Ed and His Dead Mother (1993)

Momma's boy Ed Chilton (Steve Buscemi) has been mourning his dead mother (Miriam Margolyes) for a year. He lives with his maternal uncle Benny (Ned Beatty) and inherited her hardware store. A. J. Pattle (John Glover) from "Happy People Ltd." offers to resurrect his mother for $1000. Pattle finds the body in pieces after organ donations and the price is raised to $2500. His mother returns but she becomes more and more odd. Benny is a peeping Tom who spies on hot neighbor Storm Reynolds but she's interested in the weird Ed. Rob Sundheimer returns into their lives. He was put in prison for stealing from Ed's mother but has been released early.I like the concept. It has good potential for a black comedy especially with Steve Buscemi at the lead. However the script from Chuck Hughes has no snap and the directions from Jonathan Wacks has no style. The promise is never fulfilled.

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.

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.