Watch The Hand For Free

An Exercise In Nonsense

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Hand is a psychological horror film, at least that's what it touts itself to be on the video box. It's mostly just a lot of heavy-handed pseudo-thrills meant to give chills and shocks when really it just creates some redundancy. We're given the tragedy of a character, Joe Lansdale, who loses his hand in a rather freak accident while his wife is driving the car, and he can't seem to find the bloody thing in a field. He gets a metal replacement put on ala the Terminator, but does the old hand left for the bugs in the field have its own mind? Or is Joe just controlling the thing and going after all of the people he's close to (i.e. his own wife, his mistress, his mistress's actual guy on the side, etc)? The real intentions aren't made totally clear, this despite Oliver Stone's attempts at creating a sense of danger and paranoid with Caine's character. And Michael Caine, he does try his best, he really does, going for every scene with the kind of dedication and (trying to search for) truth of the matter even as the script tries to undercut him with below-par dialog. Maybe Stone wasn't really equipped for this material anyway, that in his defense (if possible) he was a hired gun- based more possibly on his first film Seizure, a horror film, than any clout he got from his first Oscar- and whatever skills he brought weren't put into a style that really made things work.Indeed, now that we have a movie like Raimi's Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, we see how cheesy a killer-hand flick really is and how it would be simply better off as unintentional comedy. There's a couple of scenes were we see the potential for something over the top, like when the black cat jumps up on the desk and inexplicably crashes through the window (!) or just the image of that lizard's tale flapping about which the original book from the movie has its name. But none of the characters are convincing, and the tendencies that are weakest that Stone tends towards which are, frankly, beating-you-over-the-head things with direction and writing, are put way up front here. It's been said, by the man himself, that Stone was on coke for a period in the early 80s prior to writing Scarface. Maybe some of that rubbed off the wrong way here? Bottom line: whatever's meant to be scary is downright lame, and its just crappy film-making that battles with an actor of Caine's caliber who does try and make it interesting. He does, actually, which may be the only real longevity this has. If you're at all a Stone fan, as I am (up to a point) it's a disappointing Psycho variation, and for his haters it's just more fuel for the fire.

The Hand starts in sunny Vermont where Mandro comic book artist John Lansdale (Michael Caine) lives with his wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) & young daughter Lizzy (Mara Hobel), while driving along arguing about moving to New York for the winter John's right hand is severed in a freak car accident. John's hand is never found & he has to learn to cope with a prosthetic hand from now on, the accident has a big effect on John's life as he can't draw anymore & has to accept a lowly teaching job in a small town called Sarahville in California which means he has to separate from Anne who then has an affair while John is away. As things go from bad to worse John gets the feeling that his severed right hand has a mind of it's own & is single-handedly (ha!)killing people around him who have angered him...Written & directed by Oliver Stone this psychological horror thriller with a touch of drama has a pretty bad reputation but I have to say I quite liked it, it's certainly not a film that will appeal to a general audience but I think there's enough here to keep one interested throughout it's 100 odd minute duration. The script was based on a novel called 'The Lizard's Tail' by Marc Brandell & centers a tale of psychological drama about a man losing his sanity & failing to adjust after a life changing accident around the old horror cliché of the living disembodied hand used to good effect (or not depending on your opinion) in such films as The Beast with Five Fingers (1947), The Crawling Hand (1963) & Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1964) amongst other's & I thought the concept, plot & way the story progresses was pretty good. The character's are good & I was interested in them, it's nice to see proper people in a horror film rather than faceless teenagers & while the pace isn't the quickest it develops it's story to the point where the events actually matter & have some significance to the audience. I also liked the way Stone gives the film a certain ambiguity & mystery, it's not clear until the end whether John's severed hand is responsible or whether it's John himself committing the murders during his blackouts. Having said that The Hand is not perfect, it's undeniably silly, who did that car belong to that rolled down the diff on fire & why was that scene even in the film in the first place & I really thought the ending was poor too.The film has a nice clean look about it, it looks a bit dated with a very static camera but it's well made. There's not much gore here but there is one half decent money shot here as John gets his hand severed & we see his bloody stump spurting blood everywhere. The severed hand effects are variable & to be honest not that good although I suspect they look better than any modern equivalent CGI effects would. While not overly scary the film does have a few creepy moments here & there & at least it does try to create a bit of an atmosphere although the bizarre scene when a cat decides to literally jump through a window for no apparent reason is unintentionally funny. There's some nudity as well if that sort of thing interests you as the local slut gets her breast's out within five minutes of meeting Caine, I wish I had that effect on women...Filmed in California The Hand has good production values & looks nice enough. The acting is pretty good even if Michael Caine goes a little over the top at times, apparently he took the role after Jon Voight, Christopher Walken & Dustin Hoffman turned the part down & Caine has also said in interviews the only reason he made The Hand was to earn the money to pay for a new garage he was having built at the time! Fair enough I suppose but was rolling around on the floor fighting your own severed hand really worth it?The Hand is a film that I feel like I shouldn't have liked but I did like it & even if I would find it hard to recommend it to one & all I think anyone interested in psychological horror could do a lot worse & watching Michael Caine overact as he wrestles with his own severed hand (& lose) is fun too. If nothing else The Hand teaches us one very important thing, never put your hand out of a car window while your wife is driving otherwise it'll end in tears...

Yeah, I'm not talking about Caine. Sure, he was fine. He has an accent, so that's always good. "The Hand" was alright; but as far as knock-out performers, there was only one. The therapist, played by the little known (but widely praised) John Stinson. My vote is for Stinson. It upsets me that his last gift to the artistic arena was in about '90. Someone should have grasped onto this man in Tinsel Town and plastered him everywhere. We have people like Tom Selleck making 7 figures and Stinson is probably eating his dinner from a dirty paper bag. It's pathetic, people. I've looked into it and he is apparently starting up a new production company out in the midwest (of all places, Nebraska) called buzzyproductions. I guess I know where I'm hitching my caravan to experience the American avante garde. Get with the program Hollywood, you're letting them go left and right here.

I don't know if I was in a rare forgiving frame of mind but The Hand actually worked for me.It doesn't go very deep in the psychological department and just about every average viewer can spot the twist but then the end just throws everything out the window and leaves the audience shouting; What the ****! But it's well acted, especially by Caine who completely earns viewer's sympathy. Writer/director Oliver Stone effortlessly builds up suspense and atmosphere and some scenes here do work really well. Technical aspects are surprisingly well handled and make up effects are gruesome and well done.While The Hand won't go down as a cinematic masterpiece, it's a solid thriller nonetheless.