Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
Astron-6 are modern genre filmmaking’s renaissance men, writing, directing, editing, SFXing and scoring their immensely popular short films and their first two features, Manborg and Father’s Day. All their films demonstrate a love for the golden era of the VHS, as much children of the early 1990s as the 1980s, which is particularly evident in a film like Manborg. For their third feature, The Editor, this spirit of homage is still central to their filmmaking, but it gets a bit more specific. Widely referred to as a ‘giallo parody’, I think the label actually does the film a bit of a disservice. Even though a great deal of it is giallo-inspired, The Editor is rather a glorious love letter to many an Italian genre, namely horror, the giallo, and the cop movie. Referring to The Editor as a giallo parody doesn’t necessarily mis-sell the film at all – it sure is a giallo – but it might somewhat undersell it.
Co-director Adam Brooks plays the titular editor, Rey Ciso, a man crippled from over-working on a masterpiece and now slumming it on studio horror fodder. His former actress wife (Paz de la Huerta) resents him, he longs for his admiring assistant (Samantha Hill), and the rest of the cast and crew of the latest film he’s working on mock him (the bullies include Tristan Risk and Conor Sweeney). When said cast and crew start getting murdered, their bodies mutilated in such a way as to mimic the editor’s crippling injury, police inspector Peter Porfiry (Matthew Kennedy) naturally thinks he’s got an obvious prime suspect. Can the editor find the real killer and prove his innocence. ..or is he actually guilty?
Needless to say there is a lot going on in The Editor, but it says a lot for how far Astron-6 have come as filmmakers that they successfully balance the twisting narrative, the allusions and homages to other films, and the unique Astron-6 vibe to create a well-rounded and immensely enjoyable film. One of the greatest achievements of the film, for me, was just how many direct references to specific films are packed into the film, and at no point are these references jarring, smug or ‘ironic’. The homages, though often parodic and very funny, come very clearly from a strong sense of affection for these films. It’s soon very apparent that Astron-6 must be very big fans of Argento and Fulci, the directors whose bodies of work are most frequently referred to. The general feel of the film also pays homage to Italian genre films, with some excellent set and costume design on display, as well as some of the best purposefully bad dubbing I’ve come across. Astron-6 are thorough – it’s not just the dubbing that’s bad, it’s the dialogue too. They’ve not just put together a mock-Italo synth score, they’re got Claudio Simonetti to compose some of it. They haven’t just bathed a few scenes in garish lighting, they’ve lit the whole film that way. Brooks, Kennedy and Sweeney really know their stuff here, and it’s very evident in the end result.
The Editor is much more than one big reference to something else, though. The film is exceptionally funny, and the humour is pure Astron-6. Inspector Porfiry repeatedly referring to a priest (played by Laurence R. Harvey, of all people) as a wizard had me almost in tears of laughter, and that’s really quite a spectacularly simple joke. The film won’t win you over, then, if you’re not a fan of Astron-6’s humour, but it will bowl you over if you like your humour as silly and as occasionally sick as it comes. If anything, the marrying of Astron-6 humour to the various genre conventions that are parodied in the film grounds the humour a bit, which might at times have seemed a bit out of control in their earlier films. The combination of parody and out-right comedy makes for an interesting film, and I’d be fascinated to watch the film with a group of people unfamiliar with Italian genre cinema.
The film is populated by an almost note-perfect cast, and it’s testament to the collective’s talent that the members of Astron-6 who star in the film really stand out, even when up against a couple of scene-stealing cameos by Udo Kier. Brooks brings an impressive amount of pathos to the character of Rey, while Sweeney is excellent as the ambitious actor Cal and Kennedy plays Porfiry with a manic energy that only increases as the film goes on. Elsewhere the casting of Paz de la Huerta is inspired, as she seems to have really stepped straight out of a giallo. The background of the film does feature a lot of naked women, a funny recurring joke which does start to get a bit tiresome, but frankly when the filmmakers themselves are so ready to get their kits off onscreen it’s much easier to indulge the joke.
If there is one criticism that might be made of the film is that it seems just a little bit overlong. However, intentional or not, when bearing in mind the sorts of films being parodied, the slightly-too-long feel of the film is nigh-on perfect, the final, ultimate layer of homage in the film.
There have been several homages to the giallo recently: from Andreas Marschall’s Masks, through the work of Forzani and Cattet, to Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio. I’ve enjoyed all of these films, but The Editor surpasses them as effective homage because it fully embraces influences from outside the stricter confines of the giallo, and it also doesn’t forget that a hell of a lot of these films were really bloody silly, as well as being stylistically interesting. It is a particular Fulci film that appears to be one of The Editor’s biggest influences, and a giallo it ain’t. In the same spirit of said film, The Editor is a wonderful blend of the psychologically frightening, the utterly ridiculous, and lashings of over-blown gore. There’s no doubt you’ll get much more from the film if you’ve a love for the films that Astron-6 love too, but there’s a lot more than mere allusion to be enjoyed here. Astron-6 have crafted a funny, informed and affectionate film, and they deserve every opportunity to do it again, and again, and again.
The Editor plays at Mayhem Festival, Nottingham, on October 30th, and Abertoir Horror Festival, Aberystwyth, on November 11th.