The 1980s were a bit of a hotspot for moral panic phenomena. While the United States was dealing with the Satanic Panic fueled by Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal, the United Kingdom spawned a movement that aimed to radically change any impure content. These movies were called “video nasties” and were either extensively edited or downright banned. Video nasties were often horror and other exploitation films that contained violent, sexual, or other so-called immoral content.
This panic is the backdrop of Prano Bailey-Bond’s directorial debut Censor, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on its opening night Midnight section. It follows a film censor named Enid (Niamh Algar) who is considered to be the most committed and extensive censor in her office. However, that starts to change when she is tasked with viewing a film entitled Don’t Go In the Church, which shares an uncanny resemblance to the events that took place shortly after her sister Nina disappeared.
Algar gives a fascinating performance as Enid, combining desensitized coldness and traumatized detachment throughout the entire movie. As the story progresses, she gives subtle acting cues to indicate that she has experienced more than the content shown in video nasties. Her performance becomes even more chilling, however, in Censor’s thrilling and often stressful climax. Adrian Schiller also gives a small but chilling performance as the enigmatic director Frederick North.
For the most part, the setting of 1980’s Britain is well-established. The sparse usage of neon lights during more intense scenes make them especially shine against the otherwise dark colors of the city. The fashion, particularly the modest taste of Enid, also accurately reflects the time period. Unfortunately, the same cannot quite be said about the cursed film that Enid watches that catapults the plot, as it would not look out of place next to A24’s library of horror.
Speaking of A24 horror, the long-gestating plot and suddenly violent conclusion seems to scream for the distributor to pick it up. While the ending is both satisfying and bittersweet, there are some parts of the movie that do not exactly earn it. Some scenes that prove to not be particularly important, such as one in which a film producer named Doug Smart (Michael Smiley) extensively hitting on Enid, seem to drag on for longer than they probably should. Thankfully, these scenes are relatively few and do not impact the enjoyment of the movie.
Modern exploitation cinema has been fluctuating rapidly in quality and effectiveness. From The Devil’s Rejects to Promising Young Woman, many exploitation films from the 21st century can barely count as such. They often distance themselves from their video nasty predecessors by acknowledging their existence, but sacrificing traditional conventions such as excessive gore and killer maniacs in order to frame it as a drama with exploitation characteristics. What Bailey-Bond does so well with Censor is that it shows you can have your cake and eat it too. Modern exploitation films can be emotional and thought-provoking while also maintaining the morbid nastiness many have come to love video nasties for.
Even in its slower moments, the love for the exploitation cinema of the ’70s and ’80s shines through. Much like its predecessors, Censor certainly is not for the casual movie-watcher, but those with a taste for the nasty will find lots to love about Bailey-Bond’s reconstruction.
