Idle Hands (1999)

Director:

Rodman Flender

Writers (WGA):

Terri Hughes (written by) &
Ron Milbauer (written by)

Release Date:

30 April 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The touching story of a boy and his right hand.

Plot:

Lazy Anton's right hand becomes possessed with murderous intent.

Plot Keywords:

Hand | Halloween | Friends | Killing Spree | Blood

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Devon Sawa	...	Anton Tobias
Seth Green	...	Mick
Elden Henson	...	Pnub
Jessica Alba	...	Molly
Vivica A. Fox	...	Debi LeCure
Christopher Hart	...	The Hand
Jack Noseworthy	...	Randy
Katie Wright	...	Tanya
Sean Whalen	...	McMacy
Nicholas Sadler	...	Ruck (as Nick Sadler)
Fred Willard	...	Dad Tobias
Connie Ray	...	Mom Tobias
Steve Van Wormer	...	Curtis
Kelly Monaco	...	Tiffany
Timothy Stack	...	Principal Tidwell

Also Known As:

El diablo metió la mano (Argentina) (video title) (Mexico) (DVD title) (Spain) [es]
As Mãos do Diabo (Portugal) (video title) [pt]
Die Killerhand (Germany) [de]
Giovani diavoli (Italy) [it]
La main meurtrière (Canada: French title) [fr]
La main qui tue (France) [fr]
Levottomat kädet (Finland) [fi]
To heri pou skotonei (Greece) (DVD title) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and gore, pervasive teen drug use, language and sexuality.

Runtime:

90 min | 92 min | Argentina:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #36158) | Greece:K-13 | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) | Finland:K-18 (original rating) | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 (video premiere) | South Korea:18 | UK:18 | Philippines:R-18

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

When Anton, stunned after killing his two friends, walks into a support beam in his house, the thudding noise his body makes was not digitally added in after production - this is Devon Sawa actually walking into the solid-wood support beam. Often, when the cast would do a photo shoot or had to re-shoot a scene after this one, Devon would start off by walking into the support beam over and over again to the point that editors working below the stage started to wonder what the noise was.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Anton microwaves the hand and blood spatters on the inside of the microwave, the position and pattern of the blood on the microwave window changes between shots.

Quotes:

Anton: We're gathered here today... um... because you're all dead.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Dark Angel: Boo (#2.5)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Second Solution

A horror spoof that doesn't forget the horror

Usually, when you watch a movie that sends up the horror genre, the movie sacrifices the scares in favor of the laughs. But, in Idle Hands, the movie makers remembered to keep all the creepy touches and startling frights that make a horror movie when they mixed in all the humor.

Not nearly as heavy handed as, say, the Scary Movie franchise, Idle Hands has all the normal trappings of a good teen horror flick: The unstoppable killing evil that has come back, the buddies of the main character who don't understand the danger until it's too late, the horny girl who main character must protect and a brave hero who is a bastion of all that is good in the world to defend us...

OK, so I was lying about that last one. And that is one of the best twists of the film, the main character is a screw-up and doesn't act very heroically until very, very late in the film. In addition to really revving up the laughs, this feature is also what kind of makes this movie stand out from the usual horror fare.

Now, here's the key: While Anton struggles with the evil in his bumbling way, egged on by the wise-cracks of Mick and Pnub, the film delivers actual horror. We get shocks, we get creeps, we get gore and we don't get the "ha-ha got ya!" joke right afterward that you get in most parodies. The scares are real, the deaths are real, the danger are real. And, surprisingly, so are the laughs.