Review: When John (Michael Caine), a talented comic artist, loses his hand in a freak accident, his life begins to unravel. As he tries to adjust to a new career as a teacher and living apart from his wife and daughter, he begins to suffer from blackouts and psychological horrors as he believes that his severed hand is inflicting evil on those that stand in John's way. Has John gone mad or is he just caught in the deadly grip of... The Hand?
This is definitely one of the silliest concepts for a horror movie, but with the sheer acting talent of Sir Michael Caine, and writer-director Oliver Stone at the helm, you get a creepy, suspenseful, and very entertaining shocker!
The Hand is without a doubt one of Caine's "paycheck" movies, but he doesn't phone in his performance. Caine gives this one his all whether he's a frustrated artist who's lost his gift, an angry husband who's wife is slipping away, or a madman fighting for his life against his own severed hand; seriously it's amazing to watch!
What's great is that not only does the movie play this laughable concept straight, it also keeps you guessing whether the hand is truly crawling around and killing or is it all in our troubled protagonists head. Hopefully, he can get a handle on things!
The Hand is not your typical horror flick, but it's stylish, eerie, and feels like an adaptation of a Tales from the Crypt or Vault of Horror story from EC Comics. I've got to hand it to Stone and Caine, this is much better than it should be. Caine's earnest performance is worth the price of admission and the creepy-crawly hand is nightmare fuel for when your mind plays tricks on you. If you can get your hands on this one and check it out!