Censor (2021)

We’re back and we’re getting ready to snip. Our scissors are sharp, our tape is sticky and our minds are made up. This poor film doesn’t stand a chance. Sure, we could censor it carefully, preserving as much of the original narrative as possible, but would that really be safe? Far better to hack away in a frenzy of righteousness! And then, maybe, we can move on to cutting up the real source of corruption. Main Topic: Censor Following on from last episode’s discussion of moral panics over horror, we thought we’d look at a film that explores similar ideas. Censor is a 2021 British horror film, written and directed by Prano Bailey-Bond. It is set against the backdrop of the video nasties furore of the 1980s, following film censor Enid as she struggles to differentiate between imaginary horrors and real ones. We use the film as a launching pad to discuss the more general topics of censorship, video nasties, and the not-so-good old days following the crackdown on horror films in the UK. Links Things we mention in this episode include: * Is Horror Dangerous? * Prano Bailey-Bond * Nasty (2015) * Video Nasties * Michael Smiley * Spaced * A Field in England (2013) * Nicholas Burns * Nathan Barley * Vincent Franklin * The Thick of It * Kim Newman * The Evil Dead (1981) * The Video Recordings Act 1984 * October Horror Movie Challenge * Lucio Fulci * Anthropophagous (1980) * The Horror Geek YouTube channel * British Board of Film Classification * Deranged (1974) * Ed Gein