Direction: Prano Bailey-Bond
Country: UK
Censor, an art-house psychological horror film stylishly conceived by the debutant writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond, has a say about video nasties and shows creativity in mixing the nightmarish cinematic universes of Peter Strickland and David Cronenberg.
Enid (Niamh Algar) is an inflexible film censor who lives with one single idea in mind: protect the people, especially children, from the violent content delivered by some movie production companies. At the same time she gets press attention due to a real killing based on a film she had recently approved, another film turns her focus to a traumatic occurrence of her childhood. Obsession, paranoia, guilt and delirium start consuming her inside out.
The visuals and sound, entrusted to Annika Summerson and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, respectively, are critical to the film’s atmosphere, compensating the tenuity of a plot that never impresses. Having said that, it’s beyond doubt that the confident Bailey-Bond found the most convenient tone in order to keep the experience entertaining. Even suspended in a state that alternates between the mesmerizing and the boring, the film effectively blurs the line between reality and fantasy, while alluring us with a refined style.
Algar’s performance is strong, and while some scenes pay tribute to the retro horror genre, the gore factor is not the main source they feed from, challenging the viewers to see beyond that aspect.
