Her surreal journey takes her to exploitation producer Doug Smart (Michael Smiley, adding another sleazy character to his impressive repertoire) and eventually director Frederick North (Adrian Schiller), whose new film stars a woman Enid becomes convinced is her long-lost sister, Alice Lee (Sophia La Porta). Enid attempts to \u201csave\u201d Alice, never questioning her own deteriorating mental state as fantasy and reality begin to blur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That surrealism is one of the joys and frustrations of Bailey-Bond\u2019s film. Censor<\/em> is a remarkably self-assured feature debut, gorgeously shot and lit by director of photography Annika Summerson, veering from cool muted tones to Argento-esque primary colors. The movie isn\u2019t interested in making itself an exact replica of the underground and independent horror films of the period, but instead evokes them in subtle ways\u2014a few scenes in the Underground have the oppressive eeriness of Andrzej \u017bu\u0141awski\u2019s Possession<\/em> (1981), the BBFC offices have the stark officiousness of early Cronenberg, and the movie\u2019s cabin-in-the-woods scenes not only recall The Evil Dead<\/em> (1981) but at times capture the pinkish-red and green color scheme of its Palace Pictures ad campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These elements prove that Bailey-Bond knows her subject matter. Yet those coming into Censor<\/em> hoping for a Wes Craven\/Kevin Williamson-like meta dialogue, a critique and examination of the horror genre from within, will be disappointed. The film is Enid\u2019s story, and Bailey-Bond and her co-writer, Anthony Fletcher, make sure it\u2019s entirely from her perspective. As Enid starts losing her sanity, Censor<\/em> begins introducing doubt in the audience\u2019s mind about what is real and what\u2019s not, and perhaps a little too early in the runtime. There are numerous stylistic tricks and fake-outs, a lot of aspect ratio changes and shots zooming into a television screen which practically scream that reality has left the building, and that unmooring makes the film feel sluggish at times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What carries the movie through to its haunting finale is Algar\u2019s tightly controlled performance, portraying a woman deeply afraid of herself but failing to accept or understand that feeling. Literally pent-up in head-to-toe, prim and proper clothing for the majority of the film, Enid is unraveled bit by bit as she gets absorbed into her own personal horror movie, eventually ending up in a Hammer-style bloodied white nightgown, sobbing and screaming. While the film\u2019s meta text of the video nasties in Britain is pushed into the periphery, Enid seems to literally take hold of the movie itself, her mind forcibly editing out anything that doesn\u2019t conform to her preferred narrative. It\u2019s something that the film equates to a mental illness at several points, and makes the movie akin to another character study of a woman afraid to face her own demons, Robert Altman\u2019s Images<\/em> (1972), with Censor<\/em> being just as ambiguous as to its various events and consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Censor<\/em> is undeniably a character study, it\u2019s through Enid that Bailey-Bond calls into question the healthiness of censorship itself, the film\u2019s finale a \u201chappy\u201d one that feels like Soundgarden\u2019s \u201cBlack Hole Sun\u201d music video mashed up with a sickly sweet Adult Swim \u201cinfomercial,\u201d both of those prominent examples of a \u201chappy\u201d facade that\u2019s almost like plastic, barely containing unrest and reality-breaking terror underneath. Censor<\/em> seems to say that horror is not for everyone, but it is undoubtedly more honest than repressive sanitization, which looks pretty on the surface but ultimately does more harm than good. ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/crookedc-01.svg\")
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