The Hand (1981 film)

Last updated
The Hand
The Hand Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Oliver Stone
Written byOliver Stone
Produced by Edward R. Pressman
Starring Michael Caine
Andrea Marcovicci
CinematographyKing Baggot
Edited by Richard Marks
Music by James Horner
Production
company
Orion Pictures
Distributed by Orion Pictures (through Warner Bros.)
Release date
  • April 24, 1981 (1981-04-24)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetCAD 6,500,000
Box office$2.4 million (United States) [1]

The Hand is a 1981 American psychological horror film written and directed by Oliver Stone, based on the novel The Lizard's Tail by Marc Brandel. The film stars Michael Caine and Andrea Marcovicci. Caine plays Jon Lansdale, a comic book artist who loses his hand, which in turn takes on a murderous life of its own. The original film score is by James Horner, in one of his earliest projects. Warner Bros. released the movie on DVD on September 25, 2007. [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Jon Lansdale is a comic book illustrator, whose relationship with his beautiful wife Anne and daughter Lizzie is in danger. While driving, Anne and Lansdale end up behind a slow-moving truck and an impatient driver behind them. In the heat of an argument, Anne accidentally pulls back too fast while Lansdale is waving down the truck driver, causing his right hand to be completely severed. Anne attempts to find the severed hand but cannot locate it.

Lansdale starts a painful adjustment to not having his drawing hand, while Anne deals with the guilt of having caused the accident and tries to get closer to her husband. Lansdale attempts unsuccessfully to recover the hand himself, though he does find his signet ring that Anne gave him. The couple move to New York and Lansdale is approached by his friend and agent Karen Wagner to co-produce his comic with another artist, David Maddow. Lansdale however, begins to show signs of a mental breakdown, and when he shows the test boards to Karen, they are all marked up. Karen retracts her offer and fires Lansdale, who cannot recall marking up the boards while questioning his daughter about the incident. In a fit of frustration, Lansdale loses his signet ring. Anne is unable to cope with Lansdale's increasingly erratic behavior and general instability. Lansdale becomes jealous of Anne's yoga instructor and begins his slow descent into insanity when an encounter with a homeless man leaves the man dead at the "hand" of his former appendage. It is not entirely clear whether or not this was a real or imagined event. Lansdale begins having hallucinations about various inanimate objects, such as a shower faucet, coming to life as a hand.

After his final meeting with Wagner, Lansdale comes forth with his intention to take an offer to teach at a small community college in California. At the suggestion of his friend Brian, Lansdale rents out a cabin in the woods for the time being. While the majority of his students fail to show an interest in comic books, Stella Roche is interested, and she also takes a personal interest in Lansdale. Anne insists on staying with Lansdale during the Christmas season and he begins to have violent hallucinations about the hand strangling her. That night, the missing ring reappears on Lansdale's pillow.

Lansdale and Stella begin a romantic relationship despite the latter showing an interest in Brian. Not long after, Lansdale meets Brian at a bar, but is confused as he should be on a two-week vacation with Stella. He soon learns that Brian hasn't seen her since she last went to Lansdale's cabin. Lansdale picks up Anne at the airport, but soon realizes she has no real intention of staying as she previously claimed. He hallucinates the hand strangling her, causing the car to crash in a fiery explosion. While his wife and daughter are at the cabin, Lansdale confesses to Brian that he slept with Stella. Soon after, Brian is killed in his car by the hand.

That night, Lansdale awakens to see the hand trying to kill Anne. Lizzie overhears the commotion and calls the police, and Lansdale chases the hand outside into the nearby barn. The hand tries to attack him, but Lansdale stabs it. The hand crawls to a nearby spare tire and explodes into a puff of smoke, before wrapping itself around Lansdale's throat and causing him to lose consciousness.

