As I spend my life trying to figure out why I do what I do, I take book and movie recommendations. I really should note who recommends what because it often drives me crazy trying to figure that out after the fact. A friend recommended Censor, and since this friend told me where it was streaming for free I’m sure I got the right one. Like several one-word title movies, there are several with the same sobriquet. This was the 2021 movie and it’s a British horror film which raises the question of why we watch horror. It does this through the eyes of the eponymous censor (Enid) who’s particularly tough on movies. Set during the “video nasty” scare of eighties Britain, the question is whether such movies motivate real violence but with the twist that the censor is the one who turns violent.
Enid is haunted by her missing sister and she finds a video nasty star who looks like her sibling and becomes convinced that it’s her. Enid gets to the set where her movie’s being shot (a remote cabin in the woods) and ends up killing the star and director (after accidentally killing the producer earlier, in self-defense). She kidnaps her “sister,” and in her imagination—rainbows are everywhere—takes her home. That’s where the real social commentary comes in because during this imaginary drive the radio announcer says these kinds of movies have stopped, and all crime and violence have ceased, and social harmony has returned to Britain. This is revealed, of course, as a delusion.
Left to my own devices, I probably wouldn’t have watched this movie. I don’t like blood and gore—I’m more looking for gothic themes like haunted houses—but it turns out that this is a smart film. That’s probably why it was recommended to me. Intelligent but also with tongue in cheek at times. Still, it’s a movie about reconciling with childhood trauma, which is something that speaks to me personally. That’s a wound I don’t always like to have poked. It’s one of those movies on which I’d like to see more analysis, maybe talk to Prano Bailey-Bond, the writer and director. Horror with female directors is often thoughtful, and movies are really meant to be discussed (just like books are). The question remains—why do we watch disturbing movies? I know I’m not the only one who does. And in this case I remember who recommended it, so perhaps I’ll be able to get some closure.
