasties. I do remember this term from the 80s. For me tho the real video nasties were the snuff compilation videos of the 90s, 'banned from tv vol2' etc. where you'd see folks being run over by trains, house shootings etc. Those things were truly nasty.
Then-conservative society was shocked by new media format entirely uncontrolled by national TV network. Those movies are nothing compared to what is available today. It just proves how desensitized we have become to obscenity and violence. It's kind of funny how immediately upon invention of VHS tapes, violent and awful movies were increasingly produced and it remains dominant theme to this day. Same for video games. Once games could be distributed on portable floppies, they also turned to violent route.
