Idle Hands

Bomb Rating: 

Apparently sensitive souls at the studio felt that a horror comedy about a teen whose hand is possessed and kills people might inspire somebody to cut off his own hand and encourage it to kill people.

"People" magazine made some mention of this film in relationship to the murders at Columbine High School and, in fact, the screening Mr. Cranky was supposed to see nearly two weeks ago was cancelled because of that very fact. Apparently sensitive souls at the studio felt that a horror comedy about a teen whose hand is possessed and kills people might inspire somebody to cut off his own hand and encourage it to kill people.

I'd worry a lot less about this film inspiring teens to commit murder than its possible effect on struggling screenwriters, who could end up offing themselves in some horrible Jim Jones-like way if they go en masse to see it.

Anton's (Devon Sawa) hand gets possessed, and with it he kills his parents and his best friends, Mick (Seth Green) and Pnub (Elden Henson). Then he decides to go after the girl across the street, Molly (Jessica Alba). Soon he realizes his hand is acting up (duh), and has to prevent it from killing Molly at the high school Halloween party. Like Bruce Campbell in "Evil Dead 2," Anton cuts his hand off, yet it continues to go roaming about.

The filmmakers here missed a golden opportunity. If Anton had lived in Washington D.C. and his hand had gotten loose and crawled onto Capitol Hill nobody would be raising a stink plus, instead of a horror film, it would have been considered a comedy. Throw in Bill Clinton chasing it around in search of a handjob, and you've got yourself a romantic comedy everyone can enjoy.