Evil Ed (1997)

Ed, a neurotic, whimpy film editor, is happy with his family and his mundane job, until one fateful day he is transfered over to the "Splatter and Gore" department, headed by the sleazy Sam Campbell. On his first day, Sam gives Ed a thankless assignment: head over to a house in a rural neighborhood to edit their most popular horror franchise, the Loose Limbs series, for international distribution. Unfortunately, poor Ed can't handle the deluge of mindless sex and violence that the "Loose Limbs" series releases on him, and it isn't long before Ed himself decides to teach the world a thing or two about real violence...

I have pretty much no knowledge of Swedish cinema, so I can't tell how dependent Evil Ed, which was made and first released in Sweden, is on its native culture and audience. However, it must be a lot, since in Sweden Evil Ed is apparently considered a classic of sorts (if anyone out there can dispute or explain this, please e-mail me). In America? The reviews and comments here that I've read have ranged from "I guess it could have sucked worse" to "After setting through this crap I wanted to stab my eyes out with a hot poker." This just goes to show the importance of intercultural understanding, especially when it comes to obscure, b-list horror films.

Since Evil Ed is primarily a satire of the horror genre (specifically the slasher and "splatter" sub-genres), but also relies on the conventions of the genre, you probably think I'd be unoriginal enough to compare Evil Ed to Kevin Williamson's "masterpiece" Scream. Well, you're absolutely right. Evil Ed and Scream both share the assumption that the viewer is an avid horror fan, and thus feel quite justified in overloading the audience with references both obscure and obvious about the genre. From the title itself to the posters shown in the background Evil Ed definitely plays up the ref game, although in my opinion there were a few that were well-buried (okay, okay, maybe I should be kicked out of the horror buffs' club for not getting the significance of "Sam Campbell" until someone told me.)

The two films also share the same problem: trying to juggle satire with straightfoward horror, and not doing so great a job of it (although I doubt anyone could). While Evil Ed veers more on the side of satire than Scream, its humor is still pretty hit-and-miss. The segments from the "Loose Limbs" movies? Hilarious. The daydream sequence where Ed thinks his boss is the Devil? Much too silly and predictable to actually inspire laughter. Most of the movie's best humor comes from its jokes on the gore industry, and that's dropped halfway through the movie in favor of "Ed on a traditional horror movie killing spree." While the movie tries to stay funny throughout the second half, it doesn't succeed nearly as well as it did before.

Of course, since this movie is dubbed, I can't make any comments about the original acting. The dubbing job is actually quite nice, despite a few mistakes ("Don't you dare to do that!" comes to mind) and the voices don't always seem to match the character. The voice of our film cuttin' anti-hero is well-done, beginning with a submissive but slightly pompous voice which changes into a subtle but threatening tone after Ed finally loses it.

All in all, though, this is one of those movies you're either going to hate or...um, you're going to think is rather mediocre (unless, of course, you live in Sweden, apparently). If you ever get a chance to watch it for free, do so, just for the sake of the genuinely amusing scenes that lie in wait within, especially in the first thirty or so minutes. Whether or not you'll actually want to spend your dough on a few good scenes sprinkled on a mediocre-to-bad film is up to you.

-ANY bit from "Loose Limbs" (unfortunately, there are only a few)

-"I'm not stressed!" (snap!)

-coffee with Ed ("It's hot.")

-apparently the members of the SWAT team went to the Stormtroopers' Academy for Marksmanship...

Choice Quotes:

"Why did you cut the beaver rape scene? It was tastefully done!"

-Sam Campbell chiding Ed for not doing his job properly (and yes, this is just before Ed goes psycho)