With its unseen killer, prowling POV shots, and the use of a distinctive murder weapon, it seems clear to me that The Severed Arm was heavily inspired by the prolific giallo genre, but writer/director Tom Alderman has a few tricks of his own up his sleeve, including one scene that would be famously imitated by classic slashers Black Christmas and When A Stranger Calls (you know the scene I mean...).
The film opens with six men exploring an old mine, only to become trapped underground by a cave-in. After two weeks with no sign of rescue, the starving men decide to draw straws, with the loser to have his arm cut off for food. Ted (Ray Dannis) is the unlucky donor of the tasty limb, but no sooner have the other men performed the amputation than help arrives. Years later, a maniac with a hatchet stalks the five friends who chopped off Ted's arm.
For much of the running time, The Severed arm is a fairly routine 'killer on the loose' horror, with perhaps a bit too much chit-chat, but the aforementioned scene (you know the one I mean) makes this an interesting precursor to the slasher craze of the '70s, while a couple of fun deaths (including a man having his arm wrenched off by a rope as he falls to his death) and a cool ending help make this more entertaining than one might imagine given its obscurity.
The film opens with six men exploring an old mine, only to become trapped underground by a cave-in. After two weeks with no sign of rescue, the starving men decide to draw straws, with the loser to have his arm cut off for food. Ted (Ray Dannis) is the unlucky donor of the tasty limb, but no sooner have the other men performed the amputation than help arrives. Years later, a maniac with a hatchet stalks the five friends who chopped off Ted's arm.
For much of the running time, The Severed arm is a fairly routine 'killer on the loose' horror, with perhaps a bit too much chit-chat, but the aforementioned scene (you know the one I mean) makes this an interesting precursor to the slasher craze of the '70s, while a couple of fun deaths (including a man having his arm wrenched off by a rope as he falls to his death) and a cool ending help make this more entertaining than one might imagine given its obscurity.