Evil Ed

Ed (coincidentally an editor) is hired to cut horror films down to be favorable in Europe (where standards are much more rigorous). But he finds the films very mind-destroying and starts going a little bit mad. Okay, "a little bit" might be an understatement.

When you think of horror films, you may not think of Sweden. And if you are thinking of the goriest ones, maybe even less so. Which is all the more reason why "Evil Ed" exists and why it is both a great gore film and a brilliant satire. Sweden's State Cinema Bureau existed from 1911 until 1996, not officially disbanding until 2011. This made it the oldest film censoring organization in the world. Which explains Ed. While the film takes place in the United States, the job Ed has is clearly a reflection of what censors in Sweden actually did. (The United States has never had an official censorship bureau, though it feels that way sometimes if you want your film to get a R rating rather than an NC-17.)

Regarding the film itself, let it just be said first of all: best. opening. scene. ever. A man in an office who blows up his head with a grenade. His boss then says -- with a straight face -- "you're fired". The entire film does not keep up this level of intensity, but it certainly tries. And anyone who likes their gore with a heaping spoonful of comedy will be enamored.

Take the shotgun scenes, the decapitation, the clips from fictional film-within-a-film "Lost Limbs" (which one wishes were a real film). The writer-director of "Evil Ed" (Anders Jacobsson) thought up the idea of a woman who gets raped by a beaver and then immediately after gets shot in the face with a bazooka. That is something you won't find in any other movie (at least, unless there is a scene in "Zombeavers" that escapes the memory).

This film's biggest flaw is the quality. The picture is not as crisp as a 1995 film should be, and the sound could be touched up (though it is not bad). Because of the production value, you might feel like you are watching a 1980s film. Although, this criticism may also be one of the film's strengths -- "Evil Ed" also has the 1980s style of writing and directing in it: a sense of fun and giving the audience a little something extra over the top. We all miss those days.

The 3-disc Arrow Video Blu-ray is ridiculous, but this is the sort of title that deserves it. We have an introduction by writer/director Anders Jacobsson and editor Doc. An extensive making-of documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew, a featurette looking at the early filmmaking endeavors of the Evil Ed crew and a companion piece where the filmmakers discuss their careers following Evil Ed. There are deleted scenes and bloopers...

But the real gem here (other than the new, extended cut of the film) is "Lost in Brainland", a never-before-seen extended three-hour making-of documentary. Holy smokes, could there possibly be anything left to say about this film after all these interviews and three hours of investigation?

Eddie Tor Swenson (Johan Rudebeck) is a mild mannered film technician who is one day transferred to the Splatter and Gore Department at his company. His new job is to go through the MILES of gore footage assembled for a slasher series called "Loose Limbs", and edit it for distribution. Within a short time, the task has driven him insane and made him murderous. As Eddie suffers various hallucinations, one of his would be victims (Per Lofberg) realizes that he will have to play the hero role.

This viewer went into this one totally blind, not sure what to expect. What he got was basically what the ad copy asserted: an effectively gory love letter to some of the nastiest horror films of the 1980s and early 1990s. "The Evil Dead", "Re-Animator", Peter Jacksons' early output, etc. Horror fans are certain to be delighted, at least for a while. The movie has a refreshingly unpredictable quality (for the most part), and it does mix a healthy amount of surrealism into its outrageousness. After a while, though, it does lose a little steam, with the best material (like a WTF sequence with a hungry imp in a refrigerator) over and done with. In true slasher fashion, Eddie becomes a one man wrecking crew, making mincemeat out of the majority of the people who would foil him.

The makeup effects are quite fun. While it's never as truly over the top splattery as, say, Jacksons' "Braindead", it dishes out some choice brutality. On his way to becoming the hero, Lofberg takes more than his fair share of punishment.

Some of the performances are pretty straight-faced, if the characters call for it, but the ones who have the most fun are the ones who go the broadest. Rudebeck looks like he's having a ball as a horror-comedy heavy. And there's a respectable bevy of very sexy female cast members.

Pretty funny, overall, if never quite uproarious.

Director Anders Jacobsson plays a car driver; American genre star Bill Moseley is billed as giving a special guest star vocal performance.

Seven out of 10.

Evil Ed is a Swedish film about a man named Ed (of course)and his collapse into total madness after editing a series of B horror films known as "The Loose Limbs" series. Ed becomes so mad that he thinks he's seeing demons and monsters but in reality they are people he knows and people that are close to him, such as his wife and daughter.

I first saw this movie back in 1998 and was baffled by what I had seen. To this day, this movie I consider to be one of the darkest comedies out there. As the movie is almost slapstick funny with its gore scenes there are still a few creepy moments.

This is a cool flick but don't expect anything marvelous. It's simply just a fun movie that is good to show some of your friends for some laughs. 8/10 stars

When i rented this movie I expected it to be a horrible boring movie, but boy was i ever wrong. This was very entertaining. Parts of it freaked me out a little while others made me laugh like hell. If you ever get a chance watch this movie.

This movie is like nothing before in the Swedish movie making business. This is the first and maybe the last swedish splatter movie and therefor a must have for splatter fans.

This movie is not as gory as Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and Braindead,but this one also got some gory scenes. This is a low budget movie and that explains why there isn't so much gore and spesial fx. The budget was actually only 250 000 swedish kroner. Even though the budget was low they have still managed to make a good splatter/horror movie.

The things that make it funny is that it parodies many famous horror movies like The evil dead,Gremlins and many more It starts of like a normal movie and it takes a while before it really gets entertaining. And at the end is the best gore scenes.

This is a good contribute to the splatter genre,and a milestone in the swedish movie history.