STACK Nov #133

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THE EDITOR
The latest offering from the Canadian
filmmaking collective known as Astron-6,
who brought us the deliriously demented
Father’s Day, The Editor is a blood-soaked
throwback to the days when beautiful
Italian women were dispatched by razor-
wielding killers wearing black gloves,
primary colours bathed the screen, and
jangling prog-rock scores assaulted the
eardrums. “The Editor is our love letter to
Italian giallo films of the 1970s and ‘80s,”
the Astron-6 guys explain, “the convoluted
murder mysteries of Mario Bava, the super-
saturated colour palettes of Dario Argento,
and the supernatural thrills of Lucio Fulci.”
Writer and co-director
Adam Brooks plays Rey Ciso,
a renowned film editor who
becomes the prime suspect in
the murder of an actor from
his latest film. Joining Brooks
and fellow Astron-6 members
Matthew Kennedy and Conor
Sweeney in the cast are horror
icons Udo Kier (Mark of the
Devil, Suspiria) and Laurence
R. Harvey (The Human Centipede II & III ).
“I first heard of Astron-6 when I did
The Human Centipede II tour of Australia,”
Harvey tells STACK. “The guys at Monster
Pictures were showing me the Astron-6
shorts and I picked up a copy of Father’s
Day and absolutely loved it. When they
approached me to play a character [in The
Editor] I just jumped at the chance because
I thought the project sounded really
interesting. It’s similar to Berberian Sound
Studio, but in a completely different way.”
Unlike more dramatic giallo tributes like
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears
and the aforementioned Berberian Sound
Studio, The Editor is played for laughs;
the skewed humour of Astron-6 satirises
and exaggerates the trademarks
of the genre while respecting it
stylistically. Consequently, the
film works as both a parody and
an homage, and anyone familiar with the
giallo cycle will absolutely love it.
Harvey agrees: “They do get a lot of the
stylistic tics of the giallo film down pat, and
the script was written in an overwrought
version of English. It is by far their best
flick.”
The DVD and Blu-ray features double-
sided cover art and loads of bonus features
including audio commentary by Astron-6,
deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes
featurettes. The Blu-ray comes in a
slipcase featuring cool artwork by Tom ‘The
Dude Designs’ Hodge and also features
a Laurence R. Harvey commentary and
interview, plus the Australian Premiere
Q&A. Out November 18.
OCTOBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
008
For more monster movie madness, visit
visit NEWS EXTRAS
It’s that time of year again,
when Australia’s premiere
horror and cult film festival
unleashes a whole new wave
of features and short films,
both local and independent,
as well as cult classics,
retro revivals, and of course
a line-up of special guests
and the popular trivia night.
Melbourne’s Lido Cinema in
Hawthorn is the new venue
for four days of Monster
madness, from the 26th –
29th November 2015. The
Opening Night Gala includes
the premiere of Scare
Campaign, the new film from
Aussie siblings Colin and
Cameron Cairnes (100 Bloody
Acres), and the Fest will close
with Eli Roth’s latest, Knock
Knock. Other events include
a 10th Anniversary screening
of Wolf Creek, with cast and
crew. International special
guests include Blaxploitation
legend FredWilliamson,
whose new film Atomic Eden
is making its World Premiere,
as well as “E.T.’s mom” Dee
Wallace, star of horror classics
The Howling and The Hills
Have Eyes, who will hold an
Acting Masterclass. For full
program details and tickets,
visit
HOPE LOST
A young girl is lured to Rome with the
promise of starring in a reality TV series,
but what looks like a dream job soon turns
into a nightmare of prostitution, human
trafficking and snuff film making. The
eclectic cast includes The O.C.’s Mischa
Barton, Michael Madsen, Daniel Baldwin,
and the great Danny Trejo as a badass
pimp. Bleak, rough and nasty. Out Nov 18
THE TRIBE
Winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize at
Cannes 2014, this Bonsai Films release – about
a Kiev boarding school student who’s inducted
into a gang that runs a teen prostitution racket –
features a deaf cast of non-professional actors
who sign without subtitles, leaving it open
to interpretation. If this sounds too highbrow
for Monster Pictures, rest assured it features
harrowing scenes that will test the most hardened viewers. Out Nov 18
MONSTER FEST
2015