’Censor’ Director Prano Bailey-Bond on the Rules of Horror and How to Break Them

If you’re reading this pop culture website, chances are you don’t think violent horror movies can warp someone’s brains and make them violent. But what if you’re wrong? Censor, a new horror film from filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond, takes place in 1980s England, where the conservative culture wars set their sights on violent horror movies, dubbed “video nasties.“ Niamh Algar stars as a British film censor who consumes countless violent horror movies every day, recommending what segments be cut in order to release them safely to an unassuming public. But when she watches a film that somehow seems to have her long-missing sister as an actor, she undergoes a psychologically taxing, metafictional journey that will bend the limits of reality and fantasy until they shatter. I spoke to co-writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond over Zoom, and we dove deep into her surreal, complicated film. We talked about the expertise of horror audiences, the need to subvert tropes at every turn, the