Six films that explore the horror of grief and trauma

Censor takes us back to 1980s Great Britain, during the height of the “Video Nasties” craze. The British Board of Film Classification is responsible for reviewing controversial films (usual of the horror genre), deciding whether or not said films should be cut or banned altogether.

Enid (Niamh Algar) is one of those reviewers, and she takes her job very seriously. She even looks prim and proper, with her buttoned up blouses and scholarly glasses. But Enid’s past is a bit tragic. When she was a child, her sister Nina disappeared, and as a way of coping with the resulting grief and trauma, Enid has convinced herself that Nina is still alive. When her parents tell her they are going to have Nina declared legally dead, Enid’s sanity begins to unravel.

Things get worse when a man butchers his wife and children, then blames a violent film he had recently watched. It comes out that Enid was one of the reviewers who had approved said film. Enid is both embarrassed and horrified at that revelation, and her sense of reality begins to slip even more.

The final straw comes when a mysterious director specifically requests that Enid review his film, called Don’t Go In the Church. As she watches the movie, Enid flashes back to memories of the night her sister disappeared, and she begins to believe that the lead actress is actually Nina.

Don’t be misled by this synopsis, there is a lot more mystery and some pretty brutal and bloody death scenes to come during the final third of Censor. But Enid is definitely one of those characters who makes you feel for her, even when she makes some bad personal decisions.

Censor can be seen on Hulu, or it can be rented on a variety of streaming platforms.