Samantha Eggar and her husband do a little digging in the
Mexican Mummy mines and accidentally unleash a centuries-old killer hand. Before long, it possesses her hubby and he
takes off for Vegas. Samantha follows in
hot pursuit until the hand decides it likes her better, kills the husband,
detaches itself, and comes after her. She
then turns to priest Stuart Whitman to help destroy the hand once and for all.
Say what you will about this movie, but the opening is amazing. A priest hacks off the hand of a topless woman and it runs around all by itself while a devil that looks like something out of an ‘80s heavy metal album cover subliminally flashes on screen. You have to wonder if it was added after the fact to beef up the running time (it’s only 79 minutes long), or at the very least add a little T & A to the mix. Whatever the case may be, I loved it.
The scenes of people voluntarily hacking their hands off
have a certain kick to them (like the part where someone is forced to use a
blowtorch on their wrist to free themselves of the hand). I also liked the part where the hand fakes out
a victim out by using a mannequin hand as bait.
Unfortunately, everything in between almost feels like something out of
a TV Movie of the Week. Even with the
brief running time, there are still several lulls during the handless stretches
of the film. Still, it’s better than Oliver
Stone’s similarly-themed The Hand.
AKA: Devil’s
Hand. AKA: Demonoid:
Messenger of Death.
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