This is far better than some make out and certainly more worthy of attention than it's low average score would suggest. However appropriate the title, I guess it does give the impression that there may be more blood and guts than there is and some may be disappointed in that respect. The direction is certainly uneven and the acting perhaps more so and maybe there could have been less driving about in the dark but I still enjoyed it. There are some standout scenes including two excellent lift sequences and the early scenes down the cave are pretty grim. I thought the crazy DJ was going to irritate but in the end I found his antics quite endearing, especially as we (and he) are anticipating the inevitable. Admittedly the film slows now and again but never for long and the great ending is worth the wait.
39 Reviews
Decent
edgein1513 July 2001
What a shame that a movie with this title will only appeal to the usual high school braindead gorehounds. It is nothing of the sort. This is quite a thoughtful and meticulous revenge film. A gang of starving men trapped in a pit finally decide on a desperate day of hunger to prey on the weakest man, thereby cutting off his arm and feeding. Ironically, the men are saved hours later, but the Wounded is spouting crazy cannibalism talk. The remaining men enter into a conspiracy, saying they severed his arm only to save him from a worse cave-in mishap. What follows is a story of revenge in the COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO tradition. In retrospect, this film is definitely more of a drama than it is a horror film. But as most people assume this picture is a drive-in splatterfest, it will only attract the immature, shock-seeking crowd. What a shame. The ending of this film is true poetic justice.
Reverse fugitive
Chase_Witherspoon9 March 2012
When a half-dozen friends become trapped in a cave for a fortnight, they contemplate cannibalism as a means for survival, amputating the arm of one of their companions but then live to regret that decision years later.
David G.Cannon is essentially the star, the anti-hero who conjured the great idea, Paul Carr is his policeman buddy, and John Crawford the surgeon whose limb lopping lunacy lands him top of the list when vengeance comes knocking. Former one-time "Gidget" Deborah Walley has a sympathetic supporting role and whilst overall the acting is serviceable, the direction and narrative is weak and full of contrivances; it's essentially a conceptual outline of a movie without the logic or detail and it suffers accordingly.
There's a couple of memorable amputation scenes that work effectively and the climax is, while not entirely unexpected, still reasonably effective. Overall the film is clumsy, lacking suspense at the crucial moments and threadbare on plot detail. Great title, mediocre film.
David G.Cannon is essentially the star, the anti-hero who conjured the great idea, Paul Carr is his policeman buddy, and John Crawford the surgeon whose limb lopping lunacy lands him top of the list when vengeance comes knocking. Former one-time "Gidget" Deborah Walley has a sympathetic supporting role and whilst overall the acting is serviceable, the direction and narrative is weak and full of contrivances; it's essentially a conceptual outline of a movie without the logic or detail and it suffers accordingly.
There's a couple of memorable amputation scenes that work effectively and the climax is, while not entirely unexpected, still reasonably effective. Overall the film is clumsy, lacking suspense at the crucial moments and threadbare on plot detail. Great title, mediocre film.
A Medical thriller?
mushroomginseng20 September 2013
Tom Alderman's THE SEVERED ARM took me by surprise. Not having seen this before, and based on the title alone, I expected something along the lines of Michael Caine's THE HAND or THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS. And there are also dozens of other medical horror movies where a person loses their arm or leg, and said limb somehow does not die. Many times the limb actually goes on to commit murder or other mayhem until it is stopped by police or whoever. Speaking for myself, I have never been a fan or medical TV shows like ER. But I do appreciate a good feature length medical thriller. I am a big fan of THE INCREDIBLE TWO HEADED TRANSPLANT since that was my first exposure to the medical terrors growing up. Anyway, getting back to THE SEVERED ARM, I was expecting a medical thriller. It turns out that the director wanted to do a little something different then what people expected. When this movie came out in the early seventies, the Itallian giallos were at their peak box office success and the movie going public craved new genre fare, thanks to the successes of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Well, director Tom Alderman studied the works of Argento and Bava well. Basically THE SEVERED ARM is a US made giallo. It has all the elements of the genre; like the gloved, killer whose face is never shown, the police procedural parts are here, the kiler uses a device to alter his voice when calling his victims or the authorities. It does have some cheesy parts but it is a pretty decent thriller for a low budget independent nature. I will point out here that obviously this movie lacks the beautiful cinematography that is done in the Giallo masters overseas. And there is no rousing giallo-esq score. The music here is a big disappointment. It is pretty much all sythesezer music (synthezer music would break thru would get big in the 1980s) but here it is terrible and out of place. One other other negative point to mention is that my copy the movie is very poorly lit and it is hard to make the action sometimes in the darn fuzz. If you like Giallo thrillers, you may want check out THE SEVERED ARM; it even has a Dario Argento type twist ending....
