What’s your favorite scary movie? There are many different kinds after all. There are slashers like “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th,” slow burn, creep-centric ones like “The VVitch” and “It Follows,” and more comedic takes like “Killer Clowns from Outer Space,” and “Evil Dead 2.” No horror fan is going to like everyone, but what makes “Censor” so extremely invigorating is that it is, without a doubt, a horror movie fan’s horror movie.
The film follows Enid, a censor working for the British Board of Film Classification during the early 1980’s at the peak of the “video nasty” period, where the UK tried to crack down on the large number of direct-to-VHS low budget exploration horror films being released. Her world is forever changed when she one day watches a film that begins to get under her skin and affect her day-to-day life.
“Censor” is a movie that thrives off of the psychological effect that films can have on us. Not only is it at its best when its toying with the viewer, causing them to question what they’ve just seen or if there’s actually anything horrific going on, but this idea that media can twist and affect us is fundamental to the plot itself.
Whilst she’s directed some shorts before, “Censor” is the feature directorial debut for Prano Bailey-Bond, and even if the film isn’t to your liking, she deserves to have praise heaped upon her for maintaining such a confident vision for her first feature. Every moment and scene is constructed in such a particular way, it's hard to imagine the film existing in any other way and still having the same effect.
Niamh Algar (“Raised By Wolves,” “Calm with Horses”) delivers an absolutely stellar lead performance as Enid, and she’s the lifeblood of the entire film. This is the definition of a movie carried by a single performance, as even though everyone else around her is great, if Algar doesn’t sell it, the entire movie falls apart. Thankfully, she’s extremely endearing and wonderful to get to know and we truly root for her to figure out what’s going on and to get to the bottom of the changes happening around her.
From a technical standpoint, “Censor” deserves a lot of praise as well. Not only does it maintain a thoroughly unsettling atmosphere even in its lighter moments, but it also manages to replicate the visual style of the “video nastys” and the panic surrounding them nearly effortlessly. Bailey-Bond injects plenty of medium changes and uncomfortable sound design into the film, doing everything to keep the viewer on edge for as long as possible.
All of this comes together in a third act that is truly something special; a wonderful combination of the endearing lead character of Enid, the horrific visual styles implemented up until that point, and the general horror of the unknown that we can sometimes get from horror films. It's a movie about catharsis and the feeling of both dread and relief that comes from movies like this. Sure, we feel some kind of relief when the villain rips the head off of a character, because that means it's at least over. But it’s also deeply upsetting. After all, these movies are all fake. It’s not real, isn’t it?
Yet, if there’s one massive thing that could be a deal breaker for some, it's the pacing of it all. Despite only being 87 minutes long, “Censor” is a deliberately paced film. If you like your horror films quick and dirty and covered in blood, then you might want to pass on this decidedly slower and more psychological affair. But this would be doing the film a disservice though, as it's a movie for horror movie fans. The more love you have for the genre, the more horror films you’ve seen, the more likely you are to fall head over heels in love with this trip.
“Censor” is a thrilling, confident, genre infused debut film that showcases a bright future for both its lead actress and its director. A horror film made for those who love the medium, coupled with a deliberately slow pace means this head trip won’t be for everyone, but those that do buckle up for it will be treated to a thrilling and confident horror experience. 4/5
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