Enid Baines, an extremely introvert and inconspicuous woman in her late twenties, works for the British Board of Film Censors during the early 1980s; - around the time of the infamous "video nasties". She has the reputation of being strict and prudish, but she also carries with her the unprocessed childhood trauma of when her sister Nina disappeared in the woods although Enid was supposed to be looking after her. During the censor screening of a horror film named "Don't go in the Church" - got to love the title -, Enid sees scarily accurate details from the day of Nina's disappearance, and even recognizes her now adult sister in the B-movie lead actress Alice Lee. Enid goes on a private quest to discover whether or not the mysterious director Frederick North kidnapped her sister.
Being an obsessive horror fanatic, with a particular fondness for extreme stuff from the 70s and 80s, I was obviously very attracted by the thematic. My movie-buddies and me have seen all titles on the legendary "video nasty" list, and it was definitely interesting to see an actual genre film truthfully incorporating the modus operandi, parameters, internal debates and decisions of the censorship commission. And, of course, writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond simply must underline the main moral a couple of times, namely "NO to censorship". Movies don't provoke violence, people with unsane minds commit violence. It's a moral I support for a full 100%, evidently!
The mystery/thriller plot itself is also better than expected, with some compelling sequences and a forceful performance by Niamh Algar. Enid's descent into paranoia is far from plausible, but there's pitch-black humor and a bit of nice gore.
Tip for fellow video-nasty fanatics: spot all the little references, clips and homages to contemporary horror classics and guess the titles!
Being an obsessive horror fanatic, with a particular fondness for extreme stuff from the 70s and 80s, I was obviously very attracted by the thematic. My movie-buddies and me have seen all titles on the legendary "video nasty" list, and it was definitely interesting to see an actual genre film truthfully incorporating the modus operandi, parameters, internal debates and decisions of the censorship commission. And, of course, writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond simply must underline the main moral a couple of times, namely "NO to censorship". Movies don't provoke violence, people with unsane minds commit violence. It's a moral I support for a full 100%, evidently!
The mystery/thriller plot itself is also better than expected, with some compelling sequences and a forceful performance by Niamh Algar. Enid's descent into paranoia is far from plausible, but there's pitch-black humor and a bit of nice gore.
Tip for fellow video-nasty fanatics: spot all the little references, clips and homages to contemporary horror classics and guess the titles!