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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.

As mentioned in the other comments, this movie is a awful lot better than it would first seem. Its still a rather brainless teen slasher flick, with the usual array of 2D characters ( the goofy friends, gorgeous love interest, aggressive hunk etc) and situations (school Halloween dance), but the great dialogue and great visual effects elevate it above the majority of other movies in the teen slasher style and doesn't do too much talking down to the audience. Where most other movies of this type give the audience 2 answers before a single question is answered Idle Hands has no fears about leaving things unanswered, where the viewer can make their own mind up (for once). Devon Sawa makes for a convincing and cute Anton, while Jessica Alba is all thats needed to keep the target audience of under 20's males glued to their seats. Don't get me wrong, this isn't up there with the likes of Lawrence of Arabia, but it never sets out to be; it's hilariously funny, satisfyingly gory and one hell of a lot better than you'd ever think. Go rent it, you'l be pleasantly surprised. Also, the soundtrack is great.

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 *****.

I thought this was going to be just another dumb teen comedy. After watching the first 10 minutes, I was convinced it was, and was ready to try something else. Well, I am glad I stayed with it. It was very funny and a combination comedy and horror film. Yes, it's humor geared more for teens but people far older than 15 should still get a lot of laughs out of this.

Warning: some of the scenes are pretty gross, at least for a comedy, but that's what made those particularly scenes funny. Comedy and horror mix well together, anyway.

The film reminded me a bit of "American Werewolf in London" with the "undead" kids. Despite the absurdity of it, there are a couple of good message in here....but, generally, this is purely escapist fun and nothing else.

This film is actually surprisingly funny. It has an innovative plot, and the lead guy does a very good job with his right hand!