Ed and His Dead Mother

source: Ed and His Dead Mother

Ed Chilton (Steve Buscemi) is a hardware store owner / operator still mourning the death of his mother Mabel (Miriam Margolyes) one year later. Therefore he is easy prey for a smarmy, super slick salesman, A.J. Pattle (John Glover), who's hawking the reanimation of the deceased. Ed soon agrees, and after some setbacks and price haggling, Mabel is brought by Pattle to Eds' doorstep. Naturally, as Ed and his uncle Benny (Ned Beatty) quickly realize, she's not the woman she used to be. For one thing, her new diet should come as a shock to no-one. "Ed and His Dead Mother" is a pretty predictable black comedy, with no real inspired moments or fireworks. That said, it's still easy enough to take, and enjoy, but that itself may pose a problem for some viewers: it's NOT all that dark, or insane. One might think of it as a much milder version of Peter Jacksons' "Braindead", minus the over the top gore. What makes it as entertaining as it is is this excellent cast of familiar faces. Buscemi is endearing in the lead, the often priceless Glover is a hoot as usual, Beatty is quite funny (his character is a shameless, horny voyeur), and the under rated Margolyes has fun as the re-animated mother. The supporting cast can boast a couple of other recognizable people: Eric Christmas as a defense attorney, Gary Farmer as hardware store employee "Big Lar", Jon Gries as an ex- convict, and Rance Howard (very funny himself) as a crazed reverend. Sam Jenkins (a.k.a. Mrs. Kevin Sorbo) offers up lots of sex appeal as a new neighbor. Dawn Hudson, who has a bit as a telemarketer, became Chief Executive Officer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences years later. The movie is decently directed by Jonathan Wacks, who'd produced the cult classic "Repo Man" about a decade previous, and whose other directorial credits include "Powwow Highway" and "Mystery Date". It's also noteworthy for its stylistic choice of black & white wrap around segments, and Mason Darings' fine score. "Ed and His Dead Mother" isn't anything great, but it does offer some fun for a well paced 91 minutes. Six out of 10.

Dark, goofy, sick, twisted, bizarre - Yep. Ed And His Dead Mother is definitely all of these things. And, besides that, it's actually quite funny, as well. 36 year-old mama's boy, Ed Chilton, wants his dead mommy (who died a year ago) back. Ed wants his mommy back so badly that he resorts to paying shyster salesman, Mr. Abner, from "Happy People Ltd.", big bucks just to have the return of this dear, old girl. At first, when mom returns to the living, things are just hunky-dory, with Mabel (mom) merrily cooking, and cleaning, and taking special care of her darling sonny-boy, Ed, just the way that he likes to be taken care of. But when dear, old mom starts eating bugs and then develops some rather quirky(?), undead-type habits, you know damn-well that something's way out of whack and, yes, heading right out of control. Yep. Ed And His Dead Mother may be lunatic, crazy, and over-the-top "movie-madness", but, all the same, it is kinda fun to watch in the long run.

I recall seeing ED AND HIS DEAD MOTHER (1993) on cable several times back in the mid-90s. For some reason, I really latched onto this movie and part of it has always stayed with me. I couldn't believe how absurd and outrageous the humor was in this when I first saw it. It literally plays death as a kind of sick joke. The always-reliable Steve Buscemi has an early, rare starring role as one of the titular characters Ed. Buscemi's style of humor works to great effect in this movie, but unlike in many of his later supporting roles in films, Buscemi's Ed is really a purely good guy with no real shades of gray. He lives a simple life, running the family hardware store, lives like a monk with his oddball uncle (hilariously played by Ned Beatty). The absurd plot of the story is that Ed's mother has recently died and a salesmen offers to revive Mom (played with dark, scary, glee by British actress Miriam Margoyles) for a small price. I remember being absolutely terrified of Ed's Mom when I first saw this movie! She was literally the walking dead, a kind of human zombie who effortlessly and nonchalantly slept in the fridge, chased down dogs with lawnmowers, and violently stabbed people! The way Buscemi and Beatty reacted to her shenanigans was spot on hilarious! Another HUGE bonus in this movie is the presence of the incredibly hot Sam Jenkins, who plays a new neighbor lady that falls for Ed while she's investigating the goings-on at his house. Jenkins was an all-natural brunette beauty in a time before all this crazy plastic surgery that actresses go through! Her incredible body is featured without fail several times in the movie, but it never comes across as sleazy or cheap, just part of the uninhibited nature of this film! The movie has an unapologetic morbid tone throughout and the moments are laugh-out loud funny. Dark comedies nowadays tend to try for oddball to the point of being disgusting or too self-conscious. But this is definitely not true of Ed and His Dead Mother!

