HAND OF DEATH opens with a sequence that might've come straight out of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (or VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED). It's an ominous beginning (thanks in no small part to the music) and the fact that the movie involves experiments with Nerve Gas makes it Topical no matter the decade. When Agar begins his Transformation, it's his MIND that goes first, and he ends up looking almost exactly like Ben Grimm ("The Thing" from THE FANTASTIC FOUR), at least as rendered in the beginning by Jack Kirby. And, like any good Monster, he Inadvertently (at least at first) wreaks Havoc wherever he goes. Decades ago, I created a super "hero" of sorts of my own, called The Leper. A homeless man subjected to the experiments of a mad scientist working for The Military Industrial Complex, his mere TOUCH became lethal. Like Agar in HAND OF DEATH, he used GLOVES to try to prevent infecting folks... A couple of years ago, I entered a Halloween costume contest. I made myself up as The Leper. The makeup took me three hours to apply and was convincing enough that my own niece didn't recognize me when I approached her. (One man who attended the contest- held at a local comic shop- couldn't take his eyes off of me.) It wasn't until I got in my car to leave and looked in the rear view mirror at myself that I realized just HOW convincing my makeup was: I didn't recognize myself. On my way home, people stared at me (one woman even rolled down her window and asked me if I was alright) until I explained that it was just a Halloween makeup. Yesterday, reading one of Tom Weaver's books of interviews, I discovered HAND OF DEATH in a John Agar interview. I've just watched it and it's EXACTLY the kind of movie I'd hoped to make about THE LEPER. Dammit.
Review of Hand of Death
