Censor

Director: Prano Bailey-Bond

Screenwriters: Prano Bailey-Bond, Anthony Fletcher

Cinematographer: Annika Summerson

Production Companies: Protagonist Pictures, Silver Salt Films, BFI Film Fund, Film4

Distributor: Magnet Releasing

Release Date: 11 June 2021 (USA)

Runtime: 1 hour 24 minutes

MPA Rating: R

Availability: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

Synopsis

The movie Censor centers around Enid (Niamh Algar), a film censor working in 1980s Britain during the height of the gore film craze. Enid is still trying to find answers to the mysterious disappearance of her younger sister from when they were children. After watching several films by the controversial horror director Frederick North (Adrian Schiller), she becomes convinced that one of the stars of his films, Alice Lee (Sophia La Porta), is her long-lost sister. This belief sets Enid off on a mission to “rescue” Alice from her supposed demise, a task that eventually blurs her perception of fact and fiction.

Analysis

[***SPOILER WARNING: I can’t see any way of talking about this movie without discussing major plot details. If you don’t want to be spoiled, make sure to skip ahead to my conclusion.***]

Algar does a superb job carrying the film and giving the audience a protagonist to both root for and fear. In the first half, she effectively portrays someone guarded and standoffish due to her past trauma. In public, she maintains her composure by masking her emotions from everyone around her. Conversely, we get to witness her in a vulnerable state when she spends time by herself, still traumatized by the loss of her sister. Seeing both sides of the character helps the audience understand and sympathize with her, primarily because she feels like an actual person. You can easily track her slipping grip on reality as the film progresses, not only based on her more erratic actions but also on how more emotional she becomes. Enid goes from being anxious at one moment, to angry at the next, and to uncomfortably ecstatic later on. Her breaking psyche thus manifests in an increase in emotional volatility. This made watching a character I had become attached to as she fell fall from grace depressing and revolting.

The film also offers a compelling critique of censorship through a horror lens. It argues that even the most offensive works reflect reality. This perspective explains why the film’s “Insomniac Killer” states that he had never seen the film that his actions appeared to be based on, and the reason for Frederick North’s chilling monologue about the art of horror to Enid. Due to the depraved nature of offensive works, we claim that they are responsible for bringing about societal and individual problems rather than our actions serving as inspiration for said works. Censor reinforces this idea by having newspaper articles and news broadcasts discuss the societal issues attributable to troubling movie content. A parody of this broadcast is even played at the end to demonstrate how “silly” this argument for censorship is. Thus, the act of censorship assuages our concerns over bringing evil into this world by giving us a false sense of control. Not only is this the reason why Enid has chosen to become a censor, but her murder spree at the end of the film can be interpreted as a misguided attempt to end the “root of all evil”, while voluntarily committing evil in the process. While I may have some qualms with the content of this argument and the way it was presented, it’s still a legitimate argument to be reflected upon once the credits roll.

At the same time, the movie’s other characters felt severely lacking in terms of dimension. At first glance, this could be attributed to only seeing the world from Alice’s POV. However, this limited perspective does not justify how every side character felt incredibly one-note or why Enid’s interactions with them were so stilted. Every secondary character comes equipped with only one personality trait, and neither Enid nor the movie shows any interest in telling us more about them. Most of the dialogue is unnaturally arranged to either progress the plot, reveal something about Enid’s psyche, or speak on the movie’s overarching theme. And since we don’t have a fundamental understanding of the side characters, none of their actions demonstrate proof of agency. Not only did this prevent any side character from being developed, but it also resulted in me not buying into the world in general. So while I believed that Enid was real, I could never accept that her world was.

I also felt the film’s overreliance on ambiguity muddled its message and made it inaccessible to a general audience. For instance, we never learn what really happened to Enid’s sister. While some may argue that this is inconsequential to the plot, I would say the opposite. If Enid’s sister had disappeared, we the viewers should interpret Enid’s descent into madness as the direct result of her trauma and misguided attempt to save her sister. However, if Enid was instead responsible for her sister’s disappearance or even death, then both Enid’s occupation and her eventual mental breakdown directly align with the movie’s core critique of censorship. While the ambiguous note the film ends on is not as egregious, it still feels unnecessary. If Enid had only imagined kidnapping Alice Lee and taken her to her horrified parents, the film’s ending is nonsensical. However, if she did kidnap Alice Lee, then the movie’s conclusion effectively sums up its main point. In both instances, the choice to remain ambiguous rather than offer a clear answer detracts from the strength of the film’s message.

Conclusion

In summary, I felt that Censor was a pretty good yet familiar indie-horror film. It has a strong lead and effectively argued message, but working against the film are its flat secondary characters and overreliance on ambiguity. Thus, it failed to leave a lasting impression on me and never seemed to rise above being more than just above average. That’s not to say that the film isn’t worth your time, and you should definitely check it out on VOD. Just be forewarned that this movie is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Rating: 3.5/5