The Severed Arm

The American movie The Severed Arm is a revenge flick, and the question is whether revenge is being taken by the person who was affected or someone else. I could not help but enjoy this movie, and I enjoyed the awesome soundtrack, not so much the music but rather its use as an effect to create atmosphere and the kind of urgency that the movie needed. It works well for me, including the stunts and practical effects. (23.07.2020)

It's probably no surprise that in a film called The Severed Arm, at least one severed arm will play a role. And the opening scene in the morgue, where someone cuts off a dead man's arm, and the telling title “The Severed Arm" appears, proves that the film will live up to its name. The Severed Arm is an unfairly overlooked B-movie proto-slasher that isn't quite as silly as it might seem on the surface. The beginning, where a group of friends get trapped in a cave, is surprisingly chilling and reminiscent of raw survivalist films like Alive (the film was made shortly after the events in the Andes that Alive is about). What's most remarkable about the film, however, the number of elements we know from later slasher films, considered the founders of the subgenre, that it features. There's the "caller calling from your house" scene (as in Black Christmas), the point of view of the stalking assailant (as in Halloween), and the killing spree, as in any proper slasher film, is triggered by trauma from the past. On the other hand, the film differs from conventional slashers in several ways. The central villain's goal is not to kill, but to chop off his victims' hands. The victims are not teenagers, but middle-aged men. And there is virtually no good guy among them (all the victims more or less deserve to be targeted for revenge). The direction is unimaginative on the whole, but narratively this is a fairly inventive film with a delightfully decadent atmosphere and a great morbid ending. (04.12.2023)