The Editor Review from Astron-6!
Astron-6 are a gang of horror fans, that is so obvious. Watching their films, you pick up so many tributes and homages along the way. Sometimes they can go a bit too far and verge on a parody, yet for the majority it’s a fun ride.
Take The Editor, for example. It’s their love letter in movie form to the era of Giallo. They’ve done it to the styles, the angles, dress codes, and the acting. The latter is unfortunately a bit too far into the nudge and wink scenario. Mind you, it isn’t just Giallo. Lucio Fulci has a giant influence over proceedings. Aside from The New York Ripper, The Beyond hangs high above everything.
Director, Adam Brooks plays Ray Cisco, a man who was once the greatest editor in films, a gentleman whose very name and talent brought such rewards. This was before his accident, when he lost the fingers to his left hand in a work guillotine. From then on, he had a breakdown and nowadays works on infantile low grade Giallo B-Movies for a hack director who is happier to have wall to wall nudity and blood, than art and acting. He’s known to all as, “The Cripple”, and scorned at. This is very much Chow Yun Fat’s character downfall in the original A Better Tomorrow. Adam portrays a vacant empty man, haunted behind his dead goat eyes daily by what once was his.
Ray is married to Josephine, a faded actress who hates him and existence in general. She’s bitter, she as well is empty. Ray is fierce and loyal however, for as much as he enjoys perving on his nubile young assistant, Bella. As she bends over, etcetera, he brushes off her advances though it is obvious she’s besotted by him.
This is set in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, so trash film is, as I said, for this director, lots of female nudity, big men hired for their muscles and looks but nothing else, many of the cast of the latest pulp movie totally clueless as a black-gloved murderer prowls the corridors and shower rooms.
Ray is, of course by the natural progression of such stories, seen as the number one suspect, mainly because on all the victims, the fingers of the left hand are taken. The Inspector in charge, Peter Porifily, hubby to an actress recently blinded by seeing the remains of a deadly moment in the film, is a man with cool hair and a cooler porn moustache. He takes a dislike to the sad editor. This police officer is macho, he is heroic, fearless, slaps women (which turns them on more), covers himself in mud and wears a turtleneck sweater! It becomes his mission to destroy Ray, as the blood-soaked cadavers pile up.
Adam also stacks up the red herrings throughout. Who is the killer? Ray? The support actor, Cal? Bella? The director? As the story proceeds, all would benefit in different ways until many assumed guilty parties fall to the blades and black leather gloves.
Being Astron 6, the company behind Father’s Day (read review here) and such, The Editor isn’t just a Giallo slaughter. Reality itself bends; various worlds collide. Ray cannot figure out what is real anymore, especially as he enters another dream like dimension a few times.
As Father Clarke mentions, a priest who has known Ray for a long time, an editor, in Roman mythology was seen as a person who could basically open gateways to other places, bridging to netherworlds, apparently. Incidentally, Father Clarke is played by Laurence Harvey, of The Human Centipede fame (see my interview with Laurence Harvey here). This is a classy hammy guest appearance for him. Likewise, the infamous Udo Kier, who makes an appearance as Ray’s ex-doctor when he stayed in hospital. Udo is as weird as the rest. All the people who populate this world within The Editor are abnormal. In one scene, a woman who exercises behind the main characters at one point, then strips off for no reason. Astron-6 should team up with Uncle Lloyd and they should make a full-on film together.
The work and attention to detail is on point. The music is perfect for the era. The choice to dub the voices, so they’re ever so slightly off, is absolutely charming. The Editor is a comedy, yet not an obvious one. It’s only to the fans of the genre. The cast are staples, obvious choices of folks – depressed, vengeful, and such. The nakedness and sex are overdone, cartoon-like in parts (the cake?!) and, aside from one or two characters who are a bit irritating, the majority are likeable (I actually felt rather upset by the death of one young lady. I felt she didn’t deserve such a fate but was happy to see her emerge again in another form).
It’s spot the homage time throughout for long term viewers of Italian murder mysteries plus the gory golden days. So many classics are thrown into the messy mix. The reactions of the cast to certain incidents as well, whether screaming endlessly or totally not reacting, just displays that craftmanship on show – and the effects are fantastic.
Adam Brooks is a wonderful actor, by the way. He truly nails down our despairing suffering artist. Samantha Hill, of Who We are Now and Bad Meat (read review here), as Bella, also stands out. You feel her frustrations because she deeply loves Ray but is seen by him as just a little girl (stick around for the post credits scene mind you). Personally, aside from Bella, Cal (played by Conor Sweeney of Manborg and Father’s Day) jumped out, as a terribly bad, struggling to be noticed (red herring) actor who has a giveaway twitch in certain scenarios.
The Editor is a brilliant (if slightly flawed in the final quarter) movie. Ideally it will be lapped up by the knowing cult audience but enjoyed for it’s extreme over-the-top approaches by others. The extras, meanwhile, on my Import disc range from trailers to a quick strange interview with David Hess. Above all else, the quality is lush (oh, those colours, hmmmmm) in all departments. You gotta adore the artwork by Tom Hodge as well.
Directed by: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy
Written by: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy
Produced by: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, Adriana Spring
Cinematography by: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy
Editing by: Adam Brooks, Nicole Katz
Music by: Claudio Simonetti, Jeremy Gillespie
Special Effects by: Kayleigh Brown, Jason M Koch, Adam Brooks, Ben Pickles
Cast: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney, Paz De La Huerta, Laurence Harvey, Udo Kier, Samantha Hill, Brett Donahue, Jasmine Mae
Year: 2014
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 35min
Studio: Astron-6
Distributor: Park Entertainment, Scream Factory
