Censor (2021 film)

Category: Psychological thriller with horror elements.

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Set in the 1980's during Britain's video nasty phenomenon, Censor tells the story of a woman's descent into madness as she struggles between her job as a government film censor while also masking the trauma of being complicit in her sister's death when they were both children.

Her descent into madness begins when she becomes convinced that her sister could still be alive due to a nugget of information revealed to her that only her and her sister knew. In her search for answer, she gets drawn first-hand into the world of low-budget, low-quality horror exploitation films and the sleazy people behind them. And this is a prescient fact because these films were not only made, but released in a manner to avoid government censorship.

But does Enid find her sister? 

The ending is deliberately ambiguous, but I'm going to go out on a hunch and say no. 

Plot points aside, I think this movie's attempt at an ambigious ending is the main reason I felt ultimately let down - while the main character's descent in to madness is displayed and well-played out, doing an ambiguous ending requires not only a certain subtlety and panache, but also a level of clarity that makes it easier to understand what you're trying to do - Censor didn't quite achieve it.

However, as a meta-commentary on society, Censor did a good job of reflecting the casual sexism, wanton smoking and reactionary attitudes of the general public of 1980s Britain - a violent movie is blamed for a horrific crime and no amount of reason can persuade anyone to stop the public character assassination of Enid until the police find out that the perpetrator had never even heard of the film in question, let alone be inspired by it.

But rather than a straight out horror film, it would be more appropriate to think of Censor as a thriller with horror elements, but that doesn't stop the visual display of people having horrible things done to their bodies with sharp objects - the plot narrative of Enid being a film censor means she has to watch horrible stuff, so you have to as well.

I did, however, find joy at the end with the radio announcer stating that Britain is now essentially a utopia because the film censors had blocked everything objectionable.

But the most unrealistic thing about this film is a person on a single income is able to afford renting an apartment in London.

 

FINAL RATING: 2.75/5