Hello everyone, Matthew here with another review at BlazinBlue's Review. Thank you for taking the time to check out this bonus review. If you are new here, thank you for taking the time to check things out. If you've been around for awhile, thank you for your support.
Bonus Reviews are going to happen from time to time. They are for films that I may not have necessarily planned on covering originally. And now sounds as good a time to release another - as have hit a small minor snag with Such Sights To Show You. So yeah, please excuse the technical difficulties while I work that out.
In the mean time, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a little film called Censor. Censor was released in 2021. When it was originally released, I remember hearing a little bit about it from word of mouth. The big takeaway was to check it out if had the opportunity. Since then, I kept my eye on it. Now if you are interested in checking the film out, I'd recommend going in blind. It honestly made for a very interesting experience that way. Be prepared this review is also going to feature spoilers. If you don't want the film spoiled, turn away now and then come back after you check out the film. The spoilers will start after the synopsis for Censor.
For those that are interested, the synopsis is as follows: A British Film censor links a disturbing horror movie to her sister's disappearance, and vows to unravel the mystery.
Okay, the spoilers will begin after this. For the last time, if you don't want Censor (2021) spoiled for you - turn away and come back after watching it.
Still here? Okay.
Censor is an experience. It's something that I honestly didn't know what was going to happen. It is a film that may not necessarily be for everyone. It has an original story. It feels different and unique.
While the story may be unique and a bit fresh, something I did notice is that it did feel relatively similar to another horror film that had the chance of catching. Of course, I'm talking about Saint Maud. Saint Maud was a film that was delayed and then finally saw released. My partner had seen the trailer and was incredibly interested in that particular film. I went into that film with a complete open mind. And it definitely wasn't my cup of tea.
However, Censor definitely fell into the category of my cup of tea. Video Nasties was a huge term in the 80s. There were plenty of horror films that became labelled a Video Nasty. It's something that still intrigues me. Through the early act of this film, we are able to get an idea of what a censor's job consists of. Honestly, I will admit that I never considered what that job would consist of.
Enid is one of the best censors at their company. They take their job extremely serious. The motivation that Enid had definitely feels valid. When she was younger, her sister and her were playing in the woods. But apparently at some point, her sister disappeared. Unfortunately for Enid, it's something that she had a hard time letting go and coming to terms with. She has always been hoping that her sister would come back to her someday. So, the idea of Enid taking it upon herself to attempt a 'censor war' against the video nasties to try and help society. It's very interesting.
The way that the story manages to play out. It's so extremely different than Saint Maud. However, we are right there alongside Enid as she is on this journey. This is a journey that very much feels like a tragic fairy tale. I would honestly akin the feeling that I was getting to something like Running Scared. (If you haven't seen Running Scared, what are you waiting for? Go check it out.) The deeper the story went, the further down the rabbit hole we went with Enid. It left me curious as to how things would play out.
The pacing is a bit slow. I mentioned that, for some, it may not be what they were expecting. But it definitely doesn't disappoint if you give it a shot. It may not be as violent as some may expect. But there is blood. It's just all wrapped in an extremely interesting story. There is a bit of a brief subplot - it's revolving around a man arrested and claiming a horror film influenced him in committing the murder. I honestly was wondering if that would somehow manage to wrap itself around and somehow be relevant to the overall story. However, it's something that kind of overlooked. Maybe something could have been done a little more with that idea.
I don't necessarily want to dive any deeper into the film because it's something that better going in blind. It is strongly a psychological horror as the film unfolds. Hell, by the time the ending arrived - I wasn't sure what was going on. The film literally sets us into Enid's mind. I applaud having Enid being so interesting and relatable. Strongly an Alice in Wonderland deep dark feeling.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Follow BlazinBlue's Review on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
No comments:
Post a Comment