Doesn't quite cut it (3 - 10)
andybob-319 February 2007
A group of men exploring an old mine get trapped in a cave in, and after weeks of starvation decide to draw straws, and have the unlucky loser serve up an arm for lunch. After much scuffle the unlucky winner is soon liberated of the offending appendage, and Murphy's law being what it is they are rescued mere seconds afterwards. Fearing for their reputations everyone except obviously the victim agrees to lie and say that they had to cut his arm off because it was crushed in the collapse, but being quite perturbed because he can no longer clap and can only row boats in circles he vows revenge. Things start off a few years later when the man whom first suggested the idea receives a severed arm gift wrapped in the mail, and with few exceptions that's where this movie's creativity ends.
Not particularly bad but overall pretty slow and boring, although there is a little bit of a haunting surprise at the end it's not enough to make it worth while. Be weary of the severely edited 83 minute version missing all the gore, its like the editors took a hacksaw to the film stock and made an already extremely weak movie worse.
3 out of 10, strictly blood and guts, although it doesn't do that all that well either.
Not particularly bad but overall pretty slow and boring, although there is a little bit of a haunting surprise at the end it's not enough to make it worth while. Be weary of the severely edited 83 minute version missing all the gore, its like the editors took a hacksaw to the film stock and made an already extremely weak movie worse.
3 out of 10, strictly blood and guts, although it doesn't do that all that well either.
its really not that bad
Mhamm52010 May 2007
although the movie's acting and directing were very amateur, the plot was an amazing concept. the films script was cheesy, but the story in general was genius. the whole time watching the film, i was thinking to myself that if this movie had th chance, it could be very good. again, its not the story that was bad, it was the acting and directing. i mean if u look a the basic idea, a group of people stuck in a cave, fighting one another for each others flesh, thats a winning plot right there, just ready for any big time producer to bite into. if this move is redone today, with a larger budget and a better cast and crew, this could be a very popular film. too bad it just wasn't done right the first time around.
okay drive in film
dbborroughs13 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Five men are trapped in a cave in . As time passes and there is no signs of rescue one of the men says they should draw lots and eat the arm of one of the. After the arm is removed rescue arrives. A few Years later the guy who suggested the turn to cannibalism gets an arm in the mail and then he and the others begin to be stalked.
Its okay as the low budget 1970's drive in fare goes, but suffers from the type of pacing that might have worked playing to a drive in full of people doing more than watching the movie, but when seen on a TV causes on to fall asleep.
Its an okay trip to the drive in but those actually expecting quality should look elsewhere
Its okay as the low budget 1970's drive in fare goes, but suffers from the type of pacing that might have worked playing to a drive in full of people doing more than watching the movie, but when seen on a TV causes on to fall asleep.
Its an okay trip to the drive in but those actually expecting quality should look elsewhere
I guess I am bucking the crowd, but I liked this one...
planktonrules1 May 2015
"The Severed Arm" has a very low score on IMDb and the reviews are generally unfavorable. Oddly, I actually liked the film and thought it very unique and worth seeing. I could be wrong, but I was surprised as the title sure makes it sound like a terrible film.
The first part of the film is told as a flashback. A group of six guys go exploring in a creaky old cave. Unfortunately, one of the guys is a stupid idiot and he causes a cave-in...and they are trapped for two weeks. Not surprisingly, they are starving when one of them insists that they only way to survive is to eat PART of one of them. He insists that they draw lots and the loser is eaten...in part. Not all of them are in agreement but he pushes them to do this. After ripping off the poor loser's arm, a rescue party arrives--and the folks all agree to lie about what happened and say that the man with the missing are was injured and they HAD to do surgery on him!
