EVIL ED (1995) Movie Review

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Evil Ed (1995) d. Anders Jacobsson (Sweden) (96 min) (2nd viewing)

A raucous blood-soaked joyride, revolving around timid film editor Edward Tor Swensen (Johan Rudebeck) who is pulled off his regular duties working on black-and-white Bergmanesque art films and tasked instead with trimming particularly offensive scenes from ponytailed sleazebag Samuel Campbell (Olog Rhodin) T&A horror romps for international distribution. With the overload of blood and gore being pumped into his brain, Ed soon loses his marbles and begins seeing demons, talking to corpses, and chopping up everyone in sight.

Equal parts calling card for director Jacobsson and producer/special-effects supervisor Göran Lundström (who both co-wrote the script with Christer Ohlsson) and satirical thumb-nosing at the Video Nasties mindset, this lively, splattery love letter to horror fans deliberately takes aim at the prudishly held belief that watching cinematic psycho killers makes one a psycho killer.

Before

After. Any Questions?

The abundant enthusiasm, heart, and can-do spirit on display helps gloss over the fact that their beautiful bouncing baby beast is not particularly well-crafted or clever; it’s better than many other indie efforts, to be sure, but falls short of the (admittedly high) bar set by role models Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson.

However, considering its time-stamp, that of the neutered ’90s, where horror had become such a dirty word that The Silence of the Lambs, Cape Fear, Copycat, and Se7en were dubbed “thrillers” by studios and critics, Jacobsson was seen as a rabble-rousing hero both in his home country and abroad. Evil Ed enjoyed brisk business during its VHS run, helped immeasurably by head-splitting cover art, standing proudly alongside its Troma brethren.

Shot in English (and re-dubbed accordingly to lose Da Svedish Acksents), the performances are all enjoyably broad and cartoonish, and while Rudebeck and Rhodin log the most screen time, Per Lofberg and Camela Leierth fare well as a pair of young lovers, as does Cecilia Lejung as Ed’s frantic wife Barbara. Genre legend Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Devil’s Rejects) also provides the uncredited voice of our slashtastic mad doctor in the film-within-a-film, Loose Limbs 8 (or 7, depending on who is talking at the time).

But the real stars are Jacobsson (who also served as editor and DP/camera operator) and Lundström, the latter of whom finally realized his Hollywood dreams, earning makeup and prosthetic stripes on such prestigious projects as 2010’s The Wolfman, BBC’s Little Britain, The Chronicles of Narnia, Clash of the Titans, Coming 2 America, True Detective, and even receiving an Oscar nomination for his work on the criminally underseen Border (2018).

If you’re looking for a heaping helping of stylishly served flesh and blood, these just might be the Swedish meatballs you’re looking for. Switch off your brain (and gag reflex) and “keep them heads rolling” with Arrow Video’s deluxe 3-disc release, packed with documentaries and other supplementals.

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