Lansdale awakens to find his left hand around his throat while the police investigate. The sheriff, and his deputies attempt to ask Lansdale what happened. Discovering that Anne is still alive, Lansdale attempts to explain what happened when the officers notice a pungent smell permeating the area in the carport around the car, specifically from the trunk. Lansdale tries to prove that nothing is wrong by opening the trunk, only to be horrified by the sight of Stella and Brian's dead bodies stuffed inside.

At a local insane asylum, a psychologist attempts to communicate with Lansdale. She wants him to remember and admit that it was him, not his severed hand, who killed all the victims. He says that the hand wants to kill her because it hates her. Suddenly, the hand (which apparently existed all along) appears from behind the psychiatrist and strangles her. Lansdale, completely taken over by the essence of the hand, looks at her dead body and starts to laugh. He loosens the restraint on his other hand and gets up, presumably to escape from the asylum.

Cast

Production

This was Oliver Stone's second feature film as director following 1974's Seizure, and his first film made for a major studio. Like Seizure, The Hand is a horror film and is derived from a similar premise (an artist's slow descent into madness). The general plot, themes, and characters of The Hand resemble those of The Hands of Orlac and The Beast with Five Fingers , leading some to declare The Hand an unofficial remake or spiritual adaptation of the aforementioned works.

The film was shot partly in Big Bear Lake, California. [4]

The film's special effects were provided by Stan Winston and Carlo Rambaldi. Several lifelike animatronic hands were built, each designed for a specific action or motion (i.e. crawling, walking, grabbing). "Mandro," Prince Valiant/Conan The Barbarian-styled comic book character, was drawn by artist Barry Windsor-Smith, who at the time was a real-life illustrator for the Marvel Conan comics.

Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, "The Hand" gained a cult following over the years, with some viewers appreciating its unique approach to psychological thriller elements and Michael Caine's performance in the film.

Casting

Oliver Stone's first choice for the lead was Academy Award-winner Jon Voight, who declined the role. Stone also approached other Oscar-winners Dustin Hoffman and Christopher Walken. Michael Caine, however, after the success of his previous film Dressed to Kill , was interested in making another horror film to earn enough to put a down payment on a new garage he was having built, and he agreed to take the part after talks with the director. [5] Caine's experience with Stone resulted in their being friends later in life, although Stone and Caine have not worked together since.

Critical reception

The Hand has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 29% based on 21 reviews, with a weighted average of 4.4/10. [6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [7] Allmovie called the film "an overwrought misfire that is best left to horror film completists." [8] The Terror Trap gave it 2/4 stars, stating that the film was "Strictly for Caine filmography completists or Stone enthusiasts." [9] Rob Gonsalves from eFilmCritic awarded the film 2/5 stars, calling it "inescapably cheesy". [10]

Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror! wrote, "Clearly out the Orlac and Beast With Five Fingers mode, The Hand is just as silly as the fictional comics drawn up by its protagonist, but Stone mostly plays it as a straighter-than-straight schizoid thriller that examines psychological breakdowns more so than the visceral fallout." [11] Vincent Canby from The New York Times gave the film a positive review, writing, "Mr. Stone's screenplay is tightly written, precise and consistent in its methods, and seemingly perfectly realized in the performances of the very good cast headed by Mr. Caine." [12]

On the October 23, 1981 episode of the sketch comedy TV series SCTV , the film was parodied as a trailer promo skit as My Bloody Hand [13] with Dave Thomas as Caine's character Bubba Ashley, a writer from Jackson, Mississippi and Catherine O'Hara performing Marcovicci's role, as he deals with the difficulties and prejudices of having an exaggeratedly oversized hand by a group of bigots led by John Candy to trying to earn a spot on a basketball team dominated by African-Americans. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>A Shock to the System</i> (1990 film) 1990 film by Jan Egleson

A Shock to the System is a 1990 American black comedy film directed by Jan Egleson and starring Michael Caine, Swoosie Kurtz, Elizabeth McGovern, and Peter Riegert. It is based on the 1984 novel A Shock to the System by British author Simon Brett.

