The Hand

R

Released Apr 24, 1981

1 hr. 44 min.

Horror

List

29%

21 Reviews

Tomatometer

28%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A cartoonist (Michael Caine) loses his hand in a car accident, but it comes back to crawl around and kill people.

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dave s

While bickering with his wife while driving, acclaimed cartoonist Jonathan Lansdale (Michael Caine) manages to have his hand lopped off in an unlikely and grisly accident. Before you know it, those around him begin to lose their lives at the hand, for lack of a better term, of what appears to be the disembodied hand. Despite the ridiculous synopsis, The Hand, an early effort from writer and director Oliver Stone, isn't as ridiculously horrible as it sounds. While that's not exactly a ringing endorsement, the movie rarely stoops low enough to cause excessive eye-rolling or laugh-out-loud guffaws, but probably would have been better suited as an episode of something along the lines of Night Gallery or The Twilight Zone. On the bright side, Michael Caine gives a decent performance and the film, while not all that scary, certainly succeeds in creating an atmosphere of dread and confusion.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Is a classic pre slasher era horror movie. Back when even a horror movie could be a real movie, and not just a low effort genre movie. Complete with end twists, whats real situations all kinds of extra effort that wouldnt be in a horror movie say 3 years later. And Michael Caine. He kills it in this. Shows even back then he could do anything. Recommend.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is fantastic. It might be Michael Caine's greatest role. He, as they say, chews the scenery! Oliver Stone is great. The only reason I can think that people don't like this movie is that they didn't understand it, and thought we were supposed to think the hand was real? The movie is great.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A weird psychological horror freak show.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

It's pure pleasure watching Michael Caine in flicks like that..

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

cory t

The radical rascal Oliver Stone's second directorial foray is this monotonous, psychogalvanic thriller. Given his political leanings, one can be forgiven for assuming this is a biopic on the Mano Blanca death squad in Guatemala. Firstly, the inciting incident in which comic book artist Joe Lansdale's (Michael Caine) extremity is decorked like a champagne bottle is alternately ghastly (the blood spray on the rear of the truck is too delayed though) and campy because of the cleanliness of the disembodiment and the tawdry prosthetic for his stump (in fairness, a twitchy lizard tail is more conspicuous because of its limited mobility). According to legend, Stone and the studio fought over the execution of the hair-raising plotline. With the cursive-signature font, Stone purveys the film as a highbrow affair and the friction between Joe and his callisthenic wife at the beginning suggests that conjugal strain will be the locus. The "re-appreciation" discussion before the crash is purely hypnotic because of Caine's thousand-yard stare at his wife's request to relocate. As Joe is Sisyphean with his drawing, Stone's commentary on artistic impotence born from emotional constipation is astute. However, it is immediately sabotaged by an insipid screeching-cat gag. The film reeks of compromise in the editing bay. The black-and-white POV of the crawling hand might seem impressive if this were a Universal monster movie but it is a few decades shy of that target. Unfortunately, Caine is abetted by Stone to be self-indulgent in several scenes of Gene-Wilder-foppish-hair overacting when his page creation is seized by a new artist. In the margins of a B-movie, Stone endeavored for a more disturbing take on the material but the deliciously envious performance of Caine can't straddle the obtuse, strangulating attacks (one of which is director Stone as an embattled, boozing bum. Not since the heyday of Joe Eszterhas has a film been coated in such a dismissive manner towards the female characters who are either ice queens or coquettish co-eds with an unhealthy cynicism towards relationships and the yuletide season.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Oliver Stone

Director

Michael Caine

Jonathan Lansdale

Andrea Marcovicci

Anne Lansdale

Bruce McGill

Brian Ferguson

Annie McEnroe

Stella Roche

Viveca Lindfors

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Perry Stewart

Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

When The Hand is bloody, it is very bloody. Even so, there won't be enough for true aficionados of that genre. Similarly, there is just enough gore to alienate the class thriller audience.

Aug 11, 2021

Full Review

Sumner Rand

Orlando Sentinel

The film has all the Ingredients of the classical horror story a creepy score, dark interiors, rainy nights, scenes shot from peculiar angles, slow tracking of the camera. And as long as the ambiguity is maintained, the picture works.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 11, 2021

Full Review

Michael Maza

Arizona Republic

What is the sound of one hand clapping? You could measure it on an applause meter at The Hand...

Aug 11, 2021

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

The strange blending of reality and fantasy is rather engaging, generating something of a mystery alongside the chills as the hand has the potential to do the bidding of its master.

Rated: 7/10

Aug 29, 2022

Full Review

Bill Warren

Starburst

The Hand doesn't work as a psychological thriller... It doesn't work as a horror movie... every shock scene is heavily telegraphed and then fails to deliver the goods.

Jul 27, 2022

Full Review

John Stark

San Francisco Examiner

Give it the finger.

Rated: 1/4

Aug 11, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

A cartoonist (Michael Caine) loses his hand in a car accident, but it comes back to crawl around and kill people.

Director: Oliver Stone
Screenwriter: Oliver Stone
Distributor: Orion Pictures
Production Co: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 24, 1981, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2009
Sound Mix: Surround

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