Evil Ed
Evil Ed is a 1995 Swedish horror comedy film directed by Anders Jacobsson and starring Johan Rudebeck, Per Löfberg and Olof Rhodin.
Evil Ed | |
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DVD cover | |
Directed by | Anders Jacobsson[1] |
Produced by | Göran Lundström[1] |
Screenplay by |
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Starring |
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Music by | Henriksson & Lindh[1] |
Cinematography | Anders Jacobsson[1] |
Edited by | Anders Jacobsson[1] |
Production company | Evil Ed Productions[1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes[2] |
Country | Sweden[1] |
Language | Swedish[1] |
The film's plot follows film editor Edward Tor Swenson, who begins to go insane and embark on a murder spree after editing too many gory horror films.
The film is a satire towards the harsh censoring that the Swedish Statens biografbyrå (Cinemabureau of the state) ran from 1911 to 1996. The bureau was dismissed in 2011, being the oldest film censoring organization in the world.
Plot
When the original editor of the Loose Limbs series of splatter films commits suicide, the head of "The Splatter & Gore Department", Sam Campbell, assigns Edward Tor Swenson, an editor for European Distributors, to finish what the original editor was doing, and allows Edward the use of his private country cottage so Edward can go about his work in peace.
Over the course of a few days, Edward begins to lose touch with sanity. One night, he dreams about a mental asylum patient telling him to kill others to "correct the world". When Nick, a young employee of European Distributors pulls up to Edward's house to deliver developed film to be edited, he is rudely reprimanded by Edward. Edward begins to have hallucinations about demons, monsters, and other creatures. When Sam comes to check up on Edward's work, Edward hallucinates that he is a white demon, and accidentally kills him by snapping his neck in a panic.
The next evening, Nick comes by Ed's cottage to deliver more developed film, but is attacked by Ed, and left in critical condition. After this, Edward kills two intruders who break into his house. Worried for her husband, Edward's wife, Barbara, and daughter go to visit him, but are almost killed by Edward, until Barbara shoots him in the shoulder with one of the intruders' revolver. He is taken to a psychiatric ward immediately after the attack, while Nick, who managed to crawl outside where he was noticed by a passing car, is taken to the same hospital.
In the mental ward, Edward is sedated by doctors, but he hallucinates that the attending doctors are demons and kills them. As he leaves the ward, he also kills a mental patient, which catches the attention of a security guard, who quickly calls a SWAT team. Edward assaults Nick in his hospital room, and abducts his girlfriend, Mel, who came to visit him.
Edward sedates Mel and props her on a hospital bed. Edward soon gets into a gun battle with the SWAT team, killing all of them, and gets into a stand off.
Edward kills Mel by impaling her with hospital equipment. As he's about to perform surgery on Mel, he hallucinates that Mel is the mental patient, who tells Edward that he has to pay for his terrible job of correcting the world. As he's about to stab Mel again, Nick shoots Edward's hand off with the SWAT Team Captain's shotgun. He shoots him again, blowing his arm off, and finally his head, killing him.
Nick walks up to Ed's dead body, and then to Mel's body, while a voice over of him is heard telling the audience that one day the world will be a happy place, and "it will happen" eventually.
Cast
- Johan Rudebeck as Edward "Eddie" Tor Swenson
- Per Löfberg as Nick
- Olof Rhodin as Sam Campbell
- Camela Leierth as Mel
- Gert Fylking as SWAT team lieutenant
- Cecilia Ljung as Barbara
- Dan Malmer as Zip
- Kim Sulocki as Dix
- Göran Lundström as Bondage Face
- Robert Dröse as Fridge Fritz
- Bill Moseley as the voice of the Loose Limbs killer
- Anders Jacobsson as Car Driver
- Kaj Steveman as Mop Boy
- Vasa as Dr. Wrech
Production
Evil Ed was filmed in Länna-ateljéerna, Jakobsberg and the former Roslagstull Hospital in Sweden in 1995.[1] The film was shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm.[1]
Release
Evil Ed was released on November 11, 1995 at the Stockholm International Film Festival.[1] It was released theatrically in Gothenburg and Uppsala in 1997.[1]
The film was released on VHS by Allumination Filmworks on March 26, 1998.
The film was also released on a 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray and DVD by Arrow Films on May 30, 2017.
References
- "Evil Ed (1997)". Swedish Film Database. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
- "Evil Ed (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
External links
- Evil Ed at IMDb
- Evil Ed at AllMovie
- Evil Ed at Rotten Tomatoes
- Evil Ed at the Swedish Film Institute Database