Sunday, July 10, 2022

Censor

 There's been a few exploitation and '70s style extreme gore throwbacks over the years, but Censor is the first genre movie I've watched that centers around and is ultimately about the UK's Video Nasty panic. It was a political and media circus pitched by the usual bunch of reprobates (it rhymes with gories) and their usual cheerleaders in the media that basically laid blame for all of society's ills on a list of fringe extreme horror films. It's an attack on society, won't you think of the children, etc etc.
 The way I understand it is that in the dawn of the VHS/Beta era films that were refused a classification on cinemas, or never sought it out, could go straight to home video without any oversight; there they could be prosecuted for obscenity, but many productions chanced it anyways. A big moral panic was launched in the mid-eighties that caused a regulation board to be established, but lists of forbidden nasties were maintained (some of the films were released later with cuts) and held a grip on public imagination for a long time. I mean, I knew about them, and the associated illicit tape trade, and I was living in another country at the time. Of course, we used the lists as a guide of stuff to watch, but hey.
 It's a really interesting subject, and a text-book example of political and media scare mongering, including the focus on the children.

 As a foreigner, Censor's timeframe is a bit hard to work out; there's a news item about the miner's strike, which would date this to 1985 at the latest, I think? But that's the year the censor board would have been established, and their operation seems pretty well established in the film. There's a (fictional?) plot point involving Demented, which would place this after 1987, when it was (re)released with cuts; So... dunno, and in the end it doesn't really matter; it seems to be a pretty loose take. Its writer/director was born in 1982, for fuck's sake.

 I'm going to avoid going into specific plot points, but it's hard to keep talking about this without inadvertently spoiling anything. So be warned.




 The protagonist and titular Censor, Enid, works for the BBFC - the agency in charge of evaluating films, giving them an age rating, and suggesting cuts (though this is blurred in the film - it seems to imply they make the cuts themselves). She's a mousy sort, tightly buttoned down, which... yeah, this is not a subtle movie. Enid's a true believer, someone who thinks what she does is making a difference, and also the type of person who would be worn down by what I might jokingly call a dream job (jokingly; there's a pretty harrowing scene where she and a co-worker have to watch a long rape scene; focus is kept on their reaction.)
 The situation at work is stressful, and on a personal level a chat with her parents introduces a childhood trauma: her sister went missing under mysterious circumstances under her watch, and Enid, who remembers nothing of the incident, is still looking for closure. So when a nasties director specifically asks for her to evaluate his new horror movie, and the movie seems to echo the few memories she has of her sister's disappearance, things take a dark turn.

 It's an effective and tense story, and a fun ride while it lasts*. I have some issues with it, but the execution is good to hold it up even if the destination is a bit underwhelming.
 The budget is pretty low, but well spent with convincing period locations and good actors. And they have some great material to work with - the dialog is sharp, well observed, and fun.
 As for the gore, there's some pretty satisfying bloodletting for a psychological thriller - more Dario Argento than Tom Savini, although there's a neat little reference to Evil Dead 2. The use of the VHS video format and old horror movie conventions (as filtered through a more modern lens, much like Mandy) is fun, as well.

 It's all highly allegorical, so if that sort of thing bothers you you can safely stay away. The message is pretty well woven into its plot, but I did ultimately find the lack of subtlety and surprises disappointing as it built into a crescendo at the end that slightly soured me on the film. But not enough to not recommend it.
 

*: eighty-three minutes - one minute shorter than Beavis and Butthead do the Universe!

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