Rating: ***
Starring: Paz de la Huerta, Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy
A bloody (and comedic) homage to 70s gialli, Astron 6’s The Editor walks a fine line between satire and tribute, much to the confusion of this reviewer and delight to his bodycount craving.
The plot concerns an experienced editor named Rey Ciso who once worked behind high class films but lost the passion for editing after, enraged from the fact his actress wife is no longer receiving good roles, he accidentally chopped away the fingers of his right hand.Now handicapped and married to a bitter former-actress, Rey’s life revolves around guiding aspiring editors whenever he is not working on the film himself, but he soon gets tied to a macabre situation where somebody is killing off the actors and staffs behind a terrible giallo full of weird characters and bizarre situations.
As a production, The Editor runs a near-staggering 95 minutes of gialli gimmicks such as stylized camera work, tinted lighting, workable practical effects, and a chockfull of sleaze, all done in that confused mixing of cheese, dread and reference to works by Dario Argento, Mario Bava and even Lucio Fulci, among many other gialli aficionados and titles.
It’s paced as a result; clumsily attempting to build whatever story it can juggle with its brand of comedy and throwing in some slasher-style mayhem for good measure.The mystery here was, to say the least, fascinating from the point that it covered a lot of potential suspects and odd red herrings that may or may not lead to possible clues on the identity of the killer. Each character poses their own dark secret such as abusive relationships, obnoxious authority, unhappy marriages, and even self-harm, thus making anyone from the group capable of killing or at least be involved with the killings.With this, the ploys were as complicated as possible, keeping the reveal fresh even if it did ended up as an outlandish curveball at its audience.It is actually here where I felt The Editor may fail depending on how the audience take their mysteries; being a parody of sorts, the way the suspects were approached was more on the comedic side as they babble away the strangest assumptions or just simply act terrible in a somewhat homage to how theatrical the talents in classic gialli act. (whether this is intentional or not for this movie is beyond me) At that, you can expect some strange accents and outrageous lines that can be distracting, if not annoying to sit through. I guess we could consider Adam Brooks’s character Rey a small mercy as he remained as straight of a cast as possible, which might be again a ploy or clue to the film’s mystery.
Apart from these, we also have situations and elements that were just too bizarre to fit in with the main plot, some of it concerning being blinded out of fear, religious magic and even a sudden twist that simply came out of nowhere. With all of the craziness, there came a moment when The Editor can be a chore to watch and understand, that not even its ultra-violent murders can distract its viewers to how messed up the plot can be. Still, for the right people, all of these cheese and over-the-top executions can be a brand of entertainment that’s hard to reproduce and imitate, especially since it did still produce a workable mystery in its core and an incredibly messy bloodbath.I can’t say that I totally enjoyed The Editor but I wouldn’t say that I hate it either; it’s definitely something different, that is for sure, and I can tell this movie is for an acquired taste. Respect it for being a comedic parody of a giallo, its bodycount, and for attempting to tie-up everything with a Lucio Fulci inspired What-the-fuck ending.
Bodycount:
1 female axed on the face (film)
1 female seen murdered (film)
1 male had his throat cut with a razor
1 female slashed to death with a razor
1 male stabbed on the throat with a razor
1 female axed on the face
1 female stabbed on the chest with a pair of scissor
1 male gutted with a hunting knife
1 female sliced with a chainsaw
1 male dismembered offcamera with a chainsaw
1 male seen decapitated
1 female set ablaze
Total: 12
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