Arrow Video Blu-Ray Review of ‘Evil Ed’

What happens when a run of the mill family man and editor gets assigned the task of editing gore films? He loses his mind and kills everything in his path. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of the 1995 horror film Evil Ed, recently released on Blu-Ray from Arrow Video. Check out the trailer then read on for all the details on the Blu-Ray as well as a short review of the film itself.

Official Synopsis:

WHEN HIS MIND BLOWS, ANYTHING GOES!

A blood-soaked love letter to the splatter films of the ’80s, video rental favourite Evil Ed returns in a brand-new Special EDition featuring an extended cut of the feature and hours of stomach-churning bonus features!

Mild-mannered film technician Edward enjoys his job. That is, until he finds himself transferred from his regular post to the “Splatter and Gore department”, where he’s forced to edit hours upon hours of grisly video nasty footage. Traumatized by the onscreen violence, Ed starts to lose his grip on reality – with ghastly (and bloody) consequences…

Owing a debt to films such as The Evil Dead, Re-animator and the early splatter classics of Peter Jackson, Evil Ed is a veritable smorgasbord of flying limbs, exploding heads, busty babes and creepy creatures!

Evil Ed is a film that doesn’t take itself to seriously and is chock full of references to other horror films. The film features solid and inventive makeup effects including a pretty impressive demon plus awesome messy kills. The kills include an exploding head, a broken neck, decapitations, electrocutions, several bloody shootings and my personal favorite, a head shot off of someone’s shoulders and splattering on a wall. It also features a ridiculously stupid sense of humor and most of the humor fell a little flat for me. That being said the said the excellent makeup effects and good kills redeemed the movie for me.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 3-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Two versions of the film
• Original Stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD MA Audio Options
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
• Collector’s Booklet featuring new writing on the film by horror journalist Michael Gingold

DISCS 1 & 2 (BLU-RAY/DVD) – SPECIAL EDITION CUT

• Special ED-ition cut [99 mins]
• Introduction by writer/director Anders Jacobsson and editor Doc
• You Keep ‘Em Heads Rollin’ – extensive making-of documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
• Before Ed – featurette looking at the early filmmaking endeavors of the Evil Ed crew
• Beyond Ed – the filmmakers discuss their careers following Evil Ed
• Deleted Scenes Featurette
• Reconstructing Edward – featurette looking at the preparation of the Special ED-ition cut
• New Scenes Featurette – a closer look at the scenes that were added to the Special ED-ition cut
• Trailers and Teasers
• Image Gallery

DISC 3 (BLU-RAY) – ORIGINAL CUT [LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE]

• Original cut [93 mins]
• Lost in Brainland – never-before-seen extended three-hour making-of documentary
• Cast and Crew Interview Bloopers

Evil Ed was a movie I expected to love but my enjoyment was brought down several notches by its stupid attempts at humor. That being said the makeup effects are pretty nifty and the kills are fun and the film has some little bits of nudity if that’s your type of thing. Its worth at least one viewing but if you enjoy ridiculous humor you might enjoy it quite a bit more than I did.