The Editor (2014)

I hate to give this such a low mark, because there were at least half a dozen times in the first half hour when I thought The Editor was about to blossom into a note-perfect giallo homage. A few brief scenes mimicked exactly the kind of bad dubbing/dialogue/acting/lighting/fashion etc of the original 70s Italian giallo horrors it's clearly inspired by. Frustratingly however these were just teases, and the film seemed more interested in being some kind of hip underground indie-flick slasher that didn't remind me much of anything giallo based, and it started to *seriously* drag. The lead character's virtually comatose performance didn't help much, and the plot soon got impossible to follow. After 45 mins I didn't really know or care what I was watching any more.Overall The Editor is nowhere near as bad as the absurdly boring Berberian Sound Studio (the closest modern-day comparison I can think of), but I wish they'd concentrated more on paying tribute to the classic giallo clichés instead of becoming a directionless and rather average slasher.

Another great from astron-6, this time depicting the Giallo genre. It has references all over the place particularly to Bava, Argento and Fulci even Videodrome and from beyond also the mandatory Fathersday references. The plot is well written the basis being it's about an editor going insane. It has gore, it has style, it has amazing camera work, it has 10 times the budget of Fathersday, it has great makeup, it has hammy acting and deliberately bad dubbing and Steve Kochanski returns to do some animating. Along with the original crew, we are joined by Udo Kier, known for his role in the notorious video nasties Flesh from Frankenstein and Mark of the Devil, we also have Lawrence R. Harvey from Human Centipede 2 which makes for a fun movie. I still prefer Fathersday which is more a take on exploitation films but this is a great counter piece but more "family friendly" with amazing re-watch ability even if you don't watch Giallo or didn't like their previous movies give it a shot they have really stepped up their game and it is great fun to watch.

This only makes sense if you are a fan of Italian "giallo" movies (Argento, Fulci, Bava etc.) If you have watched a lot of these then you will immediately feel familiar with the visual style, the soundtrack, the acting, the bad dialogue overdubs, the often wooden acting. Production-wise, this is a faithful recreation of the originals, and generally competently executed. The problem is that it somewhat stops there. It wants to be both a homage and a prohibited-by-IMDb-term-for-urine-take at the same time, but for me failed at both. There are plenty of good scenes, but the number of direct quotes and allusions to old movies means that it is stylistically to uneven to fully enjoy as a homage, and the jokes mostly fell flat for me. My advice: Give this a try if you're a giallo fan, but have one of the originals ready in case the joke runs out halfway for you. Otherwise: Stay well away - this will be completely incomprehensible to you.

The Canadian group Astron-6 (formed by Steven Kostanski, Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney and Jeremy Gillespie) is specialized in parodying the '80s with films overflowing of style, energy and a particular sense of humor which makes them transcend the nostalgia in order to become something special and memorable by themselves. Astron-6 had made a satire of slasher cinema with Father's Day, and of post-apocalyptic science fiction with Manborg (not to mention its numerous short films, many of which can be watched on YouTube). More recently, in the movie The Editor, it makes a tribute/parody of "giallo"; those thrillers bathed on blood and sexuality which used to be popular in Italy during the '70s and '80s. The most famous exponent of that style is, of course, Dario Argento, but many other directors also contributed to it, such as Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi and Mario Bava. Having said all that, I have to admit that I have generally not been a big fan of giallo's. I definitely appreciate its bloody violence (which was rarely realistic, but always excessive), and I also like the distinctive electronic music which usually accompanies it; but, with the exception of Argento's films, I find giallo simplistic and repetitive, with confusing and incoherent screenplays which rarely satisfy on the most elementary narrative level. Fortunately, those problems become pros when they are filtered by Astron-6's sensibility. The story of The Editor has all the ingredients required by the recipe (not to mention dozens of references to the directors and films which inspired it): grotesque deaths, mediocre special effects, beautiful women, bad dubbing, anachronistic misogyny and various suspects who can be the mysterious killer of the black gloves. The exaggerated imitation of those elements is essential for the humor of The Editor, but it's not its only virtue. Like it had done in Father's Day and Manborg, Astron-6 gradually moves from familiar territory in order to add twisted digressions and unexpected surprises, including a series of final twists, each one of them more bizarre than the previous one, until leading to an "ending ending" which is simultaneously ingenious and ridiculous. On the negative side, The Editor occasionally feels a bit repetitive, and I think I was kinda expecting something more extreme and shocking from Astron-6; however, on the other hand, this might mean the fact that the group is maturing, and I will definitely keep looking forward to its next films. In the micro-universe of tributes, satires and revivals of giallo cinema, I would place The Editor above Amer and Berberian Sound Studio, but below The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears, which was basically incomprehensible, but I think it handled the giallo style on a more artistic way. Nevertheless, I liked The Editor pretty much, and I recommend it with the warning that this film will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea.