Catchup Review: Censor

Censor
Cert: 15 / 84 mins / Dir. Prano Bailey-Bond / Trailer

Not every anticipated release gets to shine on the big screen (especially in the current maelstrom of UK distribution), but then some movies seem purposely designed to be watched at home...

As a slightly uptight London film examiner for the BBFC at the height of the early 1980s video nasty scare, Enid (Naimh Algar) is shaken by a piece which should be run of the gory-mill but instead seems to raise suppressed memories of the unsolved disappearance of her sister Nina when they were both children. Is there a chance that Nina is still alive? And what will it mean for her world if that's the case?

PLAYERS

What's immediately pleasing about director and co-writer Prano Bailey-Bond's Censor is that it's a feature debut, and what a great way to start. Not only does she have an understatedly brilliant players in Algar, Nicholas Burns, Vincent Franklin, Clare Holman, Felicity Montagu and Michael Smiley, but they're directed with the focus of a veteran. The commitment of the cast is a key factor of course, with the only over-playing being reserved for the roles where that's intentional.

Annika Summerson's cinematography is quietly assured in setting mood and tone while keeping even the darkest scenes visible (where they're supposed to be)*¹, and the use of sets masquerading as outdoor locations adds to the claustrophobia and sense of shifted reality. Meanwhile, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's haunting score is the perfect companion piece in its own right to the visuals. The script, co-penned with Anthony Fletcher, feels a little on-the-nose in places; never unforgivably so, but this seems to be a casualty of the brisk pacing. That said, it also leads to some fantastic moments of show-don't-tell where lesser filmmakers would have shoehorned in a paragraph of exposition instead.

WOODBINES

Thematically, Bailey-Bond is on intriguing ground. Dealing with guilt and trauma head-on, there's a deeper exploration of psychological regression which only begins to be uncovered. And an interesting use of aspect-ratio helps reality break down through layers in several places which would, despite my opening gambit above, work at maximum effect on a cinema screen.

Although it's tempting to compare the film to Saint Maud, this is probably closer in tone to a British version of Mandy. High praise, either way.

The lean 84 minute run-time seems perfectly in keeping with the protagonist's linear descent into psychosis, although with those two aspects combined this often feels like a film playing with ideas rather than presenting them as fully formed. It's either the perfect length or needs to be an hour longer, nothing between.

Censor's dream-like unravelling invites further viewings, while resolutely refusing to promise clearer conclusions. But isn't that what the rewind button is for..?

*¹ And fair play to Prano Bailey-Bond and the costume and make-up departments in at least attempting to pull off their greatest noble failure: trying to make Naimh Algar look Dowdy™. This is the UK equivalent of putting glasses on Kat Dennings. No one's buying it mate, but points for the effort. ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories
Cert: 15 / 98 mins / Dir. Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman / Trailer



Well it's not often I get to walk out of a horror movie, excited by how much I loved it and just glad to be back in the light of the foyer. To do this twice in one week seems unheard of*¹.

Ghost Stories is an anthology-format feature film from Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson, adapted from their stage play of the same name. In it, Nyman plays Professor Phillip Goodman, a paranormal investigator who specialises in debunking claims of the supernatural and exposing charlatans on the 'stage medium' circuit. When he's called to a dilapidated caravan park in Yorkshire by Charles Cameron, a retired debunker and one of Phillip's similarly-minded idols, our hero is presented with three 'unsolved' cases. Speaking with the originators of each experience, Goodman slowly realises that something connects their inexplicable stories, and that link may be closer to home than he likes...

Now on paper, this should be a pretty standard affair. Although titled Ghost Stories, this is, make no bones about it, a horror film*². With segments taking place in an abandoned asylum and a car which breaks down in the woods at night, it's not so much that the film is 'textbook' in its approach, more that this is a lesson being taught with that textbook.

The nested storytelling is like an Inception of the macabre, beginning with urban decay, slamming doors and an escalating sense of suffocation. The third tale in Goodman's investigation goes to the windswept moors and a spacious, empty nursery, changing gears with unfettered agoraphobia, reminding the characters and audience alike that they're not safe anywhere*³.

Ghost Stories is, quite frankly, terrifying. Gleefully sadistic in its scares, even though it's a celebration of well-used mechanics in the genre. For the seasoned horror fan, the film acts as its own challenge to the cynical, as we become Goodman, the skeptic being preached to from all sides on the importance of belief, but still stubbornly waiting to be scared by the ride.

The roots as a stage-performance are evident throughout, but this adds to the intensity of the piece. Nyman and Dyson understand on a fundamental level that having someone hear strange noises in a derelict building isn't scary. Horror lies more in fear of the unknown than the reveal (which is why you generally don't show the monster in a first act), but to convey that sense of utter dread, the viewer needs to relate to the character experiencing it. Enter Paul Whitehouse and Alex Lawther, separately recounting their supernatural encounters and assuring the twitching audience that they'd fare no better in the same situations. The performances all-round are an acting masterclass. Martin Freeman is also in the film.

Each story seems to end without a definitive payoff (other than the knowledge that the teller of each tale survived to relay it to the interviewer), but it's all wrapped up in the finale. Ghost Stories' pulling together of the threads is magnificent. Again, there's little actual twist in 'the twist' if you're sitting second-guessing, but the storytelling follows the rules of the genre with absolute distinction.

These are the creative fruits of the tree watered with Hammer House of Horror and books that we were too scared to open*⁴. A movie which knows the key difference between telling its audience when to be frightened, and just frightening its audience.

Ghost Stories is masterful. As someone who has seen enough mediocre horror to have become thoroughly bored with the genre, I can give this no higher recommendation...

Tales Of The Unexpected, The League of Gentlemen and, oddly enough, Mindhorn.



It is.



All of the above.



It could well be.



We wouldn't disagree about this because you'll love it, too.
Won't you.



There isn't.



Level 1: That Canto Bight jail guard is in this.





*¹ I'm afraid I don't really categorise my reviews by genre, so it's more than the work of a few clicks to backtrack and find out, I'm afraid. As regular readers will be aware, I'm as harshly critical on horror as I am comedy (each having a very specific brief), so I know for a fact that me liking two horror flicks within the same half of a year is unusual, never mind in the same week... ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Back in August, I told Mrs Blackout (who doesn't like horror movies) she'd love A Ghost Story as it's not a horror but an actual story about ghosts. Ghost Stories, on the other hand, is co-helmed by Jeremy Dyson, whose televisual and literary work she enjoys, yet she'd make it about seven minutes into this film before having to leave the room... ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ Speaking of the audience, there was an advert for Taylor Swift's UK stadium tour in front of this film. That's not an unusual type of product in itself, but there's normally some broad demographic link (a similar promo ran for N*ckleback in front of The Huntsman) - that's generally how advertising works. But the Taylor Swift advert didn't run before A Wrinkle In Time on the same day. Who do the film distributors think is watching Ghost Stories, exactly? ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ But kept opening anyway... ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.