The horrifying Public Information Films of 1970s Britain
As far as I can make out, every country has public information films. They rarely pull punches, which is pretty important as their messages are usually important. I remember being terrified by Monolith as a child. I still think about It's Thirty For a Reason whenever I drive in suburban areas, and I've seen similar things from New Zealand, Canada and so on. Creative agencies love PIF gigs because you can do so much more than a normal advert/TV spot would allow. People can, and do, go all out on them. They're also ripe for parody
However, back in the seventies, that's when the UK government went a little... well.. overboard. Imagine showing Lonely Water to actual children. Or Stand Steady, or even Frisbee? I remember being shown films like these at school, from scratchy old VHS tapes on clunky old school TVs. I remember them being broadcast during children's programming time. I remember being irrationally terrified of old fridges even though I've never see a fridge with a lock in my entire life.
But sure, they're scary topics and sometimes you do need to scare people into not doing stupid stuff that might kill them. There are plenty of examples of scary short PIFs aimed at all ages from their invention right up to the present day. But then there are the longer form movies about safety for children. That's what this post is really about. Let's call these the "unholy trinity" of PIF terror:
There's the weird time-loop slaughter fest of Building Sites Bite (unfortunately the only copy I could find was a 'reacts' video but it's worth watching)
Ignoring the of-it's-time but now recognised as problematic "Cowboys and Indians" conceit, Apaches is utterly horrifying.
Then there's the dystopian awfulness of The Finishing Line
These films were rated PG (aka safe for kids). They were shown in schools. Not just high schools, but primary (elementary) schools. Although to be fair, someone did get a clue fairly quickly and The Finishing Line was banned and withdrawn in under a year because holy shit.
I'd be interested to see some of your favourite public information films, please do link them if you have any.
AFAICR Canada never really had any PSAs that genuinely scared the shit out of me as a kid... our government created content for kids was mostly educational+inspirational Heritage Minutes, or the purely entertaining NFB Animated shorts, and Canada Vignettes instead. Although they weren't all totally upbeat. E.g. Heritage Minutes: Nitro, Heritage Minutes: Agnes Macphail, Heritage Minutes: Halifax Explosion
Some of my other personal favorites:
Heritage Minutes: Basketball
Heritage Minutes: Superman
Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz
Blackfly
The Cat Came Back
The Big Snit
And even the independently created ones were also generally meant to be educational without being shocking, like the infamous "House Hippo" PSA. The MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) PSAs were our most "extreme" that I can remember, but they were still pretty tame by comparison to many other countries' drunk driving PSAs. E.g. A bunch of the road safety ones from NZ are brutal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNjt04bpQM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hDOAsa3Bf4
p.s. But speaking of the UK, and to bring up another PSA related entry worth adding to your list:
Watching Threads (1984), a BBC "drama" about nuclear war, fucking traumatized me after watching it in elementary school. Fuck Mr. Brown for showing us that! Or bless him, depending on how you look at it, since it did leave a very lasting impression on me about the horrors that nuclear war would likely unleash on us all.
Ah, we had plenty of nicer PIFs too. But it's the horrible ones which stick in my mind. That's a nice selection of links, thanks. I had already seen The Cat Came Back many years ago at an animation festival in the UK, it's a nice little film.
Also yes. Fucking Threads. They showed us that at school too. Didn't sleep properly for weeks. Then, for some unfathomable reason, my parents let me watch Dr. Strangelove. The we read Brother in the Land in English class. I know nuclear war is a bad thing but I wasn't even a teenager yet.
But on that front, the worst by far was When The Wind Blows (sorry for the FB link, that's the only copy I could find). Trailer on youtube. If it's not immediately clear why an animation by Raymond Briggs about the horrors of nuclear war is so traumatising it's because he's the guy behind the most magical and wonderful Christmas movie ever made (high point is this song) which was a part of every British kid's christmas from the early 80s onwards. I still read the Father Christmas and Snowman books to my kid now, and they're drawn exactly the same as When the Wind Blows. It's horribly disconcerting.