La Main qui tue

Now that may sound like innuendo and if you think so - well the movie gives you lots of reasons to feel there is even more innuendo. Be it our main character hiding in the bush(es) of his neighbor or proclaiming he isn't able to control his hand. Something boys may like to claim when they discover their sexuality I reckon.

But while this has a bit of nudity (literally) and some hot situations, it does focus more on the horror and comedy stuff it has. It does get violent and it does have blood in it - but it also is as funny as it gets. And one of the reasons is how Devon Sawa is able to do all the physical stuff himself. He says himself he was young and just threw himself in everything - have to admit very well done.

I liked the movie back when it came out and I still like it - it seems to had some issues when it was released because of a massive school schooting in America - Politicians blaming movies and games for that - which those involved sarcastically take apart in the commentary on the newly released Blu Ray.

There are so many funny and good moments in here ... but there are also questionable decisions. Jessica Alba being attracted to someone who has shows red flags than you can imagine. Do not watch this taking it apart for those reasons if you can - the movie does not tell us what we should do when it comes to the opposite sex. This after all is a movie - if you can't detach that from your moral views, you may have/take issues with the movie.

The teenager wakes up on Halloween and discovers that his right hand is possessed and murderous. After unsuccessful efforts to control it, he decides to cut it off, but the hand continues its killing spree on its own. A premise that is irresistibly reminiscent of "The Evil Dead" and the hand is the same one used for "The Addams Family". The film was shot in the area we remember from "Halloween", and the gym where the school dance is held is the one from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Everything in this film is obviously "secondhand", but it works great. It is classified as a horror-comedy, but I would rather call it a silly horror that is both a homage and a parody of B horrors and teenage comedies from the end of the last century. Plenty of violence, gore, and disgusting scenes, dull stoned teenagers, a few zombies, a bit of nudity, good music and, like icing on the cake, seventeen-year-old Jessica Alba. The film is somewhat in the style of the series "Ash vs. Evil Dead", but it mostly reminded me of "Todd and the Book of Pure Evil". I really enjoyed it.

7/10

What more can I say about this movie?

All I knew about it was that it had quite a few elements of teen comedy and that I've only seen the tail end of it a few times.

Now that I finally saw the whole thing, it's now one of my favorites!

It's a welcome change from most of the horror movies I've seen.

Great music, great acting, and gorgeous women (Specifically speaking, Jessica Alba)... what more do you want?

This is one of those movies that you can watch and understand it perfectly... whether or not you're stoned.

10 out of 10

Usually, when you watch a movie that sends up the horror genre, the movie sacrifices the scares in favor of the laughs. But, in Idle Hands, the movie makers remembered to keep all the creepy touches and startling frights that make a horror movie when they mixed in all the humor.

Not nearly as heavy handed as, say, the Scary Movie franchise, Idle Hands has all the normal trappings of a good teen horror flick: The unstoppable killing evil that has come back, the buddies of the main character who don't understand the danger until it's too late, the horny girl who main character must protect and a brave hero who is a bastion of all that is good in the world to defend us...

OK, so I was lying about that last one. And that is one of the best twists of the film, the main character is a screw-up and doesn't act very heroically until very, very late in the film. In addition to really revving up the laughs, this feature is also what kind of makes this movie stand out from the usual horror fare.

Now, here's the key: While Anton struggles with the evil in his bumbling way, egged on by the wise-cracks of Mick and Pnub, the film delivers actual horror. We get shocks, we get creeps, we get gore and we don't get the "ha-ha got ya!" joke right afterward that you get in most parodies. The scares are real, the deaths are real, the danger are real. And, surprisingly, so are the laughs.

I don't care what anyone else says, I found this movie to be hysterical. For one, it's pretty violent. People get it in disturbing ways here. One comes to mind in particular where someone gets a knitting needle rammed straight into their ear. It's not nice stuff but it's so funny you can't help but laugh. A major question, first and foremost: just what the hell was Vivica A. Fox doing in this movie? I've never used the word slumming before in a sentence but I think it applies here. Devon Sawa is a cool cat. I liked him here and his brand of physical comedy is pretty impressive. Watch Final Destination after seeing this and I think you'll wonder why we haven't seen more of him. Seth Green is cool and so are Elden Henson and Jack Noseworthy. And for Jessica Alba fans, she's in here, in all her pre-Dark Angel glory. I've never used the word nubile but I think it definitely applies here. She looks so good in this movie that it hurts my chest. She's one of the finer points (literally) of the movie. There's a chick in this movie wearing Paul Stanley's KISS makeup that should email me so I can give her my home address. There's parts of the movie that kinda fall flat but that's to be expected. Check this movie out if non-pc humor and bad mojo violence is your thing. Especially if you liked Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, I think you'll dig this picture. And if you appreciate Jessica Alba in any way. Rating: *** out of *****.