Censor (2021)
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.39:1(1.33:1) 84m
Director: Prano Bailey-Bond
Cast: Niamh Algar, Michael Smiley, Nicholas Burns
Synopsis:
At the height of the video nasties phenomenon, a film screener for the BBFC takes her day job of censoring extreme material extremely seriously, but is unaffected by it until she comes to examine a film which re-awakens memories surrounding the disappearance of her sister when they were children.
Review:
Reminiscent of Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio, and freely referencing films like The Evil Dead and Blue Velvet, this psycho-horror has tremendous fun with the concept of censorship, whether as a metaphor for the protagonist's own suppressed experience, or as a peculiarly apt vehicle for generic mayhem (scissors/axe). The moral panic surrounding so-called video nasties in the 1980s is well evoked, not just by quotation but through use of colour stock and adjusted aspect ratios. In the end, though, with its implication that state censorship is by definition unhealthy, and its evident relish for horror iconography (the film plays out so much like Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, say, as to be a homage), it is ultimately too freighted with its own ideas and weighted on its one character to resonate emotionally with the audience. Which is not to say that it does not provide knowing sniggers for aficionados.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.39:1(1.33:1) 84m
Director: Prano Bailey-Bond
Cast: Niamh Algar, Michael Smiley, Nicholas Burns
Synopsis:
At the height of the video nasties phenomenon, a film screener for the BBFC takes her day job of censoring extreme material extremely seriously, but is unaffected by it until she comes to examine a film which re-awakens memories surrounding the disappearance of her sister when they were children.
Review:
Reminiscent of Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio, and freely referencing films like The Evil Dead and Blue Velvet, this psycho-horror has tremendous fun with the concept of censorship, whether as a metaphor for the protagonist's own suppressed experience, or as a peculiarly apt vehicle for generic mayhem (scissors/axe). The moral panic surrounding so-called video nasties in the 1980s is well evoked, not just by quotation but through use of colour stock and adjusted aspect ratios. In the end, though, with its implication that state censorship is by definition unhealthy, and its evident relish for horror iconography (the film plays out so much like Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, say, as to be a homage), it is ultimately too freighted with its own ideas and weighted on its one character to resonate emotionally with the audience. Which is not to say that it does not provide knowing sniggers for aficionados.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.39:1(1.33:1) 84m
Director: Prano Bailey-Bond
Cast: Niamh Algar, Michael Smiley, Nicholas Burns
Synopsis:
At the height of the video nasties phenomenon, a film screener for the BBFC takes her day job of censoring extreme material extremely seriously, but is unaffected by it until she comes to examine a film which re-awakens memories surrounding the disappearance of her sister when they were children.
Review:
Reminiscent of Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio, and freely referencing films like The Evil Dead and Blue Velvet, this psycho-horror has tremendous fun with the concept of censorship, whether as a metaphor for the protagonist's own suppressed experience, or as a peculiarly apt vehicle for generic mayhem (scissors/axe). The moral panic surrounding so-called video nasties in the 1980s is well evoked, not just by quotation but through use of colour stock and adjusted aspect ratios. In the end, though, with its implication that state censorship is by definition unhealthy, and its evident relish for horror iconography (the film plays out so much like Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, say, as to be a homage), it is ultimately too freighted with its own ideas and weighted on its one character to resonate emotionally with the audience. Which is not to say that it does not provide knowing sniggers for aficionados.