31 Days of Horror Movies: The Hand

Tonight we have a film that really shouldn't be watched by kids, yet, I first saw it as a kid. Go figure.

The Hand

Michael Caine plays Jon Lansdale, a right-handed comic artist who loses his right hand. He has a wife and kid, and not all is well with the marriage (really, have you ever seen a movie where the relationship is A-OK?), and things don't get any better when, while wife Anne is driving one day, Jon's hand is severed from his arm in an accident. Bereft of his hand (and talent), Jon sinks into a funk, and Anne feels guilty.

There's a lot of melodrama in The Hand. The Lansdale's marriage is on and off the rocks several times. Jon has an affair. Oh, and his severed hand decides to go around killing people. Or does it? Could these grisly murders he blames on his separated hand actually be Jon's own work, and he's simply transferring the guilt to something he's lost? The film (kind of) answers this, but does so in a way that finds it mainly milking the audience for more chills and thrills.

I'll admit that The Hand isn't a particularly good film. It's selection for this month of horror films is more of a nostalgia pick than anything else. The scene when Michael Caine's character loses his hand is quite memorable, in a very blunt and terrifying way. And then when the hand creeps around on its killing spree, well, let's just say that it's a childhood memory I won't forget.

Comments

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing). It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....

31 Days of Horror Movies: Thir13en Ghosts

While not a scholar or even a purist, I am somewhat of a film snob. Not a big fan of remakes, specifically when the originals don't need updating. It is therefore an unusual position I find myself in, preferring a remake to an original, and by leaps and bounds. Let's take a look at today's feature...

31 Days of Horror Movies: The Woman In Black

Yesterday, we had a lady in white, and today we have.... The Woman In Black Just as Nosferatu was our oldest horror film to be reviewed this month, The Woman In Black is our most recent. Released earlier this year, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe in a more adult role than previously seen in his Harry Potter career. He plays a young lawyer whose wife died in childbirth, so he has been raising their son (mostly) on his own. With money tight, and his job on the line, the young attorney takes an assignment in a remote village, much to his dismay. The small, closed community Radcliffe's character finds himself in is apparently haunted by a woman dressed in all black. When she is seen, a child dies. She is seen quite a lot during the course of the film. The locals get edgy with the attorney, making him feel most unwelcome. And when he is doing his work, sorting through the papers of a deceased elderly woman, he discovers the secret of the woman in black. It doesn't

Left to my own devices

Search This Blog