PopHorror Let's Get Scared
One of the best films I’ve seen this year is Censor (2021 – read our review here). Written and directed by the up-and-coming filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond—you definitely want to keep her on your radar!—Censor weaves a thrilling and suspenseful tale of a Video Nasty censor, played by Niamh Algar, who is having trouble separating the universe encased in the VHS tapes she spends her days watching and the real world. I was lucky enough to chat with Prano and Niamh via Zoom, and we discussed what inspired the film, Video Nasties, and what’s up next for them both.
PopHorror: I loved Censor so much. I’m so glad I got a chance to watch it, and I’m excited to speak with you both today.
Prano Bailey-Bond: That’s so cool, thank you!
PopHorror: Of course! So, what was the inspiration for the film?
Prano Bailey-Bond: The kind of first seed of the idea for Censor came from, I was actually reading an article about the Hammer Horror era, so slightly earlier than when Censor is set, and there was this comment in there about how censors would work during this period, and that they would always cut the image of blood on a breast of a woman because they believed that blood on the breast of a woman would make men likely to commit rape. And I was like, okay, well surely a lot of the film censors were men. What stopped the film censor from losing control if these images are supposed to make us do these horrible things? So it kind of started there and I loved the idea of telling a story of a film censor who was having a strange relationship with what was going on, on screen. And I started to read about censorship through the ages and very quickly landed in the Video Nasty era because in the UK, the moral panic surrounding VHS horror was pretty insane so it was like a no brainer to land there.
PopHorror: Niamh, how did you then become involved with the project? What intrigued you about it?
Niamh Algar: I got an audition. They said, “Prano Bailey-Bond is directing her debut feature,” and I was like,”Oh wait, I know that name.” We had met back in 2018 at The Screen International Screen’s Stars of Tomorrow. We were both selected that year. I read it, and just absolutely fell in love with the character and the story. It was like you said. Where it ends and where it begins just completely blew my mind and I just loved this character that Prano had created. I’m excited to just get a hold of it and play this character and researcher, and create something that some people haven’t seen the idea of, you know? The idea of psychological distortion and where you can kind of push the boundaries of what audiences have already seen, and create something new.
PopHorror: I have to say that the subject was something that I haven’t seen before so I appreciate that. And I really loved the Video Nasty focus in the film. Were you guys fans of the Nasties before?
Prano Bailey-Bond: I’m a big fan. I grew up watching horror but I wasn’t really aware of the Video Nasty panic growing up because I was so young. I was born in 1982 and I grew up in the middle of rural Wales so none of this stuff kind of reached me. Obviously there was no internet, so I was growing up watching things like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Evil Dead because I could get my hands on videos like that. I didn’t really have an awareness until I was a bit older, of the more like the political and social side of what happened. And then kind of in my 20s, when I moved to London and I was able to access some of the other films, I really could delve in and start exploring the more obscure titles that didn’t reach rural Wales in the 80s and 90s.
PopHorror: I was born in 80 and I grew up in Small Town Ohio, so it didn’t reach me either. Not until I was much older. What about you, Niamh?
Niamh Algar: No, I wasn’t familiar with it so Prano kindly, on my first week of prep, got me this documentary on Video Nasties and I watched that. Before that, I was in South Africa and filming the first season of Raised By Wolves, and she sent me kind of like a watch list of Video Nasties to check out. I educated myself that way.
PopHorror: And I love this movie so much that I’m really excited to see what else you have in store for us. What’s up next for both of you?
Prano Bailey-Bond: Well, I’m writing, so it’s all early days. I’m writing a few projects, but they’re too early to sort of say what they are at this stage but very exciting. Some things that are very much leaning into horror and some things that… Not really entirely sure what genre they are yet, but all lots of fun stuff.
PopHorror: That’s awesome! I can’t wait to see what’s coming up. What about you, Niamh?
Niamh Algar: Well, I’m currently in Cape Town filming season two of Raised By Wolves. It’ll be out, perhaps later on in the year. And I’ve got a TV show called Deceit, that’s going to be in the autumn. So excited for audiences to see that because it’s so different. I like to make sure that what I’m doing, that each art is different, never kind of… repeating. Just exploring different people. For me, it’s just so interesting to be given the opportunity to be paid to study people. They’re so odd and wonderful.
PopHorror: That’s awesome. I’m really excited for both of you. And I wanted to mention that I really loved the color palette, the red and the blue. It really was reminiscent of wearing 3D glasses. Was that intentional on your part?
Prano Bailey-Bond: No, it’s funny because it was almost like afterwards we were like, “Oh wow, it’s 3D colors,” but actually it was because the red and the blue and green is kind of very much like the split of VHS colors, like when you get a VHS distortion. So, that was really where those colors were coming from. So it was in hindsight we were like, “Wow, I wonder what this would look like with 3D glasses?” But yeah, the color was a really fun thing to weave through the film. Like starting in this very bleak, gray, blue British world, and then weaving in pinks and purples quite subtly into Enid’s real life. I get very excited about color so, you get me in the color grade and I’m like, “Can we turn up the saturation?” So it was a really, really fun project to work on from that perspective, when you can make color part of the story as well.
PopHorror: I find that coloring like that is almost like its own character in the movie. I just have one last question for you both. What is your favorite scary movie?
Prano Bailey-Bond: So mine is Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, which is a 70s horror film that not that many people have seen, but I’m going to make everybody watch this film because it’s just this incredible film that sort of… I suppose it really treads that line of a psychological breakdown and a woman who is questioning her sanity, and whether something is real or if it’s all in her head. I made Niamh watch the film during prep for Censor because I thought it was relevant, in that sense. I’m a huge fan of that film. I really recommend people check it out.
Prano Bailey-Bond: I have not seen it and that is a great answer.
Niamh Algar: Mine is Alien. Yeah, I think it’s just Sigourney Weaver. I’m watching that as a kid and being very influenced because it’s like a female lead who takes complete ownership over her world. And that was really quite powerful to watch.
Thank you so much, Prano and Niamh, for taking the time to speak with us. Be sure to check out Censor, in theaters and OnDemand now!
