Idle Hands

For this Halloween I am going to rewind a movie I have watched many times, and still enjoy as a light-hearted horror comedy, from the nighties. Which has Jessica Alba in it!

Idle Hands (1999) 92 minutes (spoilers)

The story is, Anton (Deva Sawa) a teenage lay about, find outs his hand is possessed by the devil. As we all know, Idle hands are the devil’s playthings, hence the title. Anton slowly finds out he has been murdering the town, and eventually kills his best friends, while Debbie LeCure (Vivica Fox) is hunting the devil.

I’m not going to lie, I never used to be a horror movie kind of guy. I didn’t like to be scared, but light-hearted horror movies I tolerated, which is why I like this one. Watching as someone who has grown to enjoy horror, I understand why I like this movie. It falls more into in the comedy genre. However, don’t let that dissuade you, as the gore on show here is frequent and graphic.

There is a lot to like about this film if you like your movies a little bit on the weird side, and don’t mind that not everything has been serious. The film does start off as your typical horror movie, with panning shots of a local house. People being killed without the audience knowing his is doing the killing. The movie is also set around Halloween which is a nice touch, and local police apparently seem to be competent, for the most part.

I will say this movie is a movie of its time. As the soundtrack is heavy late nighties rock. The film also features the Offspring with the lead singer getting capped. Love it! Also, there are very generic gender roles, as well as the casual homophobia. There is also a shot of tits for no apparent reason. As I say it was the nighties, what are you going to do?

As I previously said Jessica Alba is in this movie before her stint on Dark Angel. Here she is Molly as girl who only there to be the love interest and be pretty. Which I’m not going to hate on as it is the genre. We all know why she is there, because the power of boners, can boys do anything. The movie implies that the two sleep together and, subtly they do imply Molly is down with the kink shit. At one point she says she is freezing her butt off waiting outside in the Autumn weather. You know girl rules for a Halloween. I think by far her best moment, which happens to be comical, when she get a costume torn. (look below)

Maybe because I saw this movie when I was child, I found the movie funny then. Now as an adult I still find some of these jokes funny. I find them funnier as I get the reason behind the joke, rather than the joke itself. Such as, the principle talking on a sex hotline, when he should be running the dance. Then there is the odd specific timing they must defeat the hand. There is a random Scooby Doo reference, and a constant reference to necrophilia as Pnub and Mick are dead, and Pnub trying to get some.

I feel this movie is has a constant tone of trying to be serious, with a few little hints at the joke Anton is obvious to everything going. Round about the halfway is where we get a lot more comical, when Anton knows his hand is being possessed. As his two friends careless about the dead bodies, and more interested in watching music videos and eating. As well as Debbie be hit by my truck, and rather than flattening her, she flies back like a cartoon.

However, I think the greatest comedy comes from the gruesome gore in this movie, which is linked to the way people are killed. Wither its being shot in the face with a taser, getting sucked into an airduct. Or knitting needles to the head. it’s all very funny, all juxtaposed which I think this movie does very well.

I do feel that Sawa does a good job of acting when his hand is possessed, as he must do something while his hand does something else. The scene with Molly in the bedroom comes to mind when I think of his performance. As well when he cuts off his hand, to rid himself of the Devil. While the hand acting is also great, the finger sharpening screen is one of my favourites, as the hand is performed by Thing from the Addams Family.

The end is just as dumb as the rest of the movie, as it is very anticlimactic, and weed is the day saver. The alternate ending is much darker than the one we got, and I can understand why they didn’t use it, as it doesn’t match the over all tone of the film. So, the simple ending we get makes a lot more sense.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie, and if you like comedy horror and terrible teen movies this one is for you.

FabEs