Five years pass. Now bad things start happening to the five who perpetrated this arm-carnage. Some are dismembered...some are killed. But there is a special punishment for the ring leader!
I thought the film very original, quite clever and set a wonderful and tense mood. Is it a great film? Nah...but for what it is, it's surprisingly watchable. Also, I was glad that the who arm ripping off angle was not overly gross and gratuitous!
The first part of the film is told as a flashback. A group of six guys go exploring in a creaky old cave. Unfortunately, one of the guys is a stupid idiot and he causes a cave-in...and they are trapped for two weeks. Not surprisingly, they are starving when one of them insists that they only way to survive is to eat PART of one of them. He insists that they draw lots and the loser is eaten...in part. Not all of them are in agreement but he pushes them to do this. After ripping off the poor loser's arm, a rescue party arrives--and the folks all agree to lie about what happened and say that the man with the missing are was injured and they HAD to do surgery on him!
Five years pass. Now bad things start happening to the five who perpetrated this arm-carnage. Some are dismembered...some are killed. But there is a special punishment for the ring leader!
I thought the film very original, quite clever and set a wonderful and tense mood. Is it a great film? Nah...but for what it is, it's surprisingly watchable. Also, I was glad that the who arm ripping off angle was not overly gross and gratuitous!
Did anybody read the screenplay?
deadparrot444428 May 2011
The list of people who should be shot, drawn and quartered, then shot again, include the screenwriter(s), the director, the producers, the actors, and I'll even throw in the caterer. Didn't anybody READ the screenplay? The premise is not bad--trapped in a cave-in, the guys eventually decide to eat each other, piecemeal (no pun intended). Right after the cave-in, our lead says, "We have no food and damn little water." Maybe two minutes of screen time later, all our guys are sporting bushy beards (tempus fugit), and one of the other actors says, "They should have found us TWO WEEKS ago." Excuse me? You guys were trapped without food or water (or internet access) for MORE THAN TWO WEEKS(!!!) and the only signs we see of it are you look like refugees from a Gillette commercial? No one seems to have lost weight, no one seems to be DEAD FROM STARVATION. And THEN, they all have the energy to pounce upon the victim and sever his arm? Please. When you start with a gigantic flaw of logic and reality so patently imbecilic, you cannot take anything that follows with the slightest punctillio of even suspended disbelief.
Why didn't you wait for a few more minutes?
ulicknormanowen17 October 2021
One of the unfortunate heroes hints at the sixty sailors lost at sea;but there's also a French nursery rhyme ("IL était un petit navire" =once upon a time a little ship )which goes like this :
"They drew straws To know who would be eaten.
The lot fell on the youngest, The cabin boy who set to crying Next they ponder with what sauce The poor child will be eaten."
With gore kept to the minimum,the scene in the cave (which follows the plot of the folk song ,so to speak ) ,and the terrifying ending (which will make your hair stand on hair ) make stuff like "saw" almost look like fairytales. Remember it was made in the early seventies!
There's a slight sag in the tension towards the middle of the movie which has a tendency to become repetitive ,but it regains its strength in the final sequences .
A must for horror movies!
"They drew straws To know who would be eaten.
The lot fell on the youngest, The cabin boy who set to crying Next they ponder with what sauce The poor child will be eaten."
With gore kept to the minimum,the scene in the cave (which follows the plot of the folk song ,so to speak ) ,and the terrifying ending (which will make your hair stand on hair ) make stuff like "saw" almost look like fairytales. Remember it was made in the early seventies!
There's a slight sag in the tension towards the middle of the movie which has a tendency to become repetitive ,but it regains its strength in the final sequences .
A must for horror movies!
