It’s a shame that “Idle Hands” is such an underrated and somewhat obscure nineties title, since it still manages to be a fun horror comedy. It’s a twisted and demented horror movie about a guy’s hand that takes on a life of its own and becomes a monster by the time the movie ends. It’s filled with a lot of laughs, Devon Sawa is great, and Jessica Alba was still just that really smoking hot mystery girl that no one really knew just yet. And we were happy with her being the smoking hot mystery girl, before we realized she couldn’t act to save her life. Those were simpler times.
Rodman Flender’s “Idle Hands” is a combination of “An American Werewolf in London” and Sam Raimi’s most gonzo moments in “Evil Dead 2.” Devon Sawa plays Anton, a young man prone to bouts of idle hands, where his right hand takes on its own consciousness and begins possessing him in to committing horrible acts. As murders continue around his neighborhood, he begins to realize that his hand is turning him in to a serial killer. To make it worse, his two best friends played by Seth Green and Elden Henson try to help Anton and are viciously murdered by him, despite his best efforts to save them.
Oddly enough as the murders point to Anton, Anton is visited by the rotting ghosts of his best friends, both of whom begin taunting and antagonizing Anton. Deciding against heaven, they return to give Anton a hard time, and help him figure out how to stop the idle hand. Most of the dialogue from Green and Henson provides some of the most hilarious moments in “Idle Hands,” and Green is able to turn the dark comedy in to assorted moments you can quote over and over and still find humor in. Sawa portrays Anton as this gradually insane young man fighting with his idle hand, and finds a foe in himself when he severs his hand and it still refuses to go down.
The finale is a really good and violent ode to monster movies, as the detached and now deformed hand begins wreaking havoc at the local Halloween dance, murdering couples in their cars, and tearing the scalps off of band members, all the while Vivica A. Fox offers a humorous supporting role as a voodoo priestess hunting the hand. The laughs are almost non-stop even when offering a slew of gory deaths, as characters die in the most unusual manners, all with a quick retort from the undead friends of Anton. If you’re willing to open your mind up to a very unique and utterly surreal horror comedy, “Idle Hands” offers some great splatter along with hilarious dialogue that will keep Sam Raimi buffs anxious for more. And did I mention Jessica Alba is oh so hot in this movie? Seriously. Hot.