Censor

This is a typical hyped British film from the BFI and Film Four the main money attached to the movie. As is typical of hype, it usually covers up average or if not, just plain rubbish. Is this rubbish? No, but it is a full length debut so it 5/10, if it were a seasoned director it would be a 4/10 at best. There is nothing new, no new technique, no new plot twist, not even new scenes. Just a very average film that pinches from 70's gore fests to the present (Stranger Things, Color Out of Space). It's not even well directed or acted in places, it's just the critics keeping the board of the BFI, Film Four happy so they can keep having the jollies together. If you have an hour and half to kill for an average film where you enter with nothing and expect nothing, well this is for you.

I really wanted this to be great. And if you were, like me to believe the press then the director is on a par with Kubrick. But, alas it's all just hype, hype, hype. And that is so damaging for the director it's untrue. Do the press not care about her career. Many of us now feel conned by being lured in to believing we were getting something expectational and sadly all we got was something mediocre.

I liked how it started. The censorship theme is great and original. I didn't like how the story played out in the second half. All in all, not a great movie for me. Not a great horror or thriller or drama film. But still I enjoyed some parts of this movie.

The synopsis for 'Censor' sounds ridiculously good. It's such an intriguing idea for a movie. Sadly, as is usually the case, the reality isn't quite as entertaining as the concept. The movie started off well and actually had a really gripping and clever set-up period. But as the film went on it chose to go further and further down the strange and bizarre route and it just lost me.

This is a debut effort for filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond. He shows some real promise. Even though I didn't love the direction the film chose to go in, the writing was still very sound. At least he picked a route and went with it convincingly. Usually the dialogue in these low-budget, debut films is noticeably bad, but here it was well above average I would to say. It was interesting and felt natural. There's certainly some talent behind the scenes here.

The film is short at only 84 minutes and it moves a long at a reasonable pace, so you are never caught checking your watch. There's enough to like here for people to enjoy, and it's possible some people will prefer the plot-path the film decided to go down more than I did. I will give this one a light recommendation. It might just pleasantly surprise you.

"Censor" should on paper be a film that I would be instantly in to. Set in the "Video Nasties" time in the UK, it's about the story of a video censor and her descent into madness.

Similar stories have already been told in the likes of Berberian Sound Studio or Evil Ed - and while Censor has some brilliant moments of atmosphere and a haunting ending, the whole thing didn't really fully come together for me in the end.

I think maybe the psychological state of our protagonist was not established enough to fully believe her transition, so it all felt a bit too forced.

But there's still a lot to admire in Prano Bailey-Bond's debut feature, it just wasn't as engaging as I had hoped.