In cinemas Friday 20th August

Prano Bailey-Bond’s debut feature Censor, a mid-80s set horror starring Niamh Alghar, is released in UK cinemas on Friday 20th August. The film shot in Yorkshire for 25 days from late September to late October 2019.

Prano Bailey-Bond is a Welsh director and screenwriter. Her work invokes imaginative worlds, fusing a dark vocabulary with eerie allure, revealing how beauty resides in strange places. Censor, co-written with Anthony Fletcher, is set against the backdrop of the ‘video nasty’ social hysteria of 1985. Screen Yorkshire’s Film Office provided locations and crew support on Censor, which shot primarily in the Leeds-Bradford area.

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Synopsis

1985. When film censor Enid 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. Steeped in glorious 1980s aesthetics, CENSOR is a bloody love letter to the VHS ‘video nasty’ horror classics of the past.

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Filming locations

Censor was filmed primarily in Leeds and Bradford, with crew and locations support from Screen Yorkshire’s Film Office. Filming locations include Pudsey, Parkwood in Tong, Huddersfield Library, The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, Leeds and Sherburn in Elmet.

Yorkshire is such a versatile destination and we were able to find a whole host of locations around Leeds and Bradford that provided an atmospheric backdrop to 'Censor'. The support we received from Screen Yorkshire's Film Office was invaluable. Their knowledgeable team assisted us with sourcing locations, and we benefitted from access to great local crew.

Helen Jones, Producer (Censor)

Niamh Alghar in 'Censor', filmed partly in Parkwood in Tong.

The more I researched film censorship the more I was drawn to the world of video nasties. I’d grown up watching films like 'The Evil Dead' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', but what went on around these films, socially and politically in the UK, is as fascinating to me as the films themselves.

Prano Bailey-Bond, Director (Censor)

Prano Bailey-Bond directs Niamh Alghar in 'Censor'.

Location was key to the film and we needed to find an area of the UK that could creatively satisfy all the locations and the setting. We also required somewhere with experienced crew and suitable equipment and facilities. We settled on the Leeds-Bradford area that really ticked all of the boxes for us. We shot the first week and a half in a converted warehouse in Pudsey, where the bottom floor became the Censors offices and the top floor, our production offices. We then went on location – to finish up with a week’s worth of night shoots – in a Bradford Forest.

Helen Jones, Producer (Censor)

Prano Bailey-Bond - Co-Writer and Director, Censor

In the early to mid 1980s when VHS first came about there was a boom in low-budget horror being created, as these films could now go direct to video and direct to the home. There was no form of censorship in place for video as it was a new piece of technology – the films being censored were those screening in cinemas. So, off the back of this there was an outburst of social hysteria and moral panic. was a way to dive into some of these ideas – the idea of the moral compass, and how that fear of ourselves can be the most dangerous thing of all.

Prano Bailey-Bond, Director (Censor)

Censor was developed by the BFI, Film4, Creative England via the BFI NETWORK and Ffilm Cymru Wales. Production funding came from the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales, both awarding National Lottery funding, and from Film4. Kodak Motion Picture and Cinelab London provided additional support.