Evil Ed (1995)

A mild-mannered film editor is assigned to cut a series of infamous slasher films and is driven murderously insane by the miles of extremely violent footage he edits.

Director:

Anders Jacobsson

Writers:

Anders Jacobsson (screenplay), Göran Lundström (screenplay)

Stars:

Johan Rudebeck, Per Löfberg, Olof Rhodin

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johan Rudebeck	...	Edward "Eddie" Tor Swenson
Per Löfberg	...	Nick
Olof Rhodin	...	Sam Campbell
Camela Leierth	...	Mel
Gert Fylking	...	SWAT team lieutenant
Cecilia Ljung	...	Barbara
Michael Kallaanvaara	...	Tom McClane
Hans Wilhelmsson	...	Weld / Patient / Lunatic
Anders Ek	...	Janitor
Memory Garp	...	Office clerk
Christer Fant	...	Man in movie 'Tillbaka till Årjäng'
Odile Nunes	...	Woman in movie 'Tillbaka till Årjäng'
Ulf Landergren	...	Head of culture film department
Jenny Forslund	...	Editor, culture film department
Therese Malmer	...	Girl at Splatter & Gore Department / Sexy Patient

Storyline

Eddie Tor Swenson is a mild-mannered film editor with a wife, child, and a comfortable job editing art and drama films for a major studio. Following the suicide of their editor, heartless studio exec Sam Campbell transfers Ed to his department, the Splatter & Gore Department, to finish what the original editor was doing: editing the highly profitable but extremely violent Loose Limbs series of slashers. Sam allows Ed the use of his secluded country cottage so Ed can go about his work undisturbed, or so he thinks. The seclusion and the constant exposure to the violent nature and content of the films he's editing start to drive Ed insane. What begins as hallucinations leads to Ed's darker, murderous side emerging, and it puts the lives of everyone around him in danger: whether it be the film-buff studio warehouse man, or even Ed's family...

---

Plot Keywords:

gore | insanity | censorship | injection | needle | 

---

Taglines:

Det är egentligen inget fel på Edward, till den dag han går lös med censursaxen...

---

Genres:

Comedy | Horror

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sadistic violence and gore, language and some sexuality in a horror comedy

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

English Swedish

Release Date:

2 May 1997 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Evil Ed Special EDition

Filming Locations:

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

SEK 250,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Action Film AB, Evil Ed Productions, Smart Egg Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The main character Edward says of the film he is cutting, 'Loose limbs': "In the movie, there's a girl who gets raped by a beaver and then shot in the head with a bazooka." Rumour has it that this scene was cut and destroyed from "Evil Ed". The filmmakers has denied this, but confirmed that there where plans to film and include it in the extended cut released by Arrow Video release.

---

Goofs

When the policeman is shot, and claims that Ed made a "nice shot", he's got blood on his face. But when he falls over on the floor, the blood is gone.

---

Quotes

Sam Campbell: Why is "Loose Limbs 8" in my office when it should be with Eddie?
Nick: Uh... Number eight? Um... that's because... um... uh... I forgot?

---

Crazy Credits

The characters and events in this motion picture are fictional, any similarity to actual persons living, dead, undead, living dead, re-animated or ressurrected is purely coincidel.

---

Connections

References The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

---

Soundtracks

Scram
Written by Pär Aldeheim
Performed by It's Alive
produced by Pär Aldeheim
Courtesy of Cheiron Songs 1995

User Reviews

Twenty Years Later, Still One of the Best Horror Films Out There

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?