Film Review: Censor

Censor is a British horror film directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, who co-wrote the film with Anthony Fletcher. It follows Enid (Niamh Algar), who works as a film censor during the height of the video nasty era, where VHS tapes of explicit and violent low budget horror films drew extensive scrutiny and excessive censorship measures. It was a pretty big deal, I’d recommend looking it up on your own time. Anyway, while she deals with the stress of work, she is also haunted by the disappearance of her sister when she was a child, and when she is assigned a new film, she feels it may hold a connection to sister’s disappearance.

Enid has struggled to move on from her sister’s disappearance, especially compared to her parents, who have now arranged for a death certificate. Still, this mysterious chunk of her life hoovers over her like a shadow. The grief she carries with her is really heavy, and while grief is one of those topics that have become really overused in the past decade, Censor brings a unique and effective approach to these familiar themes. Though, I’d rather not get into too much detail about how it all pays off since that is something best left for you to see firsthand.

This is Prano Bailey-Bond’s first feature length directorial effort, and it’s a really striking one. She does a fantastic job at establish an oppressive atmosphere, not only through the visual language of horror filmmaking, but also with the setting, capturing the period details, the muted London environments, and the looming conservatism of Margaret Thatcher’s reign. It also incorporates some dreamy, or rather nightmarish, elements that add a surreal vibe to the proceedings, and it’s all rooted in character. I also liked the way she incorporated visual tricks that were reminiscent of the VHS era.

At the center of it all is Niamh Algar, who brings a strong emotional core to some of the film’s more offbeat genre indulgences. She’s a performer I’ve really been impressed with recently from her supporting turn in films like The Shadow Of Violence (aka Calm With Horses), Wrath Of Man, and the incredibly underrated HBO Max show, Raised By Wolves. This is the first I’ve seen her as a full on lead, and she’s great. There’s a very overtly deliberate quality to her performance, like a bomb just waiting to explode, and her ability to bring real intensity while being fairly composed and thoughtfully measured is very mesmerizing, and I hope she goes on to do bigger and better projects.

Censor is a really engrossing horror film, and it does a really terrific job at utilizing influences and paying homage to a very specific period of film history. While I think it could have explored more into the relationship between art and reality and how one can inform the other, but it is ultimately at its best when it gets into the more personal stuff with Enid trying to come to terms with her past. Though it has a fairly short runtime of an hour and 24 minutes, the time is spent well, and it manages to leave an impact even if certain elements of its weird finale might leave you with more questions than answers. The last few minutes of the film left me absolutely speechless. It helps that Prano Bailey-Bond’s direction is assured, and you feel like you are in good hands. And even though I wouldn’t consider this to be some new bonafide classic, I think she definitely has it in her to deliver one in the future. If you like your horror more on the cerebral side, this is one you shouldn’t miss.

Censor is now out in select theaters, and will be available on VOD platforms starting June 18th.