The Film (3.5/5)

     I discovered Astron-6 just a few years back with their debut feature, and slasher film homage Father's Day. Father’s Day almost instantly became one of my favorite films of it’s release year. The film managed to mix loving homage to slasher films of yesteryear, with humor, and also a passion for horror from the 80's and 90's to make something truly unique. A few years later they came back with the post-apocalyptic action film Manborg, this film shot in a garage for $1000 against a green screen continued the teams unique vision, and was an absolute blast. Needless to say since they have announced their giallo homage the Editor, I have been thrilled with the prospect of Astron-6 turning their unique sensibilities to this particular genre.

    The film's titular editor is Ray Ciso (Adam Brooks), who in his day was the world's finest editor. He was injured in an accident, that took his fingers, and forced him to have them replaced with wooden prosthetics. This has taken some of his ability, and allowed him to only get jobs on low budget b-movies. He is assisted by a young editing student Bella (Samantha Hill) who is not just interested in furthering her education, but interested personally in Ray as well.  Ray is already taken, married to a faded Italian starlet Josephine (Paz de la Huerta).  As the film begins Ray is working on a horror film, and while the film is in production a series of grisly murders begin to happen. The detective on the case Peter Porfiry (Matthew Kennedy) believes that Ray had something to do with it, and fixates his investigation on him.

    The Editor is a near-perfect homage to the giallo genre, down to minor details like character names, and set design. When watching an astute viewer (who also happens to be a giallo fan), can easily tell that Astron-6 took a deep dive into the genre for their inspiration for the film. Of course unlike something like other neo-gialli such as Amer or the Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, Astron-6 play their neo-giallo for laughs, and for the most part this works. There are moments where their broad attempts at humor fall a bit flat, but for the most part, the film is an effective blend of violent horror and humor.

     The only downside I can really throw at the film is that the film feels more like a collection of connected set pieces, that never really flow together. and This made the film, at least for me feel a tad overlong. That being said this could be a problem resolved by repeat viewings where the rhythm of the film is anticipated before hand, as many Italian horror films like the ones Astron-6 are paying homage to don’t always feel entirely coherent scene to scene.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

    Scream Factory have given the Editor a solid Blu-ray release with a 2:38:1 AVC encoded transfer. The film is a recent film, and shot digitally, so it's reproduced nicely with excellent, blacks, colors, flesh tones, and fine detail throughout.

     The audio is presented with a DTS-HD 5.1 track in English. The track works quite well with the dialogue and score coming through nicely. I did not detect any problems with the track.

Extras (4/5)

    Scream Factory have put together a solid extra features package for their release of the editor including a commentary track, Behind the Scenes documentary, introduction, interviews, deleted scenes, and more.

Overall

    With the Editor Astron-6 has made a humorous loving homage to the giallo genre. The Blu-ray is of excellent quality, and comes loaded with extras, highly recommended.