Generally terrible, but not entirely worthless.
poolandrews12 November 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Like everyone else who've seen this and commented on it here I will be reviewing an obviously cut version, as there wasn't a single drop of blood in the entire thing, but all of the boring stuff was still there, unfortunately. The film opens in a morgue. A one armed man picks up a surgical saw and saws off a dead body's arm. Next we cut to a parcel. A long box, just big enough for say, an arm! After the credits the parcel is delivered to Jeff (David G.Cannon). It turns out that it is indeed a severed arm. He heads straight for his friend, the local Doctor (John Crawford). They discuss the situation. The Doctor talks of a nightmarish five years, the film then goes into flashback. Six men, Jeff, Doc, police man Mark (Paul Carr), a radio DJ 'Mad Man Herman' (Marvin Kaplan), Bill (Vince Martorano) and Ted (Ray Dennis) are trapped in a cave-in when 'Mad Man Herman' starts to hit the wall with a hammer, idiot. Doc states "we have no food and little water". Two weeks pass and the men are starving. Jeff tells them a story of sailors trapped on a raft out at sea and how they survived by eating one of their dead, and he suggests they must do the same to survive. But non of them are dead yet, so Jeff (who put him in charge?) helpfully says they draw straws and the loser has to give a part of his body up for the survival of the group. Ted is the unlucky loser. They cut his arm off and ate it, apparently anyway as I didn't actually see it happen, as I've said the version that seems to be available at the moment appears to be censored, mine certainly was. However, not long after the men are rescued, Jeff (once again) convinces the men to lie and say Ted's arm was trapped under rocks during the cave-in and that they had to cut his arm off to save his life. They all agree, except Ted obviously. As Ted is lifted in an ambulance he states "I won't forget!". Both Jeff and Doc are sure Ted sent the arm and decide to call a meeting at Docs house later that night. Everyone turns up, they decide not to go to the police for fear of their careers. Meanwhile outside a one armed man with an axe is watching them through a window. Is it Ted? What does he want? Who will survive? Watch it to find out. Directed by Thomas S.Alderman this is a pretty awful film. Technically poor on every level, the 'electronic music' as it's described in the opening credits becomes very annoying, acting is poor as is the photography. But I liked the idea and thought the script was OK, don't forget that this was made way before many highly regarded slasher films, the central idea was neat, the killer actually had a decent motive this time. I also really liked the twist ending (I just about made it that far!), even if it's a little silly, it's entertaining. With all the gore supposedly cut out the film drags badly, lots of padding like people walking and driving around, it gets very boring incredibly quickly. It's a terrible film as it is, but I liked the ending and the idea behind the film. Still impossible to recommend though.
Depending on your taste in horror
GOWBTW11 August 2020
There are some B movies and there's "The Severed Arm". It makes a whole lot of sense in every way. Especially, when the postal worker gives you a special delivery. That delivery contains a severed arm. That arm eventually brings back a memory of some men who ventured into a cave and get trapped for days. During their time, they would resort into cannibalism in order to survive. So they resort in maiming one of victims. After being rescued, they concocted a story to the police about the cave-in.
5 years later, one of the men received a cut up arm in the package. And their nightmare is just the beginning. The doctor is assaulted. And the rest of them have been maimed and/or killed by the limb hacker. Is it the comrade exacting revenge? Or is it a copycat with the same M.O.?
You decide. Before Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, this is the first killer in slasher film history. Way before "Prom Night".
One must not make hasty remarks about B movies. This movie may have flaws, but it was entertaining. And it's the beginning of Angus Scrimm 6 years before "Phantasm"!
2 out of 5 stars
I've seen worse...MUCH worse
DancingRain28 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Over all, if you take into account the year it was made, this movie wasn't too bad. I have seen movies much newer that were much, much worse. I mean, it's not nasty gory, or heart-in-your-throat scary, but it has it's moments. There's plotting, a bit of blood, and some hack-and-slash. And as avid a horror movie watcher I am, I STILL didn't see the 'brother' angle coming. The only part I didn't like, was the ending. I mean, they got the last guy, he's locked in a room with a knife. For poetic justice, his options are either cut off his own arm or starve to death. And THAT'S where they end it!! Blasted cliffhangers!! I hate it when movies do that.. It's just...wrong!!
Kind of cringey unless you suspend all disbelief.
dfranzen7013 February 2019
These five dudes go hiking and then get trapped in a cave after one of them chips away at the fragile structure seemingly holding it all together. Boom, cave-in. They have no food and little water, yet somehow they all survive for a couple of weeks. And then and only then do they draw straws to see who's gonna have to lose an appendage so they can eat something. (Probably raw, since there'd be no sure way for the smoke from a fire to escape the cave.) Anyway, they are quickly rescued after making that fun decision. Five years later, one of them gets a severed arm in the mail. OMG could it be the guy they ate part of? Nice twist at the end, although it won't be a surprise if you've been paying any sort of attention. Protagonists are all kind of stupid.
