“Horror is already out there. In all of us. It’s in you.” Thus speaks Frederick North (Adrian Schiller), the horror/video nasty director in Censor, Prano Bailey-Bond’s feature debut. This could certainly be the film’s overall mantra.
Set in 1980s Britain against the backdrop of the video nasty craze (and miner’s strikes, Maggie Thatcher’s increasing capitalist authoritarianism, growing national tensions and violence), Censor focuses on Enid (Niamh Algar), an unassuming film censor for the British Board of Film Classification.
Enid spends her days watching all manner of violent, horrific films and selecting which parts to edit out—to award the film certification—and thus release to the public, or to not release them to the public at all. Seemingly unaffected by everything she sees every day, Enid doesn’t focus on the films as entertainment but on getting her job right.
Add to the mix the fact that Enid’s younger sister went missing without a trace years earlier, which she has never fully recovered from. When a film lands on Enid’s desk that sparks memories of the day her sister vanished, it puts everything to the test.
Censor is an incredibly stylish undertaking across all aspects of the film—cinematography, production design, costume, make-up, and acting. It certainly sets a good benchmark for British horror films going forward. The story is subtle and certainly not over-the-top. Enid just wants to find her sister and is as much a victim as anyone else. Any actual visual horror is restrained, used sparingly, and therefore impactful when it does hit the screen. Quality far outweighs quantity here—something that is far too often the other way around.
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Every actor is excellent, with Algar’s Enid being absolutely no exception. She’s perfect in the role, and the film focuses solely on her throughout, which means the other actors are somewhat underused. In particular, are Michael Smiley’s slimy, smarmy, clearly dodgy producer Doug Smart and Felicity Montagu’s by-the-book archivist Valerie. I would’ve loved to have seen more from these and others, but then there would’ve probably been more fat to the story. With the way the film tears through its 84-minute runtime, you get the impression all extraneous elements have been trimmed.
With imagery and themes that often reminded me of films like Lost Highway and 8mm, it could be argued that Censor is more of a ‘Brit-noir’ psychological thriller with horror elements than an outright horror film. Even so, horror elements are there throughout, even if not overtly obvious. Humans are the horror—irrational and easily broken.
Overall, this is an impressive debut from director Prano Bailey-Bond. I look forward to seeing her future work. Censor is a gem of a film that warrants repeat viewing, even if it may leave you wanting more.
