I can only be entirely honest here and admit that – for me personally – "The Editor" was a big disappointment that could never at one moment live up to the (admittedly far too high) expectations that I had set for it. The expectations were high because the guys responsible are usually bona fide geniuses! They are Astron-6, a collective of six young, creative and pleasantly deranged horror fanatics. They previously delivered festival favorites like "Father's Day" (a totally deranged tribute to vile and rancid 70s grindhouse exploitation) and "Manborg" (a downright ballistic and hyperkinetic Sci-Fi tale). When I first read that these same blokes were working on film that would spoof and simultaneously pay tribute to the Italian Giallo, I already labeled it as successful before production was even finished. I made one vital mistake, however
I love the giallo too much to see it spoofed! "The Editor" mocks – albeit respectfully – all the elements that yours truly worships about this overlooked horror sub genre, like the excessively violent murders, the explicit sexual footage or the overly eccentric cast of characters. Several cast and crew members of a sleazy and exploitative pulp movie are savagely murdered. The investigating macho police detective is rapidly convinced that editor Ray Cisco is the culprit. After all, he's an introvert and frustrated loner who once had a bright future in front of him, but he lost his valuable right hand's fingers in a freak accident and went so mad that he even spent time in a psychiatric clinic. Naturally he can't accept that he now has to edit inferior trash movies while his own wife hates his guts and nobody on the sets has any respect for him. I certainly don't intend to sound like a sourpuss, but the only thing that "The Editor" does is enlarging the clichés and prejudices that are irreversibly associated with the giallo genre even though they aren't fair or truthful to begin with! Yes, the dubbing in English of Italian movies is often horrendous, but that's hardly ever the films' own fault. If you take the effort to track down the original versions with Italian audio, you don't have this problem. And yes, several gialli contain absurd plot twists, but I can also list at least 50 films of which the denouements are truly intelligent and original. Most of all, gialli are known for their extreme sex and violence, but in many cases these same films also feature genuine suspense, unsettling atmosphere and truly imaginative cinematography. Those are aspects that Astron-6 (deliberately?) left out. Still, I want to state again that "The Editor" is nevertheless a film with a lot of entertainment value. It's a funny and unpretentious movie with a grotesque plot, flamboyant characters and messy gore effects. There's one particularly hilarious gory sequence where the face of a young actress is literally stripped off, as well as several moments that refer to the non-giallo work of Lucio Fulci, involving tarantulas, eyeballs etc. One last thing I didn't quite understand: if Astron-6 wanted to spoof the giallo, then why didn't they invent a typically long and (beeldrijk) title? "The Editor" sounds so ordinary, while the film easily could have been named something like: "There Are Strange Red Drops On The Floor Of The Editing Room"
I really do wish to grab the opportunity to promote the giallo genre, of course! In case you enjoyed this film, please seek out the truly worthwhile titles of this marvelous Italian crime/horror sub genre. You can't go wrong with the landmarks of Mario Bava ("Blood and Black Lace", "The Girl who Knew Too Much") or the 70s movies of Dario Argento ("Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "The Cat O' Nine Tails", "Profondo Rosso"), Lucio Fulci ("Don't Torture a Duckling", "Seven Notes in Black") or Sergio Martino ("The Strange Vice of Ms. Wardh", "Torso", "Case of the Scorpion's Tail"). But there exist also many and truly magnificent gialli masterpieces from lesser known directors that are absolute must-sees as well: "What have you done to Solange?", "The House with the Laughing Windows", "Plot of Fear", "Black Belly of the Tarantula", "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times", "Who Saw Her Die?", "The Blood-Stained Butterfly", "House of the Yellow Carpet", "Short Night of the Glass Dolls", "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" The list is incredibly long!
I really do wish to grab the opportunity to promote the giallo genre, of course! In case you enjoyed this film, please seek out the truly worthwhile titles of this marvelous Italian crime/horror sub genre. You can't go wrong with the landmarks of Mario Bava ("Blood and Black Lace", "The Girl who Knew Too Much") or the 70s movies of Dario Argento ("Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "The Cat O' Nine Tails", "Profondo Rosso"), Lucio Fulci ("Don't Torture a Duckling", "Seven Notes in Black") or Sergio Martino ("The Strange Vice of Ms. Wardh", "Torso", "Case of the Scorpion's Tail"). But there exist also many and truly magnificent gialli masterpieces from lesser known directors that are absolute must-sees as well: "What have you done to Solange?", "The House with the Laughing Windows", "Plot of Fear", "Black Belly of the Tarantula", "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times", "Who Saw Her Die?", "The Blood-Stained Butterfly", "House of the Yellow Carpet", "Short Night of the Glass Dolls", "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" The list is incredibly long!