Horror is already out there, in all of us. It's in you.
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021
#36 : Censor
A woman working as a film censor in the 80s is shocked to discover a horror movie that recreates a traumatic incident from her childhood in Prano Bailey-Bond’s disturbing descent into video nastiness.
I've heard good things about this, but I've have to say it doesn't sound like it's going to be my sort of thing - I'm expecting a more psychological than graphic horror, but we'll see. It's got Michael Smiley in it though, so that's a tick in the box for me.
And we're following Enid (Niamh Algar) in her job as a video censor, so we're set in the mid 80s when there was all that kerfuffle around video nasties (when I was in my mid-teens, so it brought back some memories for me, although I can't claim to have been a connoisseur of such fare). And she's very good at her job, effectively detaching herself from the violence and judging it dispassionately. However, something has happened in her past - and, wouldn't you know it, events conspire to bring details of it back to her (slowly, of course) and cause her to question her grip on reality.
And you think you're lined up for some standard "is she mad or should people pay attention to her?" fare - and it's certainly based around that, but it manages to push the boundaries in various ways, although there are some extra silly bits in there at times as well. However, with 20 minutes to go I had no idea how it was going to end, which has to be to its credit - although I spent most of that 20 minutes in complete confusion. It was all intriguing enough, but I personally don't feel it quite nailed the ending (although plenty of people out there on the internet disagree with me). I will certainly say that it avoids some of the cliches that it could quite easily have used whilst claiming it was being either meta or ironic (which would have just been annoying).
Niamh Algar puts in a good performance - it's hard to guess how old she is and how old she's supposed to be in the film (late 20s for the former, probably similar for the latter). Everyone else is fine, but doesn't get an awful lot to do - it's somewhat distracting that the actress playing Nina's Mum looks like Camilla Parker-Bowles though. Michael Smiley is of course good, but he REALLY doesn't get a lot to do.
It's pretty well filmed with a mixture of camera styles reflecting the "present day", the flashbacks to the unknown event and the various films under review, involving effective use of colour, light and sound. The story is, however, a little ponderous at times - trying to draw out the tension for longer than the plot warrants (whilst other potentially interesting plot details are skipped over pretty quickly). One of the things that intrigued me most about the film was whether the director was male or female - the film has a female protagonist but I'd struggle to say she was always fully sketched out, so I guessed male, without being convinced. And I was wrong because Prano is Welsh and reasonably young, with this being her feature-length debut - there's certainly plenty of promise on display here.
One final comment is - was everything really that beige in the 80s? Although I'd have to say I'm not sure anyone has ever worked in offices like the ones we see - it's like they've were designed in the mid 60s as the offices of the future, so they somehow manage to be futuristic and retro all at the same time. All very peculiar. It was nice to see a video shop though - even if was so dimly lit there would have been no danger of seeing what film you were trying to hire.
I enjoyed watching the film, even if I can't exactly say I enjoyed the film or understood large portions of it - I think it was trying to make some relevant points, but I'd struggle to say exactly what they might be. For a horror film, it's not particularly "horrific" - either psychological or graphic, but I did find it intriguing enough to keep me engaged. I can quite imagine film students spending a lot of time discussing all aspects of the film - it doesn't surprise me that Rotten Tomatoes has a much higher critics rating (89%) than audience rating (56%).
At the time of writing, it's available to rent or buy on most of the usual platforms - if you like a little arthouse horror then you'll probably like this, but I suspect most people will be happy enough without it in their lives.
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