What I am considering here as included in the category "editing" is mainly the use of unusual images throughout the film, most often included as a nearly subliminal flash of an image. Some stay on the screen long enough to be at least slightly identified, and with others the audience is left with merely an impression of what they might have seen. Some of the most horrific images in the film were for only one or two frames, like these:

Unless you look at these on freeze frame, it is nearly impossible to tell what they are pictures of, leaving the viewer instead only with an impression of some violent and gory image. The inclusion of these neither helps nor hurts Stone's argument. They simply serve to create an even more intense atmosphere of violence. It shows the sort of things that Mickey is thinking about.

The main use of these spliced-in images is to show "demon" images. These are mainly of Mickey and Mallory, though other demons appear, including Mickey's father, Scagnetti, and the occasional unnamed character. Some examples:


These images serve to further the suggestion that Mickey and Mallory do what they do because they are possessed by demons. The lighting used in these scenes will be discussed in the next section on cinematography; it strengthens the connection. One of these images appears on the screen of the television in the opening scene of the film:

Which is perhaps Stone's most effective use of this technique since it implies a connection between the demons and the telvision and media. The movie also ends with what works as perhaps Stone's best bit of argument in the film: a montage of clips from the news, often from cases where the murderer in question, like OJ Simpson or the Menendez brothers, got quite a bit of celebrity from their alleged crime, followed by a montage of the demon images. This very clearly suggests a cause and effect. Unfortunately, that this is followed immediately by a shot of Mickey and Mallory free and together in a Winnebago with two kids and a third on the way sends quite a confused message to the audience. It sets up the scenario as Mickey and Mallory being turned into demons by the media but living happily ever after, not paying the consequences for their actions.

The other unusual thing that Stone does with his editing is the constant images of animals. The film opens with images of predators, a wolf, an eagle, and a rattle snake:

These are followed immediately by the introduction of Mickey and Mallory, suggesting that they, too, are predators. But if one follows this line of reasoning, it, like blaming their murders on demons or traumatic childhoods, makes them less culpable, suggesting that they are as innocent as animals in the wild. Mickey reinforces this in his interview with Wayne Gale when he suggests that there's nothing really wrong with murder because all animals do it.