The sounds of Astron-6's THE EDITOR

A couple of posts below this one I raved about Astron-6's The Editor, and now it's time to crank up the volume and dig into the film's gold mine of tasty giallo inspired synthwave. Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy obviously compiled The Editor's soundtrack with the same love and attention to detail afforded every other aspect of the film's production. The result is an assault of (literally) killer tracks from the likes of Carpenter Brut, Vercetti Technicolor, and Hook Lab.

The pick of the bunch is Carpenter Brut's "Le Perv", the French artist's best track by a long shot. The music video he released for it a while back (pictured above) is a stunner too, mashing the song up perfectly with clips from Lucio Fulci's Murder Rock. Although generally considered to be one of Fulci's lesser efforts and for completists only, I'm actually quite fond of it. A bizarre fusion of giallo with the previous year's box-office smash Flashdance, it makes up for its lack of gore with some stylish touches and acres of sensually gyrating, sweaty flesh.

So while we await the release of an official OST (Death Waltz? One Way Static? Waxwork? Giallo Disco?), here's the majority of The Editor's bangers (with a more atmospheric number thrown in at the end from Repeated Viewing) to stream in one handy spot. Enjoy, dance, and DIE.

Carpenter Brut - Le Perv from Silver Strain on Vimeo.

THE EDITOR

The giallo is so intrinsically tied to the Italian cultural milieu of the 1960s, '70s and '80s that it's not surprising that almost all of the modern attempts to revive the genre have fizzled. Even recent attempts by some of the form's previous masters (Argento and De Palma) have flopped pretty miserably. These films were so much a product of time and place that to try and reproduce them now almost always comes off as cringingly artificial.

No surprise then that the two best 21st century gialli - Amer and The Editor - both succeed because they take the familiar tropes, imagery and music of the genre and reshape the formula to create something fresh. As for Amer, although it has all the trappings, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's film isn't really a giallo in the traditional sense at all. Rather, it's an art film that takes the genre's tendency towards style over substance to its extreme, using its visuals and music to create an experience that's more sensory and emotive than it is thrilling and titillating. It was a daring gamble, and Amer is all the more interesting for it*.

With The Editor, Astron-6's approach is (of course) the polar opposite. Rather than high-minded art wankery, Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy go the unabashedly lowbrow route, upping the ante on the sex, gore and music to the nth degree. The result is pure exploitation bliss: a glorious explosion of sweaty flesh, gushing blood, creaking leather, flashing steel and pumping synth beats. The Editor is the real deal, the most entertaining giallo sleaze-fest in 20 years.

It may seem unlikely that the best giallo in decades is an all out spoof of the genre, but its success lies in the way that Brooks and Kennedy treat the material. They don't pander to mainstream audiences whose previous exposure may begin and end at a casual TV viewing of Dressed to Kill (although many of the gags are very broad, a lot of the film's humour would fly well over the heads of the uninitiated). This is a love letter by and for the hardcore fans, a perfect balance of parody tempered with genuine love and respect for the films it's sending up. As ridiculous as things get in The Editor, there are moments throughout that could easily pass as believable clips from a real giallo. One of the things that lends it such an air of respectful authenticity is the way the convoluted narrative follows the same nonsensical dream logic that's such a cornerstone of many of the original movies. By the end of the film you have that same trippy feeling of having woken out of a dream (albeit one that you laughed your ass off through).

As impressive as the blood-letting is here, the thing that really stands out is the sheer amount of sleazy nudity and sex. The Editor rides the thin line between spoofing misogyny and being guilty of it itself pretty precariously, but personally I thought it was all hilariously funny and tastefully done. The women who disrobed for this movie are all great sports**, and it's all in the service of laughing at how idiotically stupid the machismo and sexism of '60s and '70s cinema could be.

As to the actual performances beyond the physical requirements, the whole cast does a great job of acting terribly, getting it just right so as to not overdo it. Everyone's bad line reading and emoting is just underplayed enough to be funny instead of hammy, and the dubbed dialogue is spot on, again, not too hammy. Udo Kier turns up in characteristically creepy form, and Paz de la Huerta is just deliciously weird in every second of her screen time. Most impressive though is Human Centipede veteran Laurence R. Harvey, showing real chops and charisma here.