<i>The Howling</i> (film) 1981 American horror film by Joe Dante

The Howling is a 1981 American horror film directed and edited by Joe Dante. Written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the film follows a news anchor who, following a traumatic encounter with a serial killer, visits a resort secretly inhabited by werewolves. The cast includes Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks.

<i>The Beast with Five Fingers</i> 1946 film by Robert Florey

The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 American mystery horror film directed by Robert Florey from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on the 1919 short story of the same name by W. F. Harvey. The film stars Robert Alda, Victor Francen, Andrea King, and Peter Lorre. The film's score was composed by Max Steiner.

<i>Mad Love</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Karl Freund

Mad Love is a 1935 American body horror film, an adaptation of Maurice Renard's novel The Hands of Orlac. It was directed by German-émigré film maker Karl Freund, and stars Peter Lorre as Dr. Gogol, Frances Drake as Yvonne Orlac and Colin Clive as Stephen Orlac. The plot revolves around Doctor Gogol's obsession with actress Yvonne Orlac. When Stephen Orlac's hands are destroyed in a train accident, Yvonne brings them to Gogol, who claims to be able to repair them. As Gogol becomes obsessed to the point that he will do anything to have Yvonne, Stephen finds that his new hands have made him into an expert knife thrower.

Andrea Louisa Marcovicci is an American actress and singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe R. Lansdale</span> American novelist, martial arts instructor

Joe Richard Lansdale is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense, he has also written comic books and screenplays. Several of his novels have been adapted for film and television. He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and eleven Bram Stoker Awards.

<i>Motel Hell</i> 1980 US comedy horror film by Kevin Connor

Motel Hell is a 1980 American comedy horror film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Rory Calhoun, Nancy Parsons, and Nina Axelrod. The plot follows farmer, butcher, motel manager, and meat entrepreneur Vincent Smith, who traps travelers and harvests them for his human sausages.

<i>Alone in the Dark</i> (1982 film) 1982 American slasher film by Jack Sholder

Alone in the Dark is a 1982 American slasher film co-written and directed by Jack Sholder in his directorial debut, and starring Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Donald Pleasence, Dwight Schultz, and Erland Van Lidth. The plot follows a psychiatrist's family who are besieged by four escaped mental patients during a power blackout. Following Stunts and Polyester, it was one of the first films produced by New Line Cinema.

<i>The Hands of Orlac</i> (1924 film) 1924 film by Robert Wiene

The Hands of Orlac is a 1924 Austrian silent film directed by Robert Wiene and starring Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina and Fritz Kortner. It is based on the novel Les Mains d'Orlac by Maurice Renard.

Lizzie Brocheré is a French actress. Her English speaking credits include American Horror Story: Asylum (2012–2013), The Strain (2015), Versailles (2015–2017), Falling Water (2016–2018), War of the Worlds (2022), and American Gigolo (2022).

<i>The Boogens</i> 1981 American film

The Boogens is a 1981 American monster film directed by James L. Conway and starring Rebecca Balding, Fred McCarren, Anne-Marie Martin, Jeff Harlan, John Crawford, Med Flory, Jon Lormer, and Scott Wilkinson. The title refers to scaly turtle-like monsters that are released from an abandoned and boarded-up silver mine, and begin to wreak havoc.

<i>30 Days of Night: Dark Days</i> 2010 American film

30 Days of Night: Dark Days is a 2010 American horror film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. It was directed by and written by Ben Ketai, alongside co-writer Steve Niles. It is the fourth installment of the 30 Days of Night franchise, and serves as the sequel to the 2007 film. Set chronologically after the first film, it also takes place after the two miniseries Blood Trails and Dust to Dust as well.

<i>Nightmare Beach</i> 1989 American film

Nightmare Beach is a 1989 slasher film directed by Umberto Lenzi and Harry Kirkpatrick, and starring Nicolas de Toth, Sarah Buxton, John Saxon, and Michael Parks.

