Moral panic? Video tapes being censored left and right? Aussie horror fans are quick to fire up their rage engines when violent offerings are periodically banned by our local classification overlords, but we can take some comfort from the fact that we've never endured anything quite like the UK's Video Nasties era!

Hitting local shelves on December 4 through Siren Visual, Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide is a comprehensive box set that analyses every aspect of the Video Nasties phenomenon. Containing over thirteen hours of material spread across three discs, it presents a complete and objective look at one of the most extraordinary eras of censorship the worldwide horror community has ever seen.

Siren's forthcoming release appears to be identical to the 2010 package put out by Nucleus Films in the UK, with disc one featuring Jake West's feature length documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape. Disc two presents trailers for the 39 titles that were successfully prosecuted in UK courts, while disc three presents trailers for the 33 titles that were initially banned, but then subsequently acquitted. Each trailer on discs two and three comes with its own introduction and analysis from the likes of Kim Newman, Alan Jones, Stephen Thrower, and Marc Morris, and the first 500 copies will also come with a giant fold-out poster containing VHS artwork for all 39 banned films.

Edit: We've just learned that Jake West will not be apppearing at Monster Fest.

While we wait to get our chubby hands on this release, the Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape documentary will be screened as part of Monster Fest's "VHS Resurrection" celebration at Cinema Nova on November 30. For more information about that event, head over to the Monster Fest website.