Halloween 2017 Movie Special, Day 7: “Idle Hands”

Halloween is finally here, and what better way to conclude our movie special week than offering a season-themed horror comedy like Idle Hands?

Idle Hands
(USA 1999, director: Rodman Flender)

Slacker Anton’s hand gets possessed and he soon realizes that it likes to murder all sorts of people during the Halloween season.

It’s amazing to think that I’ve been watching this movie for years as one of my Halloween favorites and I’ve never written about it. In a nutshell, it’s 90 minutes non-stop silliness with a decent amount of blood and gore thrown in. Characters are all likable, probably because they’re not the brightest, while the pacing is fast and furious. This is a movie that’s self-aware of being over-the-top ridiculous, with slapstick elements that are mixed up with inventive death sequences. One doesn’t learn anything about the killer hand’s origins, but that’s okay, because if one has this much fun it’s easy to forget that the plot is just an excuse for having one funny and bloody scene after another.

The reason why this is such a favorite for Halloween is that there are decorations on houses and obviously a party with lots of costumes in the finale where the killer hand goes berserk. Having the pop punk band The Offspring as a cameo and a rocking soundtrack with a Rob Zombie track are another bonus. It might not be the most original horror comedy and not every joke works, but as a no-brainer for a Halloween movie night with more laugh-out scenes that one can count and no unnecessary exposition or forced drama, this should be on everyone’s list to watch each year during the season of the witch, so Happy Halloween to you all!

Score: 9/10

Buy the BD on
Amazon UK (import)
Amazon USA

Buy the DVD on
Amazon Germany
Amazon UK
Amazon USA

imdb

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