<i>The Hands of Orlac</i> (1960 film) 1960 film by Edmond T. Gréville

The Hands of Orlac is a 1960 horror film directed by Edmond T. Gréville, starring Mel Ferrer, Christopher Lee and Dany Carrel. It was written by Gréville, John V. Baines with additional dialogue by Donald Taylor. It was based on the novel Les Mains d'Orlac by Maurice Renard, which had previously adapted into silent film and as a Hollywood film production.

<i>The Quiet Ones</i> (2014 film) 2014 British horror film by John Pogue

The Quiet Ones is a 2014 British supernatural horror film directed by John Pogue, loosely based on the Philip experiment, a 1972 parapsychology experiment conducted in Toronto. It stars Jared Harris as a university professor attempting to prove poltergeists are manifestations of the human psyche and not supernatural beings. The film was released on 10 April 2014 in the United Kingdom and 25 April 2014 in the United States.

<i>Les Mains dOrlac</i> 1920 French science fiction novel by Maurice Renard

Les Mains d'Orlac is a French science fiction novel written by Maurice Renard. The plot involves a celebrated pianist who loses his hands in a track crash and has them surgically replaced with those of an executed murderer. Soon, the transplanted hands assume the personality of its psychopathic donor.

<i>A Christmas Horror Story</i> 2015 Canadian film

A Christmas Horror Story is a 2015 Canadian anthology horror film directed by Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, and Brett Sullivan. It premiered on July 20, 2015, at the Fantasia International Film Festival and had a limited theatrical release on October 2, 2015, along with a VOD release. The film is a series of interwoven stories tied together by a framework story featuring William Shatner as a radio DJ.

<i>The Greasy Strangler</i> 2016 American film

The Greasy Strangler is a 2016 American black comedy horror film directed by Jim Hosking, and written by Hosking and Toby Harvard. The film stars Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo, Gil Gex, Abdoulaye NGom and Holland MacFallister. The film was released on October 7, 2016, by FilmRise.

<i>Malatestas Carnival of Blood</i> American horror film

Malatesta's Carnival of Blood is a 1973 American horror film, directed by Christopher Speeth and written by Werner Liepolt. It is the only film that Speeth and Liepolt made.

<i>Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark</i> (film) 2019 film by André Øvredal

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a 2019 supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal, based on the book series of the same name by Alvin Schwartz. The screenplay was adapted by the Hageman Brothers, from a screen story by Guillermo del Toro, as well as Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. The film, an international co-production of the United States and Canada, stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, and Lorraine Toussaint.

References

  1. ↑ The Hand at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ "The Hand - Complete Score - Special Edition - James Horner". esoundtracks. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  3. ↑ "The Hand - Michael Caine". www.dvdbeaver.com. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  4. ↑ Seitz, Matt Zoller (2016). The Oliver Stone Experience. Abrams. p. 114. ISBN   978-1-613-12814-5.
  5. ↑ Riordan, James (1995). Stone: The Controversies, Excesses, and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker . Hyperion. p.  121. ISBN   9780786860265.
  6. ↑ "The Hand". Rotten Tomatoes/Flixster . Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  7. ↑ "The Hand reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  8. ↑ Donald Guarisco. "The Hand (1981)". Allmovie . Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  9. ↑ "The Hand (1981)". Terror Trap.com. The Terror Trap. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  10. ↑ Gonsalves, Rob. "Movie Review - Hand, The - eFilmCritic". eFilmCritic.com. Rob Gonsalves. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  11. ↑ Gallman, Brett. "Horror Reviews - Hand, The (1981)". Oh the Horror.com. Brett Gallman. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  12. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1981-04-24). "'THE HAND,' CLEVER HORROR TALE - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  13. ↑ "4/2 - 2 I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It On Right, and no Guy's Gonna Tell Me It Ain't with The Plasmatics". SCTV Guide.
  14. ↑ "YouTube video". YouTube .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.