Horror Movie Review: Censor (2021)

Censor is a 2021 British psychological horror film directed by Prano Bailey-Bond. It was produced from a screenplay by Bailey-Bond and Anthony Fletcher.

In 1985, Enid Baines works for the British Board of Film Classification during the height of the Video Nasty controversy. Enid’s co-workers call her “Little Miss Perfect” due to her insistence that violent content be cut or banned. While Enid is having dinner with her parents, they discuss Enid’s sister Nina, who disappeared when the two were little. Enid’s parents have since declared Nina legally dead, but Enid believes she is still alive.

Shortly after a man murders his wife and children, a tabloid newspaper links the killings to a film Enid had rated several months prior. They name her as the censor who approved it. Enid starts receiving threatening and insulting phone calls on a regular basis. One day, Enid is approached by Doug Smart, a film producer. He claims veteran horror director Frederick North has personally requested she screen one of his old films, Don’t Go in the Church. While watching, Enid notices that the film depicts events evocative of her memories of Nina’s disappearance.

Investigating North further by acquiring a copy of one of his banned films, Enid notices that the film’s lead, Alice Lee, bears a resemblance to her missing sister. Enid soon becomes obsessed with meeting North. Believing that Lee is her missing sister who needs to be saved from the exploitation film industry.

Is Alice Lee really her missing sister? Can Enid save her? Watch and find out.

Censor is set during the time period where video nasties were regularly talked about in the news and censorship was a new idea. This aspect of the film was really interesting to delve into and discuss. Addtionally, people genuinely believed that movies could influence you to kill, especially when it came to the extreme films released before censorship.

Censor kept me engrossed throughout, following the mystery and threads along with Enid. Everyone acts well and Niamh Algar really had me along for the ride. She feels like a reliable narrator until she isn’t.

The ending was splendid. I would’ve liked a whole movie in this style, flitting between madness and reality.

Overall, Censor is a slow burn about a poignant time period and what such an intense job could do to the mind, especially one damaged by a traumatic event.