A video censor’s life gets turned upside down in Censor, the directorial debut of Prano Bailey-Bond that received positive reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film appropriately premiered in the Midnight slate of premieres and was later acquired by Magnolia Pictures. Now, the film will finally hit theaters and video-on-demand services this June. To celebrate its impending release, Magnolia has released a trailer and poster for the film.
The film follows Enid (Raised By Wolves’ Niamh Algar), a British film censor working at the height of the country’s video nasties panic in the 1980s. For those unfamiliar, this phenomenon took aim at horror and other genre movies that were deemed too obscene for the public. One such film is sent in for Enid - long since unfazed by the graphic gore similar movies contain - to review. However, this particular film harbors dark secrets and sends her towards a path of paranoia. As her work ethic begins to be questioned, she finds herself in the middle of a terrifying conspiracy involving her missing sister. I was lucky enough to catch this film at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival, and while I won’t give anything away, audiences are in for a twisty treat with Censor.
Check out the trailer, synopsis, and poster for Censor below. The film will arrive in theaters on June 11 in the U.S. and VOD on June 18.
“Film censor Enid takes pride in her meticulous work, guarding unsuspecting audiences from the deleterious effects of watching the gore-filled decapitations and eye-gougings she pores over. Her sense of duty to protect is amplified by guilt over her inability to recall details of the long-ago disappearance of her sister, recently declared dead in absentia. When Enid is assigned to review a disturbing film from the archive that echoes her hazy childhood memories, she begins to unravel how this eerie work might be tied to her past.”
