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| Directed by Rodman Flender; Starring Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Christopher Hart, Vivica A. Fox, Jack Noseworthy, Katie Wright, Sean Whelan, Nicholas Sadler, Fred Willard, and Connie Ray |
Idle Hands is simply a spoof of the horror genre, nothing more. It is just as on the ball as Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series, but not half as original (the premise alone came from Evil Dead II). The film follows a day in the life of the quintessential slacker. Devon Sawa’s Anton spends his entire life watching TV and smoking pot with his two friends, Mick (Green) and Pnub (Henson). The film starts off with a clear take off of the heavy handed use of effects, sound, and music found in most horror films as Anton’s parents make their way to a grizzly murder. the only problem is that the killer is none other than Anton’s right hand. The hand has wreaked havoc killing four already and its not finished. It seems that the hand has been possessed and the only person who knows how to stop it is a neo-exorcist (Fox). While she makes her way to catch Anton, he inadvertently kills his two friends. The two decide not to take the trip to heaven and remain with Anton as a type of comic relief (the Leatherface take-off alone is worth ticket price), especially with their more than unusual modes of demise. With the hand, now hoping to takes its toll on Anton’s new girlfriend (Alba), Anton must find new ways to stop it.
The film is much more fun than it probably should be. I liked the blatant use of music that gave it a sick camp appeal. Director Flender proves, to me at least, that he deserves more than directing episodes of Dawson’s Creek, Party of Five, and Chicago Hope (interesting trivia: Flender wrote the critically acclaimed kid’s book Freak the Mighty, which was made into a film last year called The Mighty and starring Elden Henson). What is even more surprising is that I actually liked Devon Sawa in the film. I thought he gave a well grounded performance, a far cry from the awfully bad performances he has given in crap like Casper, The Night of the Twisters, Little Giants, Wild America, and Now and Then. In fact I believe after seeing Wild America, I called him the worst thing to come out of Canada since Jason Priestley (who actually made up for things like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Calendar Girl with Love and Death on Long Island last year).
The film’s campiness has left me teetering on my rating for the film. The thumb has been flipping around so much that when I started writing this review, it had a C+.
