Hors contrôle

Take a Barker concept ("Body Politic") & mix it with a dash of latter-day Herbert West - the results would in all probability resemble this dumb gore movie. Perhaps seasoned veterans (in this case Sommer & Reed) need a trash backdrop such as this to really let loose - and do they ever! The kind of film, that if your attention wavered (or you needed to go to the toilet...) , by the time you "came back", you'd swear you're watching a collection of out-takes from SOCIETY, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR & RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART 3 (apologies to Brian Yuzna). What the hell; Sommer is GREAT (a performance that would make Tim Curry look like a master of understatement), Johnny Legend's voice would seem more at home in a DeathMetal outfit - even some bargain-basement Freud thrown in for those of an academic bent. Unfortunate proof that a sincere love of horror movies doesn't automatically = superior product; probably a project that should have been produced by those who actively hate the genre in order to gain a degree of perspective.

The son of a domineering, and conniving widow (Elke Sommer), whose henchman lover is some kind of Nazi doctor (Oliver Reed), tries to recreate his father's gene experiments. The son loses his arm after getting it caught in a door during an intense argument with them and in an act of desperation tries the formula he's managed to concoct so far on himself. Instead of growing back a normal arm, he grows a sort of tentacled monster arm that can detach, crawl off and kill. He runs away from his mother and befriends a bunch of homeless people who take him in (Garrett Morris's character among them). His mother and her brutal accomplice follow him to get the formula. For B-movie fans, this is a pretty awesome treat. My biggest complaint is that they made this a tragedy with a heroes and not a feel-good revenge movie. I got sick of seeing the hero constantly being stepped on and acting like an idiot. He's got an army and a brain but doesn't seem to know how to use either. I realize that wanting a happy ending is my own personal preference. Others will enjoy it regardless. The effects are cheesy but fun, and the acting is well done on every one's part except for the main character, unfortunately. Sommer and Reed are deliciously wicked. The sets are great and the whole production was well done, in my opinion. If it weren't for the main character's acting and the way the script treated him, I would rate this much higher. In many ways, this reminded me of Idle Hands, which I enjoyed a little more. Definitely recommended for any B-movie lover who likes a cheesy, gooey mess of sci-fi and horror.

My review was written in September 1991 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.

Lip-smacking performances by Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer lift the horror film "Severed Ties" above the pack of low-budget shockers. Columbia TriStar Home Video should have good results with this third entry from Fangoria's film unit.

Tongue-in-cheek effort has Sommer as an extremely possessive mother who has her son Billy Morrissette imprisoned to work on perfecting the gene-bonding regeneration experiments left unfinished by her late husband.

Morrissette comes up with the solution, but it's imperfect, resulting in a severed arm that becomes a lizard-like creature with a life of its own.

Film fits into the grotesque horror genre dominated by Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case"). Combo of grotesque gore effects and over-the-top acting is a winning one.

Oliver Reed as Sommer's partner in evil, planning to exp;loit the son's formula, is a superior villain and Morrissette delivers as the young antihero.

If you like Brain Dead, or The Return of the living dead movies you're in for a ride. This one although a bit light on the gore part features a funny cast and a, although silly, interesting plot. The director and/or writers of this were not aiming for an Oscar by any means. They just wanted to give a funny gore fest, and I for one, appreciate their effort. BTW, the girl that plays the mute girl... Is so freakingly amazing hot... Too bad She hasn't been in anything besides this movie. Does anybody know if there's a DVD version of this film? And if thats the case... Would you happen to know where I could get It? Or maybe Download it, I don't know.. Help me out guys. I am looking for the unedited version if possible.

A young scientist is trying to carry on his dead father's work on limb regeneration.His overbearing mother has convinced him that he murdered his own father and is monitoring his progress for her own evil purposes.A young doctor uses reptilian DNA he extracts from a large creature and when his arm is conveniently ripped off a few minutes later,he injects himself with his formula and grows a new murderous arm...Admittedly the special effects in "Severed Ties" are pretty good and grotesque,but the rest of the film is awful.The severed arm is behaving like a snake and kills few people.Big deal.The acting is mediocre and the climax is silly.3 out of 10.