"Idle Hands" isn't priority viewing for horror fans but it's a very entertaining little gem, nevertheless. Cast and crew were smart enough to put the whole horror genre into perspective a bit and therefore this feels a lot more like a light-headed spoof than a sickening gore flick. Ever since that dreadful "Scream", the teen-slasher flicks are going through a revival and "Idle Hands" picks into this in a funny way with a very exaggerated plot, eccentric characters and outrageous situations. Devon Sawa (Final Destination) stars as an offbeat teenager whose goal in life is too sleep late and smoke dope. It takes him quite some time to realize that his right hand is possessed by evil forces that force him to kill. With the help of his stoner-friends (killed as well, but too lazy to reach for the light at the end of the tunnel), he has got to prevent that the beautiful muse across the street gets killed by the bloodthirsty hand. The storyline is ultra-thin but don't let that keep you from having a good time watching the well-elaborated gore effects and funny one-liners. Very creative (but especially comic) butchering in this film, as it for example contains one of the potheads getting stabbed in the head with a beer bottle! That same bottle than remains embedded in his skull for the rest of the movie, which is a pretty cool sight. There are terrific tributes to horror titles that featured the same idea of a murderous hand earlier (like "Evil Dead 2" or Oliver Stone's "The Hand") and an excellent soundtrack with songs from Mötley Crüe, Rob Zombie and The Ramones. The best acting performance is given by Seth Green who has an undeniable talent for comedy roles. And then there's Jessica Alba who portrays one of the most gorgeous horror-heroines ever! I've seen a few episodes of her "Dark Angel" TV-show but she definitely didn't this good there! "Idle Hands" is an overall okay film...not good enough to be named among the better horror-comedies but surely a lot better than the so many other pretentious spoofs.
Review of Idle Hands