Obviously a "B" movie
burkhart-321 January 2003
This movie is quite obviously a low-budget film. It does, however, manage to be watchable in spite of its lowly budget. There are some scenes that are reasonably well done and the overall film wasn't AS bad as I expected. Having said that, this is no masterpiece. It certainly deserves a place in the annals of bad movie-making. Don't anyone think for a moment that this is somehow anything other than a cheap, cheesy suspense/horror. It is better than some, however. And it could have been worse. I gave it a "3" out of "10."
Inept horror opus with no scary scenes.
Serpent-514 July 1999
Four coal miners got trapped in the tunnel, and there was no sign of rescue. All of them hungry, they picked a straw to pick one of them as a victim for food (in a PG rated way). One of them lost a hand, (not enough meat in a hand!), but the rescue arrived the next day. The victim entered an insane asylum. The ending sucks, and photography sucks, the whole film plain sucks. I could see why this is Deborah Whalley's last film to date. Someone should have severed the script! Not recommended.
An extremely dull and sub-par 70's low-budget horror revenge stinker
Woodyanders7 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Six starving, desperate geologists are trapped in a cave for two weeks. Five of these guys cut off the arm of a sixth luckless dude and eat it. Shortly after the limb hacking incident, the men are saved by a rescue party. Five years later the understandably embittered fellow who got his appendage severed vows revenge. He begins killing the other five guys by cutting off one of their arms with a hatchet. While the sound premise certainly has plenty of potential, it's unfortunately undermined by a very dull and uninspired execution. Thomas S. Alderman's drab, listless direction and hideously talky'n'tedious script suck all the fun and vitality out of the solid story. The tame, unconvincing gore f/x, Philllan Bishop's shrill, unmelodious droning synthesizer score, the sluggish pace, Bob Maxwell's dark, bland, ugly cinematography and a real groaner of a would-be startling surprise "twist" ending are all likewise uniformly awful. Familiar 70's B-feature faces Deborah ("Benji") Walley, Paul ("The Bat People") Carr, John ("Outlaw Blues") Crawford, Vince ("The Candy Snatchers") Martorano, and Marvin ("Fangs") Kaplan sleepwalk through their insipid parts, thereby failing to bring any energy or conviction to their boring and flatly drawn characters. Early in the film one character gravely intones, "Something's really rotten." I wholeheartedly concur; that something really rotten is this incredibly feeble and worthless chunk of atrocious cinematic offal.
This makes porn look well-acted
trspamfile24 June 2005
The other reviewer absolutely hit the nail on the head when he said that you might watch this expecting a 70's "so bad it's good" film, but even then you'd be disappointed, as it's truly irredeemable. Don't even bother watching it for fun. The acting quite honestly is about on par with porn -- I say this without exaggeration. The cinematography looks like something shot by a community theater, and the characters are the most unlikeable ever written. There's even a blatant rip-off of the old "we've traced the call and it's coming from your other line" story, with no variation.
If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a spoof.
If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a spoof.
Not that bad!
rob_h13 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I found this browsing Netflix instant streaming. Some of the dialogue is bad but verges on camp. (For example, the doctor saying to his wife about her choice of reading, "Psycho Lovers? Just drop the "psycho" and get to the lovin'!") The acting is acceptable to me; I love that the doctor's wife tries to obscure her Australian accent but can't. The electronic music score is fantastic. Those who like old analog synthesizer scores in horror movies will be reminded of the score for Shock Waves. (But that score seems mostly to be composed, whereas the one for The Severed Arm seems largely improvised in several layers of overdubbing.)
I wasn't expecting the plot twist at the end, and that makes the movie fun for me to watch over and over again. The last 6 or 7 minutes is really entertaining, and it's funny, too. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes B- movie horror.
I wasn't expecting the plot twist at the end, and that makes the movie fun for me to watch over and over again. The last 6 or 7 minutes is really entertaining, and it's funny, too. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes B- movie horror.
