Coventry Review of The Hand

The Hand (1981)

Oliver Stone should keep his HANDS off the horror genre

[3/10 · 8 February 2004]

All the overenthusiastic movie-junkies who claim that Oliver Stone is a genius and a undeniable master in cinema should watch this early failure and reconsider. Sure, films like Platoon and JFK (which he directed) and titles like Midnight Express and Scarface (which he wrote) speak to the imagination, but this grotesque and rather nasty horror film is completely uninspired and silly. Actually, it's just a plain rip-off from the classic suspense film `The Beast With Five Fingers' starring the legendary Peter Lorre. ***Small Spoilers***Michael Caine plays an entangled cartoonist who loses his hand in an accident. His lost hand comes to life again and seems to start a killing spree…Is that true, or is our cartoonist just hallucinating and suffering from a twisted, murderous pressure himself ?? ***End Spoilers*** The acting performances of the entire cast are far below standards, especially Annie McEnroe…I don't know where Stone found her, but she sure can't act her way out of this...even though it's a rather simple role. Overall, the whole movie contains exactly ONE scene that is worth mentioning and that is the accident sequence in which Caine loses his hand. Not much, is it? Oliver Stone might be a master in certain fields but, when it comes to horror, he surely needs a helping hand… NEXT!