"Censor" a meta video-nasty nightmare
Censor (2021) Horror movies have always been the evil stepsister of cinema, allegedly powerful enough to rot the brain and breed violence in those who watch them. The cause and effects of media and real-world violence can be tabled for a whole separate conversation of presentation not necessarily being endorsement, but British horror film “Censor” actually gets the conversation going. In her first feature (co-written with Anthony Fletcher), writer-director Prano Bailey-Bond explores processing on-screen violence, particularly from the splattery “video nasties” of the 1980s, and how one's own brain can edit the truth in the thick of grief, and it is a stylish, effectively insidious meta nightmare nastily sprung to life. Enid (played by Niamh Algar) is a film censor for the British Classification Board, making conservative cuts on hardcore exploitation pictures to secure a rating. When comparing notes with a colleague, she says, “I’ve salvaged the tug of war with the intestines. Kept...