Censor: Magnolia Pictures to release British horror film in North America

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Magnolia Pictures has announced that they have acquired the North American distribution rights to the British psychological horror film Censor, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia will be releasing the film on June 11th.

The feature directorial debut of Prano Bailey-Bond, who also wrote the screenplay with Anthony Fletcher, Censor is described as being a "twisted, bloody love letter to the low-budget horror films of the 1980s". Set in the '80s, it stars Niamh Algar as 

film censor Enid, who discovers an eerie horror that speaks directly to her sister’s mysterious disappearance. She resolves to unravel the puzzle behind the film and its enigmatic director – a quest that will blur the lines between fiction and reality in terrifying ways.

Here's another synopsis: 

In “Censor,” a young woman, Enid, is seen at work as a film censor in Britain in the 1980s, a time when the growing popularity of VHS players had led to a boom in cheaply made horror films, which soon acquired the nickname “video nasties” in the tabloid press. After a gruesome killing, which the press claims was inspired by a horror film, Enid finds herself in the eye of a media storm, as she had passed the film for distribution.

Enid, we discover, is still mourning the loss of her sister, who had disappeared in mysterious circumstances as a child. Enid, who had been with her at the time, recalls nothing but a dreamlike memory of a forest. She is convinced that her sibling is still alive. Her parents, on the other hand, want her to accept that her sister is dead. Meanwhile, Enid’s work as a censor gives her the illusion that she can protect people from the violence in the world.

This sounds very interesting to me.

Magnolia's Eamonn Boweles said, 

Prano Bailey-Bond has delivered a frightening, incredibly original film. It is a rare work that has a lot on its mind as well as being genuinely terrifying."

Bailey-Bond added,

Magnolia Pictures champion exactly the unique, powerful cinema that I love, releasing titles that have truly resonated with me: ‘The Square,’ ‘Let the Right One In,’ ‘Shoplifters,’ ‘Tangerine’… for ‘Censor’ to have found a home on this remarkable slate is amazing!”

Censor was produced by Silver Salt Films' Helen Jones. It was developed by the BFI, Film4, Creative England via the BFI Network and Ffilm Cymru Wales.