PAUSE AND EFFECT (CENSOR)

In a world where a lot of content is available now with a few pushes of a button, the video nasty controversy of the late 1970s and 1980s seems a bit quaint.

As VHS video recorders became a must have in people's living rooms in the UK, it created opportunities for extreme violence and pornography to go directly into homes that had been protected by just three or four channel TV.

That created a moral panic, with Mary Whitehouse and others demanding certain films be banned.

Abel Ferrara's 'The Driller Killer' was the first film to generate controversy about its availability on video and that was quickly followed by Ruggero Deodarto's Italian found footage horror movie 'Cannibal Holocaust'.

Other titles that sparked outrage were Meir Zarchi's rape and revenge tale  'I Spit On Your Grave,' Antonio Margheriti's 'Cannibal Apocalypse,' Wes Craven's 'The Last House On The Left' and Dario Argento's 'Inferno'.

Welsh filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond first dipped into this world six years ago with a 15 minute short film called 'Nasty'.

In her short, Albie Marber played a 12 year old called Doug who discovers video nasties while trying to understand the disappearance of his father.

Out of that short film emerged Bailey-Bond's debut feature 'Censor' - a tale about a young woman working for the British Board of  Film Classification in the 1980s who is haunted by the disappearance of her sister.

Niamh Algar's Enid Baines is a strict censor when it comes to assessing violent video nasties.

She is so strict that her co-workers call her "Little Miss Perfect." 

However Enid is also struggling to come to terms with the fact that her parents, Clare Holman's June and Andrew Havill's George have come to the belief that her missing sister Nina is dead.

When a tabloid storm erupts over a man murdering his wife and child after viewing a film Enid rated several months earlier, she starts to receive threatening phone calls when she is revealed as the censor who passed it.

Around this time, she also bumps into Michael Smiley's lecherous producer Doug Smart in her office.

Introduced by her boss Vincent Franklin's Fraser, Smart reveals he works with a veteran horror director, Adrian Schiller's Frederick North.

He recommends that she should view one of the director's films 'Last Church On The Left'.

Watching the film, she notices a similarly between the plot and the disappearance of Nina.

This leads Enid into a downward spiral that will see her hunt down the same director's banned work and an actress, Sophia La Porta's Alice Lee who bears a resemblance to her sister.

In interviews promoting 'Censor', Bailey-Bond has not been shy about her love of the horror genre and her extensive knowledge of video nasties.

That passion is evident throughout her debut feature.

Clips from 'The Driller Killer,' Romano Scavolini's 'Nightmare in a Damaged Brain' and Frank Roach's 'Frozen Scream' all pop up during the course of the film.

However as she and her cinematographer Annika Summerson cleverly flit between using 35mm, Super 8 and VHS stock to give 'Censor' an authentic 1980s feel, dues are also paid to the work of Dario Argento, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and Sam Raimi.

There are hints too of Robert de Niro's Travis Bickle and George C Scott's Jake van Dorn's descent into the seedy underworld of Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' and Paul Schrader's 'Hardcore'.

But as atmospheric and ambitious as Bailey-Bond's film undoubtedly is, it does not quite pack the same emotional punch as Scorsese and Schrader's work - although admittedly, it is a bit unfair to measure 'Censor' against these yardsticks.

Viewers may feel it may be more appropriate to reference the best of recent British horror.

'Censor' has the same unsettling feeling as Ben Wheatley's 'Kill List' and 'A Field in England' and Peter Strickland's 'Berberian Sound Studio' and it holds up pretty well against those accomplished, very disturbing films.

A lot of this is down to Bailey-Bond and the work of Summerson as well as Mark Towns' editing and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch.

But a huge part is down to the casting of Algar who brings her trademark intelligence and vulnerability to the part of Enid.

There are shades too of Jack Nicholson's descent into madness in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' in her performance and Edward Woodward's walk on the wild side in Robin Hardy's 'The Wicker Man'.

If Algar's performance dominates the film, she is ably assisted by a smart supporting cast.

Smiley is on top form as the slimy film producer Smart, while Franklin, Clare Perkins, Nicholas Burns, Felicity Montagu and Danny Lee Wynter are excellent as her fellow censors.

Holman and Havill are effective as Enid's parents, while Schiller, Sophia La Porta and Guillaume Delaunay as the Beastman build a disturbing atmosphere on the set of a horror film Enid becomes obsessed with.

And while the conclusion might not pack quite the punch Bailey-Bond hopes, it is still effective.

As debut features go, 'Censor' is a hell of an opening statement from the Welsh director.

It'll be intriguing to see how her career develops.

('Censor' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on August 20, 2021)