Worthless Junk with a capital J
mrush22 April 2008
Man I hate movies like this----movies that don't have one single solitary interesting thing about them.This dog is basically unwatchable unless you're just determined to tough it out so you can come in here and slam it.So it was with me.
6 guys end up trapped in a cave or old mine for reasons unclear to me.They went under ground and started banging around with hammers to collect 'samples' of something for some reason and they cause a cave in and get stuck underground.After two weeks of no food and basically no water they look surprisingly fit and lively.They've still got lights and one guy has a radio and the fat guy still looks as pudgy as ever.But nonetheless the 6 guys draw straws to see who will donate a body part to feed the group.The loser is held down and his arm is hacked off as today's special.Soon after the group hears the sounds of a rescue crew digging them out. D'OH! Five years later bad stuff starts happening to the 5 and they figure out the one armed guy is seeking his revenge.
Don't let my dazzling synopsis fool you....this film is a badly acted,darkly lit,special effects missing piece of crap from beginning to end.Nothing about this film will stick with you once you finish it.It's as a worthless piece of junk as I've ever watched.
The only scary thing about this picture is a couple of the reviews in here that painted this mess as some sort of dark grand revenge poetic justice movie .Oh brother.
Those reviews must have been written by some family members of the hacks who made or 'starred' in this complete waste of time.
Don't bother at all with this dog.It's bad.... and not the bad kind that is fun to watch either.
6 guys end up trapped in a cave or old mine for reasons unclear to me.They went under ground and started banging around with hammers to collect 'samples' of something for some reason and they cause a cave in and get stuck underground.After two weeks of no food and basically no water they look surprisingly fit and lively.They've still got lights and one guy has a radio and the fat guy still looks as pudgy as ever.But nonetheless the 6 guys draw straws to see who will donate a body part to feed the group.The loser is held down and his arm is hacked off as today's special.Soon after the group hears the sounds of a rescue crew digging them out. D'OH! Five years later bad stuff starts happening to the 5 and they figure out the one armed guy is seeking his revenge.
Don't let my dazzling synopsis fool you....this film is a badly acted,darkly lit,special effects missing piece of crap from beginning to end.Nothing about this film will stick with you once you finish it.It's as a worthless piece of junk as I've ever watched.
The only scary thing about this picture is a couple of the reviews in here that painted this mess as some sort of dark grand revenge poetic justice movie .Oh brother.
Those reviews must have been written by some family members of the hacks who made or 'starred' in this complete waste of time.
Don't bother at all with this dog.It's bad.... and not the bad kind that is fun to watch either.
Il Braccio Mozzato
BA_Harrison13 August 2018
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.
There are no words to describe this terrible movie.
BSGG9912 June 2004
This is possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. Boring, stupid, terribly written, acted, directed, you name it, you can be sure that it was bad. I really would like back the hour and a half of my life i spent watching this. there are many things i would rather do than watch this movie again. Like cut my toe nails. and i must have seen the horribly censored version too. Which if it is possible made the movie worse. i felt like i was watching a bad suspense horror flick only reserved for Sunday afternoons. Which i probably was in the long run. I guess i should have known from the title. I probably should have. Shame on me i guess.
Dark and Underrated Slasher from 70s
slasherfan-591-81776416 October 2015
One of those dark and forgotten slashers from 70's that fans never stop look for. From a somewhat illogical and implausible premise, the film will catching as the story unfolds. This is facilitated by the atmosphere of mystery surrounding the characters and the dark ambient that envelops the entire film. The deaths, without being spectacular and bloody, are quite effective and interpretations, even without moving from discrete, are above average for this type of films. Actors appear in the movie as Paul Carr (Sisters of Death), Deborah Walley (The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini) or Marvin Kaplan (Snakes). The director Thomas S. Alderman (Coed Dorm) unfortunately did not return to direct more films. Although I know there are opinions against, for me it is a jewel of I declare unconditional follower.
