Censor (2021) Review

When I was younger my dream job was to be a film censor. To me working for the British Board of Film Clarification spending all day watching movies in their full uncut form and then rating them seemed like the perfect career. Also my love of horror meant with a position at the BBFC I could pass all those menacing movies that the boring censors rejected or edited to shreds.

Growing up during the 1980’s I was very aware of the 72 banned horror movies all branded video nasties by the Obscene Publications Act and Director of Public Prosecutions with public pressure groups like the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association and moral crusaders like Mary Whitehouse heralding the end of times due to the fetid filth these films force fed their audience.

Like holy relics, me and my horror fanatic friends tried our best to seek these fabled films out to witness what was so terrible and terrifying about them for ourselves. When I finally saw them some of these films changed my life, some of them disappointed me greatly and ironically ultimately all of them ended up available to the masses, fully restored to their former gory.

Brilliantly documented in Jake West’s Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape the mass movie bans and righteous outrage that took place during this period of British history was interweaved with Margret Thatcher’s iron rule and the social unrest amongst the working classes making it a perfect period to set a horror story, something Prano Bailey-Bond seizes upon in her sensational debut feature Censor which she co-wrote with Anthony Fletcher.

Focusing on Enid Baines (Raised by Wolves and Deceit star Niamh Algar) a film censor working for the BBFC in 1985 we witness her daily duties, viewing endless scenes of murder, rape and vivisection, offering up edits and ratings all the while trying to do the right thing and protect the public from the horrors she sees on screen.

Meek and nervy Enid lives a secluded lonely existence with her job taking up all her time and focus. Apart from her co-workers the only other influence in her life are her parents who she is estranged from after her younger sister Nina disappeared in Enid’s care when they were children. Although they have long since abandoned the search and any hope of finding her Enid still desperately clings on to the wish that she will be reunited with her sibling.

That dream becomes a nightmare one day when Enid watches a submission from mysterious director Fredrick North (Adrian Schiller) and the narrative of the horror relates a little too closely to her real life. Added to this a horrific murder involving a man eating his wives face and slaying his children is being directly related to a movie Enid passed putting her under serious scrutiny.

Hounded by horrible phone calls and pursued by paparazzi Enid is distressed but becomes obsessed with North especially when she gets her hands on one of his banned films from under the counter at her local VHS rental shop and sees an actress who is the spitting image of her sister.

Wonderfully weaving fantasy and reality into a disturbing tale of obsession and insanity Censor is as much about film censorship as it is the psychological censorship our minds perform when dealing with a disturbing memory. Enid can’t recall exactly how her sister disappeared and this fact has led not only to the distance between her and her parents but also an unhinged element to her personality.

Expertly played by Niamh Algar, Enid is a bundle of neurosis waiting to overflow and the encounter with the sinister Fredrick North and his particularly unsettling films is the catalyst that sets off a terrible chain reaction.

Around this brilliant central performance we see other great turns from UK talent like Michael Smiley, Felicity Montagu, Nicholas Burns and Erin Shanagher all adding to the sense of heightened reality that permeates the trippy picture.

Prano Bailey-Bond uses the period elements expertly well drawing out key ideas and themes while never making them incongruous to the story. Slamming this historical setting against a very modern sound design she creates an otherworldly atmosphere drenched in dread.

Graffitied underpasses and dark tunnels constantly appear bringing the labyrinthine landscape of Enid’s fractured mind to life with a constant blurring between the horror films she watches and the strange journey she finds herself on taking place.

Working as both a love letter to the 80’s video nasties and a shocking and tragic tale of one woman’s descent into darkness Censor is a frighteningly good movie and a fantastic calling card for Prano Bailey-Bond’s career in horror.

Movie Rating:

Censor trailer