Review of Idle-Hands (2010) by Brad S — 09 Oct 2011

This is a gruesome but fun horror comedy about a super lazy teenaged slaker who's right hand gets possessed by evil and goes on a killing spree. Plotwise, that's it. There's really nothing mroe to this movie. I mena, there's a bit of a love story going on, and it's a high school movie, but really, that's just extra stuff. The real focus is just about the killer hand and the bum trying to stop it before too much mayhem gets caused.

This movie really seems like it's gonna be stupid and suck, and yes, while it's by no means intelligent or brilliant, it's super entertaining and a great deal of fun. As far as horror comedy movies go, it's far more campy and schlocky than Scream. It's slapsticky in the vien of Evil Dead II (which it references/parodies constantly and not subtly), but it avoids being a total ripoff, so it's cool.

The characters, though goofy, lazy, good for nothing stoners, are likeable and it's hilarious watching them banter back and forth and try to deal with such a ludicrous situation as a killer hand on the loose. Jessica Alba is also in this as the hottie love interest, and, while she's not great, this was early in her career so her flaws can be overlooked (I think).

For a comedy, this is quite gruesome, but it's almsot always played for laughs, even though it does get a little disturbing at times. Maybe here and there some legitimately intense moments pop up, but this is mostly just wacky instead of being a truly scary experience. The effects are good though and Christopher Hart (who played Thing in the Addams Family movies) is awesome as the possessed hand once it SPOILER gets chopped off and starts roaming free.

LIke many high school movies, the climax takes place at a school dance, only here it's a Halloween ball instead of prom. For rock fans, it's also cool seeing The Offspring play the band perfporming at the dance. Without getting into specifics, they also are part of one of the best bits of the movie. Overall, this is some silly stuff, and I shouldn't be giving it the credit I am, but I first saw this at an impressionable age, and it left a pretty good impression on me, and I think it's pretty charming. Yeah, it's not great, but as far as B-movies like this go, it could be a whole lot worse. Besides, where else are you gonna see people using an asthma inhaler as a hash pipe?

Shut your brain off and give this a chance. It's ridiculous, but quite fun.