Review of Idle-Hands (2010) by Lee B — 06 Jul 2009

This film works well as a comic horror in the vein of Death Becomes Her or Return of the Living Dead perhaps. The central character, Anton, is a stoner, layabout who takes almost two days to discover that his parents have been killed. A series of deductions made by Anton and his friends, Pnub and Mick, arrive at the disturbing news that Anton is a multiple murderer. We are then treated to some grimly comic moments as Anton's 'possesed' hand strikes down his friends with a beer bottle and skil-saw blade. The burial scene that follows leads to a classic rising from the dead scene where Pnub and Mick get some kind of vengeance on their friend. Initially it's unclear why the parents don't come back too, but this is explained hilariously by Mick later when Anton comes round. Mick describes the highway to heaven as having lame music, like Enya or something Pnub says, and angels calling them forward, but Mick says, "Fuck that it was really far!" There are many funny scenes apart from this, like when Anton still doesn't know he's the murderer and he pushes his dog around the corner to investigate the danger. The halloween disco is the scene of the final act, as Anton and a Nun specialised in demonology try to stop the now severed possesed hand fron claiming a living victim for the netherworld.

Overall, I enjoyed this film as it delivered on the comedy and horror and avoided stereotypical horror conventions, like the crazed killer in pursuit of a victim, by having the hand as the malevolent force.