It's 1984, you can tell by the chorded phones, but more importantly by the explosion of horror VHS tapes. A banned film loophole, tapes bypassed the cinema system, allowing the production of what was salaciously labelled in Margaret Thatcher's Britain as Video Nasties. These were convenient targets in the rising crime blame game and made for perfect tabloid fodder. A rating system was quickly cobbled in place, and a dedicated team of censors with sharp scissors decided the fate of the new art form. It was an interesting time.
As bookish, spectacled and hair-bunned Enid, Niamh Algar is delightfully stoic as a choice cutter who seems unaffected by the steady stream of B-movie drek she has to wade through on a daily basis. Enid debates screen violence with her co-workers in a professional, clinical, detached manner, like she was dead inside. Turns out a part of her may be just that, in the form of her missing sister. A mysterious disappearance from childhood days that is quite the obsession. Even though their parents want to move on, Enid is defiant and desperate to find her younger sibling. Things get interesting.
What begins as a moody mystery slowly morphs into psychological thriller as Enid traverses from her boring reality into the surreal world of horror movie making. With not so subtle nods to David Cronenberg's "Videodrome", "Censor" plays with the blurry lines of fact and fiction, steadily ramping up the pitch before climaxing to a bizarre finale. Enid finally lets her hair down, the screen turns red, and things get super crazy.
Not for the squeamish, "Censor" becomes the film within the film, deliver some ketchuppy eighties gore, startling video style glitchy edits, a host of creepy performances, and an ending sure to fire up the discussion boards.
As bookish, spectacled and hair-bunned Enid, Niamh Algar is delightfully stoic as a choice cutter who seems unaffected by the steady stream of B-movie drek she has to wade through on a daily basis. Enid debates screen violence with her co-workers in a professional, clinical, detached manner, like she was dead inside. Turns out a part of her may be just that, in the form of her missing sister. A mysterious disappearance from childhood days that is quite the obsession. Even though their parents want to move on, Enid is defiant and desperate to find her younger sibling. Things get interesting.
What begins as a moody mystery slowly morphs into psychological thriller as Enid traverses from her boring reality into the surreal world of horror movie making. With not so subtle nods to David Cronenberg's "Videodrome", "Censor" plays with the blurry lines of fact and fiction, steadily ramping up the pitch before climaxing to a bizarre finale. Enid finally lets her hair down, the screen turns red, and things get super crazy.
Not for the squeamish, "Censor" becomes the film within the film, deliver some ketchuppy eighties gore, startling video style glitchy edits, a host of creepy performances, and an ending sure to fire up the discussion boards.
- hipCRANK.