Elyse Stefanowicz - Idle Hands

Idle Hands (1999)
Directed by: Rodman Flender

Idle Hands is a quirky, slapstick horror film that follows a boy, Anton, whose hand is possessed by some sort of demon spirit. The spirit only inhabits lazy stoner types and Anton is the perfect candidate. He has no control over his hand, and when it starts killing people (like his parents and best friends), he thinks its a good idea to cut it off. He slowly realizes that this was not a good idea. The hand is on the loose and is taking out anyone that gets in it's path and when it's main target is Anton's girlfriend, he ditches his stoner ways to save the love of his life. The film has all of the typical horror film attributes; gore, guts and slaying, but it also has a refreshing sense of humor that keeps you laughing while people are dying.

The film's setting, composition and characters attribute to making the overall film a success. The setting takes place in two places (from what I can remember)--Anton's house and the school. Most of the entirety of the film is set in Anton's house. Usually when there is one distinct location, it can be a recipe for disaster, but in this film the viewer doesn't notice the lack of sets. There are enough entertaining things going on to distract and keep the viewer busy--I know I was never bored from the setting. The overall composition of the film has a dark hue to it. Barely any of it happens in daylight and it all happens in one day. There isn't much bright lighting throughout the film which helps enhance the horror aspect of the film. The characters in the film were what in my opinion made it most enjoyable. Anton--played by Devon Sawa--is the protagonist in the film, and even though he is the killer, the audience doesn't hate him. We want him to get out of it--even when he kills his best friends. The casting of the film really enhanced the over success just because the actors did do such a good job. Devon Sawa throughout the entire first half of the film had to make his one hand seem entirely different from his other and even got in fights with it. He had such control that he made the slapstick comedy he does believable and funny. Most of the actors were somewhat unknown at this time and it was a relatively young cast. Seth Green and Jessica Alba filled some of the supporting roles. The makeup of the film was also very well done. For half the movie Seth Green was walking around with a bottle in his head. Obviously it was fake, but it was incredible makeup design that made that possible. The blood, guts and gore also had to be designed by some sort of makeup team and the only downfall I would say is that there was too much blood--but after all I am a little queasy.