However, where The Editor truly soars is in its visuals and score. It looks amazing, far more impressive than what you'd expect from a budget of aprox 150,000. The prerequisite splashes of primary colour really pop off the screen; the set dressing is great; and the handsomely framed 2.35:1 cinematography is often beautiful (if sometimes obviously making fun of the hyper stylised nature of giallo aesthetics). Most impressive of all are some vfx sequences that are real eye openers. The score is a killer orgy of synthwave bangers from the likes of Carpenter Brut ("Le Perv" provides one of the film's most pulse-pounding moments), Vercetti Technicolor and Hook Lab (I think Claudio Simonetti may have contributed something as well).

Brooks and Kennedy fill the movie with an avalanche of fun references and homages. As well as all the expected giallo references, there are nods to Videodrome (a little on the nose that one maybe?); Argento's Three Mothers trilogy; and a subtle reference to Stuart Gordon's From Beyond. The big surprise is that in the end The Editor is much a loving homage to Fulci's The Beyond as it is to gialli. There are three major nods to it throughout the movie, and one in particular had me grinning from ear to ear. There's also a pleasing little meta touch during the end credits, when the editor's name is revealed to be Rey Ciso (the film's fictional Editor, its actual editor is Brooks), timed to coincide with a sinister music cue. Very nicely done.

Every aspect of the production is top notch, not least of which is the gorgeous promotional art provided by some of today's hottest poster artists, including Akiko Stehrenberger, Gary Pullin, Justin Erickson and Graham Humphreys (who also painted a trio of killer faux posters for the film). Feast your eyes below.

Astron-6 really nailed this one. The Editor is a funny, gory, sleazy and stylish good time that I just can't recommend highly enough. Get it from Shout! Factory here.

*Cattet and Forzani's followup - The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears - didn't live up to the promise of Amer. Still beautiful to look at, but a bit of a chore to sit through.

**Surprisingly, the usually perpetually naked Paz de la Huerta reveals the least flesh here.

INTERVIEW: ASTRON-6's Steven Kostanski talks THE VOID

Practical FX maniac and Astron-6 director Steven Kostanski took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for the EYE about his upcoming project The Void. UNFLINCHING EYE is a proud supporter of The Void, and you too can become an acolyte of this eldritch kvlt by contributing to its IndieGoGo campaign HERE. All proceeds go towards developing and building the film's practical creature and gore FX!

▲You've cited three of the greats - Rob Bottin, Chris Walas and Tony Gardner (who I note you worked with recently on the Eli Roth produced Clown) - as your main inspirations for The Void's FX aesthetic and techniques. Can you mention any other artists and/or films that have had an impact on The Void's design and tone? Was Michael Mann's The Keep much of a conscious inspiration?

SK: Alien is definitely a big influence. It’s amazing how many times we’ve come back to that film while developing The Void. It’s a perfectly executed horror movie, and it only gets better with each subsequent viewing. 

The Keep, Prince of Darkness or Hellbound: Hellraiser II could definitely count as influences, since they’re Lovecraftian in tone but centered around their own unique mythologies. That’s definitely the kind of vibe we’re going for with this film.

▲You've said that The Void marks a departure from your more playful Astron-6 projects, and into more overt horror territory. Is this the end of your involvement in Astron-6, or do you still have more retro grindhouse mayhem that you need to get out of your systems?

While this is a stand-alone departure for Jer and myself, it is not us splitting from Astron-6 in any way. We’ve been tossing the idea for The Void around for years and thought it was finally time to try something different. It’d be in the same video store as Manborg or Father’s Day, just maybe on a different rack. 

▲The tone of The Void seems to be Lovecraftian cosmic horror, which suggests the possibility of some grandiose and challenging imagery. In recent years we've seen some impressive VFX in very low budget movies, such as the Spierig's Undead and Gareth Edward's Monsters. Given your own budgetary constraints, will you be keeping VFX on The Void to a minimum, or are your plans more ambitious?

The idea is to keep it as practical as possible, but there are certain moments where VFX will be necessary to realize the full scope of the movie. It’s all in how it’s utilized. With any kind of effect, practical or cg, it’s best in small doses, and as always with horror movies: the less you see, the scarier it is. 

