Slasher Spoof No "Scream," Will Offend...But No Dud Either

by Jason R. Hewlett

Okay, not everyone is going to like the new horror-comedy "Idle Hands." Actually, most people are going to find it a vulgar, irreverent, sick and twisted sorry excuse for a movie. They're right too. It's not overly clever or imaginative nor artistic. However, at least for me, I found it a welcome change of pace from the garbage truck of teen-flicks we've been pummeled with lately just for the above reasons alone.

"Idle Hands" plays like the recent trend in horror films: start with a teaser (someone gets killed), introduce the people who are the heroes/victims, start slaughtering in an gruesomely imaginative fashion, put the female lead in jeopardy, and play out until logical conclusion and leave the film open for a franchise. That's it.

What "Idle Hands" has going for it is the way it spoofs such films. It can't pull-off that hip, self-aware humor that made "Scream" so good but it does fire-off enough gags to score a few points. It's also so over-the-top in its use of gore and nastiness that I found myself laughing in spite of myself. Mind you I'm, a huge fan of the "Evil Dead" series and Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" so I enjoy that sick and twisted brand humor.

However, that's part of my problem with "Idle Hands." Director Rodman Flender and screenwriters Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer try hard but can't reach the same sick glory that the talented Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson can. "Idle Hands tries too hard to be both goofy and gory but it only half succeeds at both. The key to Raimi and Jackson's success is that they play their twisted silliness straight and it works beautifully. The team behind "Idle Hands" knows they are trying to be funny and plays it that way. The results are only half way effective.

It doesn't help either that the teens in the movie are not overly appealing characters. All they do is smoke pot and slut around, painting a pretty brain-dead picture of the next generation. Maybe Hughes and Milbauer were trying to be acidic in their presentation of the leads but I just found them obnoxious.

The cast does their best though. Lead actor Deven Sawa shows a talent for physical comedy. He combats his killer right hand with fine comic glee. Seth Green and Elden Hensen have a lot of fun playing their living dead corpses who gave up a chance at Heaven to party on earth. Jessica Alba is appropriately sexy in her "Every Guy's Fantasy Chick" role and makes for a damsel in distress worth saving. The only one who seems out of place is Vivica A. Fox ("Independence Day") as the only one who can stop the hand. Sure, she plays her role straight, but no one else is so she seems out of place.

Overall: not bad. Still, it could of been better.

4 out of 10!