The
Canadians and Scandinavians are all very polite, right? Maybe so, but there are those who are also
pretty twisted. Happily, we will be
meeting a two of them in Boris Rodriguez’s wonderfully aptly titled Eddie – the Sleepwalking Cannibal (trailer here), which screens
during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.
Lars
Olafssen has an international reputation and a chronic case of painter’s
block. Since he can no longer create
art, he figures he might as well teach and the Koda Lake Art School is remote
enough for him to do so anonymously. (Those
Canadian winters are hardly intimidating for a Dane.) Yet, as soon as he arrives, he starts getting
pressure to paint, both from the school’s dean and his serpentine agent. Having given up on his artistic career,
Olafssen just wants to fit in and impress the skeptical colleague he is
attracted to. Towards that ends, he
agrees to look after Eddie, the traumatized man-child of the school’s recently
deceased patron.
Guess
what Eddie the gentle giant does in his sleep?
Actually, it usually just involves small woodland creatures. However, getting in his way while sleep-walking
can be dangerous, as Olafssen observes. Much
to his shock, the sight of blood actually spurs the artist’s long dormant
creative juices. Let the carnage
facilitation begin.
As
great as its title is, Eddie – the Sleepwalking
Cannibal does not quite do the film justice. Sure, there is plenty of sleepwalking
cannibalism, but this is a surprisingly droll and sophisticated picture. While it mashes up plenty of horror elements,
it is the “artistic” mentality that really gets thoroughly skewered.
A
nearly lifelong veteran of arthouse cinema, a twelve year-old Thure Lindhardt
debuted in Pelle the Conqueror and
was somewhat recently commanding the screen as Danish resistance hero Bent
Faurschou-Hviid (a.k.a. Flame) in the riveting Flame and Citron. As
Olafssen, he is more than just a good sport.
He portrays the painter’s mounting creepiness quite credibly and seamlessly. An effective on-screen counterpart, Dylan
Smith plays poor Eddie with a keen physicality, suggesting a tragically
reluctant monster, roughly in the tradition of Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolfman.