Post Psycho and pre-Halloween revenge slasher
Stevieboy66627 August 2022
A small group of potholers become trapped in a cave when a tunnel collapses. After two weeks the now bearded men are on the brink of starvation so they decide to draw straws and the loser must donate a limb that they can all eat, it is interesting that most of the characters are quick to deny that this would be an act of cannibalism. Just as the poor loser has his arm severed a rescue team arrive and the need for eating human meat has been averted, however the guy who has now lost an arm isn't too happy and swears revenge. Move on five years and a mysterious character is taking an axe to the individuals! There have been horror films about severed hands that kill, this is not a movie about a severed arm that is able to crawl and kill by itself, the title merely refers to the act of amputation. The very first scene has a man's arm severed bounce off a floor, not a drop of blood in sight and obviously made of rubber, straight away the viewer will see that the budget was low. The fabulous Talking Pictures UK screened this, the gore was minimal so I am assuming that this was the cut version (it was also of VHS quality). After an interesting start the middle section does sag a little but thankfully events culminate in a horrific twist ending, making it a worthwhile watch. The movie is notable for having the first film appearance by Angus Schrimm, he went on to play the Tall Man in the Phantasm franchise. Here he is uncredited as a mail delivery man. A radio DJ called Madman Herman provides some humour. The killer would not look out of place in an Italian Giallo film, the soundtrack is creepy and Severed Arm is a pretty good example of a slasher movie before the word "slasher" was coined.
Meh.
ubik-116 November 2002
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILERS!
This is a horror movie that attempts to build suspense but doesn't quite get there. A group of amateur spelunkers get trapped in an old mine for weeks. They somehow survive on one canteen of water for that entire time, but finally hunger gets the better of them. They decide to draw lots and eat someone's arm. Not everyone agrees, but they do it anyway. Sure enough, no sooner do they eat the arm and they are rescued. The group decides to keep the deed a secret. Any accusations by the unwilling victim will be dismissed as the babbling of a madman who was injured in the cave-in. The cave-in is blamed for his missing arm.
Five years later the leader of the group receives a severed arm in the mail. The group reforms to discuss the event. One by one they are attacked by a hatchet-wielding killer. Some are maimed; others are killed. Soon we meet the one-armed man's daughter, whom we assume is the real killer. It becomes apparent that she isn't, but we're pretty sure it isn't the obvious choice. At the end we find that we were right - it's the one-armed man's son, whom we never knew about until now - with the help of the daughter. The one-armed man is in a catatonic state because of his arm. Seems unlikely, but that's the way it is. Rather than maim or kill the last survivor of the group, they lock him up in a small room with nothing but a knife. When he gets hungry enough, he will eat his own arm. The end.
This is the darkest movie I have ever seen. I don't mean dark noir; I mean dark no lighting. Over 99% of this thing was shot at night or in the dark - even the majority of the interior scenes are dark. It's really frustrating not being able to see.
Some bad movies are amusing to watch. This one is just bad.
This is a horror movie that attempts to build suspense but doesn't quite get there. A group of amateur spelunkers get trapped in an old mine for weeks. They somehow survive on one canteen of water for that entire time, but finally hunger gets the better of them. They decide to draw lots and eat someone's arm. Not everyone agrees, but they do it anyway. Sure enough, no sooner do they eat the arm and they are rescued. The group decides to keep the deed a secret. Any accusations by the unwilling victim will be dismissed as the babbling of a madman who was injured in the cave-in. The cave-in is blamed for his missing arm.
Five years later the leader of the group receives a severed arm in the mail. The group reforms to discuss the event. One by one they are attacked by a hatchet-wielding killer. Some are maimed; others are killed. Soon we meet the one-armed man's daughter, whom we assume is the real killer. It becomes apparent that she isn't, but we're pretty sure it isn't the obvious choice. At the end we find that we were right - it's the one-armed man's son, whom we never knew about until now - with the help of the daughter. The one-armed man is in a catatonic state because of his arm. Seems unlikely, but that's the way it is. Rather than maim or kill the last survivor of the group, they lock him up in a small room with nothing but a knife. When he gets hungry enough, he will eat his own arm. The end.
This is the darkest movie I have ever seen. I don't mean dark noir; I mean dark no lighting. Over 99% of this thing was shot at night or in the dark - even the majority of the interior scenes are dark. It's really frustrating not being able to see.
Some bad movies are amusing to watch. This one is just bad.
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