Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Evil Ed (1995)


Introduction:
Horror comedy requires a careful balance. Make the film too scary and the humor feels out of place. Make the movie too goofy and the scares just never click (or worse get laughed at). But there’s plenty of folks out there who take a crack at the mixed genre with various results. Director Anders Jacobsson liked Evil Dead and was inspired to make Evil Ed. I’m not sure this bodes well.

Summary:
Edward Swenson (Johan Rudebeck) is an editor at a major studio who works on black and white art films that look like rejects from Ingmar Bergman. He’s good at his job, so good that he is picked by the studio head Sam Campbell (Olof Rhodin) to edit a new series of slasher flicks for the studio.

Ed accepts the job, mostly because he’ll get fired if he doesn’t. Unfortunately Ed is squeamish and can’t stand such violence. Each time he tries to get out of the assignment, Campbell denies and threatens him. All the blood, guts and gore finally gets to Ed, and he snaps… in a big way. Ed goes on a murder spree, all the while seeing visions of gremlins in his fridge, ranting and raving movie themed puns and slicing people up. Can anyone stop the rampage of Evil Ed

Good Points:
  • Has some pretty funny moments in it
  • The gore effects aren’t too bad
  • Rudebeck is having a great time playing Evil Ed

Bad Points:
  • Many of the jokes fall flat
  • The parody element keeps things from getting scary
  • The dubbing may be distracting to some

Overall:
This wasn’t a horrible flick, it just didn’t have the right balance. It’s really a parody of a bunch of 80s horror flicks, but tries to get scary along the way. The result is such a mixed bag that it never quite works out. The gremlin in the fridge was funny, and some of Ed’s kill lines are humorous. But all in all, you aren’t missing much if you skip this one.

Scores (out of 5)
Visuals: 3
Sound: 3
Acting: 3
Script: 2
Music: 3
Direction: 2
Entertainment: 2
Total:  2

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.    

6 comments:

  1. Ha. Evil Ed. Okay. I commend you for your bravery and taking time out of your busy schedule to watch this one my friend. Tip of the cap.
    sff

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    1. This one sounded fun from the description. Sadly it didn't live up to the promise. But every once in a while you find a good one.

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  2. Yet another flick I haven't seen. As you say, sometimes a film will surprise you. You can imagine the trepidation I felt when a friend wanted to see Bubba Ho-Tep. It wasn't terrible.

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    1. Oh man, Bubba Ho-Tep. I forgot about that one. I had a good time with that one. But Bruce Campbell is usually a lot of fun in anything he's in. Why they killed him off in the first five minutes of "Congo", I'll never figure out. :)

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  3. I've always had a curiosity for this one, I just might give it a go one of these days, I like the premise of the editor, it reminds me of another film with horror related to films: Fade to Black, ever seen that one? It's not a horror movie perse, but does have some horror elements in it. It's about a movie obsessed dude who goes bananas and uses his movie knowledge to get back at all the bullies in his life.

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    1. I've never seen that one, but I vividly remember the cover of the VHS. It showed the main character with half of his face made up as Dracula eating popcorn and holding a drink while sitting in a movie theater. Sounds like a fun one, thanks for the reminder!

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