After viewing a strangely familiar video nasty, Enid, a film censor, sets out to solve the past mystery of her sister’s disappearance, embarking on a quest that dissolves the line between fiction and reality.
Now here’s a screenplay that goes down like a delirious cocktail. With a mixture that’s three parts love letter to retro horror and one part traumatic mystery, I was glued to the screen like its main character. I’ve noticed most filmmakers get lost in their nostalgia with forced product placement and so on. But director Prano Bailey-Bond avoids these tropes and keeps an assured vision of the British past.
During Margaret Thatcher’s rule, the so-called “video nasties” were a source of controversy due to them distributing cheap extremely violent horror films to anyone paying. In a clever move, the film’s opening credits use some of the crude archival footage from the period’s videotapes.
Enid Baines (Niamh Algar) is the titular “Censor,” reviewing and editing obscene material before allowing its release to the public. She lives alone and only maintains surface friendships with her colleagues. While out for an awkward dinner with her parents they mention her sister’s disappearance with questions and accusations. Her guilt is further induced when a vicious killing replicates her company’s recent release “The Amnesiac Murderer.” Her supervisor warns Enid to be more careful, and at home, she’s harassed by a series of angry voice messages from conservative citizens. Lead Niamh Algar is such a talented actor that she even makes staring at the screen intriguing. Her blue eyes speak volumes carefully squinting behind her metallic aviator glasses.
The visuals during Enid’s memories of misty woods and daily urban isolation are inspired by films like “Evil Dead” and “Jacob’s Ladder.” Constant visions of a lone rustic cabin, and her nightly commutes through an empty subway station in a normally bustling city mirror those films.
I was too young to remember these Video Nasties but it feels similar to the Satanic Panic. In the US, politicians and religious leaders were certain that heavy metal and violent films would lead to a morally depraved society. This film’s script makes the culprit clear, a society dealing with unresolved trauma is incapable of moving forward.
“Censor” premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, January 28th