▲Given your experiences working on large scale productions (Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, Hannibal TV series etc) in your role as FX artist, do you have a sense that the use of practical FX as a tool to enhance CG (or rather the other way around) is gaining traction? Or do you think it will remain more of a specialised niche thing used mainly by filmmakers like del Toro?

I wouldn’t classify practical fx as a “specialized niche”. Every TV show and movie that comes through Toronto utilizes prosthetics or creature fx in some way, whether it’s a hospital drama or a sci-fi series. And CG is just another tool to achieve the same result. 

Practical effects require substantial prep-time, patience and organization to be executed convincingly. These requirements aren’t appealing to some directors, especially in an age where everything can be done in post. 

▲Would you rather see:

del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness, greenlit for an R-rating with a 150+ million budget

or

a new Stuart Gordon Lovecraft opus with a budget of 8-10 million

I’d rather see a Stuart Gordon Lovecraft opus with 150+ million budget, or del Toro make At the Mountains of Madness with a 10 million budget. The creative possibilities of those movies seem way more interesting to me.

Emanations from THE VOID

It's only been a few days since the launch of the crowdfunding campaign for their ambitious looking gorefest The Void, but the Astron 6 boys have already dropped some more goodies for the acolytes to drool over. This time the eldritch artifacts have appeared in the form of a trio of bangin' posters, all of distinct design and style, and none leaving any doubt as to Kostanski and Gillespie's intent... Cosmic Fucking Horror.

Look at them at your own risk, may lead to gibbering madness...

THE VOID

Here's a crowd-funding project that I thoroughly endorse.

Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie (two of the Astron 6 maniacs responsible for Manborg, Father's Day and the W is for Wish segment from ABCs of Death 2) need some help to kick off production on a promising new film called The Void.

They've made it fairly explicit that The Void isn't an Astron 6 project, and that this time the horrors are to be played dead straight. From the proof of concept reel, it looks like they're going for an atmospheric Lovecraft meets Fulci vibe (with a bit of Michael Mann's The Keep thrown in), replete with a menacing doomsday cult, creepy old hospital and basement settings, gorily metamorphosing creatures, mysterious luminous beings and an eldritch alien pyramid.

By their own admission, the FX aesthetic they're going for is heavily inspired by Rob Bottin/The Thing, Chris Walas/The Fly and Tony Gardner/The Blob '88. That is to say, a highly inventive, entirely practical combination of prosthetics, animatronics and puppetry that's as realistic as possible, and very, very wet. Writhing tentacles and bodies bursting with copious amounts of blood, slime and grue (and maybe even a glimpsed crab/spider appendage?) point to Bottin's work being the primary influence and touchstone.

That's where this funding campaign comes in. They need to secure as much money as possible so that they can afford to develop and build the creature effects in pre-production. That is to say, the way it used to be done before it became the norm to relegate the majority of FX to post (due to tight schedules, limited finances and ease of CG techniques).

As Kostanski and Gillespie mention themselves on The Void's IndieGoGo page, the success of Bottin's work on The Thing was largely due to the fact that he was afforded the luxury to work on the creature FX for many months prior to shooting. Despite all that extra time, it still almost killed him. He slept in the workshop, went half crazy and was eventually diagnosed with exhaustion. Even with all that prep-time, some of his carefully prepared gags still went tits-up when it was time to shoot, causing headaches for himself and Carpenter. The point is, the more time and money you've got to do this incredibly labour intensive work beforehand, the better.

Need something more to pique your interest? How about some sincere endorsements from some of the sickest horror filmmakers around? Vincenzo Natali says:

"This is the natural next step in the skyrocketing career of Steve Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie. A full blown frightfest with its sights firmly aimed at unspeakable Lovecraftian horror. For those who are looking for the next big thing, look no further than The Void."

Resolution's Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson add:

"Look, I don't know about you, but a world without Manborg is a world I don't want to live in. So I ask you, what are you depriving the world of if you don't help make The Void exist? If you don't help make The Void exist, then fuck you. Seriously, fuck you."

Can't argue with that.

Cast your sacrificial offerings into the cosmic abyss at The Void's IndieGoGo page HERE. The site of unnameable rituals can be found through this dimensional portal HERE.

Now, gaze upon these screenshots that I dragged back from the threshold of madness!