I remember having seen "Ed and His Dead Mother" once before, but I could not remember anything about it. So I decided to sit down and watch it again, because of the rather impressive cast list that there were here. Now, the fact that I couldn't remember a single thing about it should have raised an alarm bell for me. But it didn't. That was a mistake on my behalf. This was an unfathomably slow paced and boring movie. I managed to endure 1 hour of it before I gave up, from pure boredom and utter lack of interest in the movie. I was ready to give up after 30 minutes, but decided to give the movie a chance because of the cast and because it might just get better. But it didn't! Not even the likes of Steve Buscemi, Ned Beatty or John Glover could manage to lift up this soul-draining wreck of a movie. It felt like they were given absolutely nothing to work with in terms of script or plot. I had expected more from the movie, to be quite honest. But I was so sorely disappointed and not entertained at all. And I can now say in all honesty that I am not returning to finish the last 30 minutes of this movie.

If you don't understand or love this movie, maybe you should ask your relatives to reanimate you - you could be dead! And didn't you love the job that Gary Farmer did as the harware store clerk??? He continues to be the best actor in almost every film he is in. Wonder what "Fargo" would have been like if he were Buscemi's accomplice?

A man has a hard time coming to grips with his mother's death, so he hires a company to bring her back to life. She has to eat living things in order to remain alive, mostly dogs and roaches; the bigger the meal the more life. she overdoses on life and becomes a crazed killer. If you see this movie in any video store, rent it or buy it. Besides the undead mother, other funny things about this movie include Ed's perverted uncle, who always watches the neighbors through a telescope, and tries to listen in to Ed having sex, the one time he does get lucky, "Maybe i can hide in the kitchen and scream out positions to you in case you get stuck on what to do next." Also, there are funny conversations about the process of bringing the mother back to life: "You didn't tell me your mom was an organ doner, ED, if we put her back together the way she is, she'll be good for slobbering and watching Married with Children...."Do you know how hard it is to find parts for a two legged, 1954 caucasian female, Ed?" It is well worth it, and very hard to find. I don't know how this movie has been forgotten.In fact, my last physical fight was in college, over somebody trying to steal my copy of this movie. It is that good.

This dark humor film is not for everyone, but if you have a bit of a twisted intellect this is a very funny film. Not many people seem to know about this movie, which is a shame because I think it is very funny. Steve Buscemi is his usual stellar self. Ned Beatty is fantastic. Rance Howard is a riot as the minister. All around the acting seems to be first rate and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many name actors were involved in this effort. Well, some may not be "name" actors but you will recognize them from the many films and television shows they have done since this film. The production values also seem surprisingly high for this low budget film. I would heartily advise everyone to check this one out. I don't think you will be disappointed - that is again if dark humor is your bag.

Ed (Steve Buscemi) loves his mother, but she's been dead for a year. When the Happy People Corporation gives him the chance to bring her back from the dead, he readily agrees. Also, we have a romantic subplot and a story of a man who just got out of prison (who I think is played by the same guy who played Uncle Rico and the Wolfman from "Monster Squad"). Steve Buscemi has never steered me wrong, and putting him in a lead role was brilliant on someone's part (he too often ends up forgotten in the background). This is one of his best roles, right up there with his part in "Ghost World". Buscemi knows comedy, and now it seems we can safely say he can even do romance (who would have thought?). The comedy here is of the dark kind you might find on "Tales From the Crypt" or "Creepshow", with old women trying to eat dogs and the use of chainsaws and lawnmowers as weapons (has someone been watching "Dead Alive"?). People who love mainstream comedy (Ben Stiller fans) aren't going to love this, but those who like the stranger stuff will eat it up. The salesman was great. I forget his name, but he looks like an old Ted Danson. He had a role that seemed like he should have been a newspaperman from "Little Shop of Horrors", his style was right out of the Roger Corman playbook. And the beautiful woman next door (played by Sam Jenkins, whose name does not do her justice)... ravishing! Those outfits were a little strange (even for the early 1990s) but she made them work. Would you believe Buscemi could find a woman this attractive? Believe it! The gore was very minimal (even during a chainsaw scene) and the nudity was decent. The humor was the real selling point (if you don't find the opening courtroom scene funny, you may as well turn it off right then). But there was just something really great about this one, it was put together perfectly. Fans of "Dead Alive" might like this one, as will fans of "Little Shop of Horrors". I really think you'll appreciate the similarities. And if you need Buscemi like Britney needs panties, this should be on the top of your must-see list.

Good one-liners and great deadpan performances by Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty highlight this irreverent romantic comedy about death and hardware...? If you can find this little off-beat gem to watch, you shouldn't be disappointed.