News

These Are The Hands Nightmares Are Made Of

Published

10 years ago

October 25, 2014

I just had something of a revelation. Hands are kind of scary. They’re often used for violence in the movies and real life, but sometimes they’re just visually creepy. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. I think it all ties back into the pale green pants and the creepy cartoon shoe dream I had when I was a toddler.

I put on Full Moon’s Netherworld (1992) with the intent of letting it play in the background while I got some stuff done, but it just hooked me in with nostalgia, and yes, a creepy hand. I hadn’t watched this movie in at least a decade. Probably longer. In the early 90s when I was about ten or so, I was all about some Full Moon movies, and Netherworld was always one I had a special place in my heart for, even if I hadn’t given it the time I owed it as I got older.

Instead of accomplishing anything, I started blabbing on Twitter about the movie, about the aforementioned creepy hand, and about other creepy hands in cinema, video games, and music videos. Naturally, it occurred to me I could just make a post about this, so here we are.

Let’s look at some creepy hands.

Netherworld

We might as well start at the source. The hand is really only a small part of the movie, though it’s on the cover. It’s not even the creepiest part of the movie, but the whole concept (which I’m still not sure I entirely understand) just always stuck in my mind in a visual way. Even through all the years I spent without viewing the film, I would occasionally think back on that hand. Something about it grabbed me (horrible pun not really intended at first, but left in anyway). I remember making a clay model of it in an art class in school, albeit a piss poor one.

Netherworld is a really bizarre movie, and I couldn’t blame anybody for not liking it. I think nostalgia plays a major role in my own feelings about it, but it’s very unique, and there are some other visuals I’ve always found a bit eerie.

[youtube id=”MpMLA9G77q4″ align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

Wall Masters

Watching the Netherwold hand made me think about the original Legend of Zelda for NES. Remember those hands that came out of the walls occasionally in some of the labyrinths? Those are called Wall Masters, and they are motherfuckers. They take you back to the beginning of the labyrinth, which is a huge pain in the ass. I think that’s part of what made them so scary. They were a real threat. Plus, you know, they’re creepy hands.

You can see them in action at about 2:23 into the following video, though you really have to play it (with the legendary music that accompanies it) to get the full effect. It probably also helps to be eight years old.

[youtube id=”mKfC2tF-Vmc” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

Helping Hands

Speaking of labyrinths, the Jim Henson film Labyrinth has some wonderfully creepy hands itself. Sarah, played by Jennifer Connelly, has to choose a door. One of them, she is told, will lead her straight to her destination. The other will lead to certain death. The door she picks turns out to lead her to neither, but does take her to a trap door, which she falls through into a pit of scary, talking, “helping” hands, which catch her and grab at her before forming various faces and talking to her in evil voices. They don’t turn out to be as big of a threat as the Fire Gang, which wants to decapitate her or the fart swamp commonly known as the “Bog of Eternal Stench,” but she does tell them they’re hurting her before they drop her into a pit where she’d rot away if her acquaintance Hoggle didn’t come along.

Labyrinth-hands

Thing

I confess, I never really watched The Addams Family series all that much. I’ve seen it here and there, but I always preferred the Munsters. I did watch the movies, but ultimately, I don’t really have that much to say about Thing other than I think subconsciously he was always my favorite Addams. Honestly, my brain wants to associate Thing more with the Addams NES game Fester’s Quest than anything else, but no list of creepy hands would be complete without the pet hand, would it?

thing00

Jack and Diane

You’ll probably think I’m weird, but something about the white-gloved hands in the John Cougar Mellencamp video for Jack and Diane was always unsettling to me. I think it’s because it just looks like a pair of pale hands in the middle of darkness with nobody attached to them. The song came out when I was one, and the video was played throughout the following years. I grew up in a house where MTV was pretty much always on, so I saw it a lot. For some reason my little brain just didn’t like articles of apparel (gloves, shoes, pants, you name it) that didn’t have people inside them. Of course that didn’t stop me from wanting to watch the video repeatedly.

[youtube id=”h04CH9YZcpI” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

Pennywise the Dancing Clown

You know who else had some creepy white-gloved hands? A certain Derry-based clown monster that liked to reach said hands out of books.

pennywise

The Body Politic

Like The Addams Family’s Thing, Clive Barker’s The Body Politic (part of Quicksilver Highway) simply has to be on a list of noteworthy hands. I mean the whole story is about hands. I don’t think I’ve seen this since it originally aired seventeen years ago, so as with Thing, I don’t have a lot to say about it. I do know that being chased by hands is an absolute nightmare-inducing thought.

quicksilver

Ash’s Hand

Obviously a scene as famous as the hand scene in Evil Dead 2 has to be represented here. You know it. You love it. It’s classic slapstick. It’s really too goofy to qualify as creepy, but it is what it is – a hand.

evildead

Fred

And we’ll close with the king of the nightmare hand. You can insert your favorite Freddy glove moment here. The hand reaching up from the bathwater in the first Elm Street would be a wonderful candidate, but I’m going with Dream Warriors, and the scene in which Kirsten goes to turn on the water at her bathroom sink, only to have the knobs grab her hands. They of course turn into Freddy’s hands as he appears in the mirror. That moment where they grab her hands is just chilling. At least it was the first time I saw it.

fred

Got a favorite hand moment?

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Lists

New to Netflix (U.S.) This Month [May 2024]

Published

2 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Timothy Rawles

atlas movie Netflix starring Jennifer Lopez

Another month means fresh additions to Netflix. Although there aren’t many new horror titles this month, there are still some notable movies well worth your time. For instance, you can watch Karen Black try to land a 747 jet in Airport 1979, or Casper Van Dien kill giant insects in Paul Verhoeven’s bloody sci-fi opus Starship Troopers.

We are looking forward to the Jennifer Lopez sci-fi action movie Atlas. But let us know what you are going to watch. And if we have missed something, put it in the comments.

May 1:

Airport

A blizzard, a bomb, and a stowaway help create the perfect storm for the manager of a Midwestern airport and a pilot with a messy personal life.

Airport ’75

^{Airport ’75}

When a Boeing 747 loses its pilots in a midair collision, a member of the cabin crew must take control with radio help from a flight instructor.

Airport ’77

A luxury 747 packed with VIPs and priceless art goes down in the Bermuda Triangle after being hijacked by thieves — and time for a rescue is running out.

Jumanji

Two siblings discover an enchanted board game that opens a door to a magical world — and unwittingly release a man who’s been trapped inside for years.

Hellboy

^Hellboy

A half-demon paranormal investigator questions his defense of humans when a dismembered sorceress rejoins the living to wreak brutal vengeance.

Starship Troopers

When fire-spitting, brain-sucking bugs attack Earth and obliterate Buenos Aires, an infantry unit heads to the aliens’ planet for a showdown.

May 9

Bodkin

^Bodkin

A ragtag crew of podcasters sets out to investigate mysterious disappearances from decades earlier in a charming Irish town with dark, dreadful secrets.

May 15

The Clovehitch Killer

^{The Clovehitch Killer}

A teenager’s picture-perfect family is torn apart when he uncovers unnerving evidence of a serial killer close to home.

May 16

Upgrade

After a violent mugging leaves him paralyzed, a man receives a computer chip implant that allows him to control his body — and get his revenge.

Monster

_Monster

After being abducted and taken to a desolate house, a girl sets out to rescue her friend and escape from their malicious kidnapper.

May 24

Atlas

^Atlas

A brilliant counterterrorism analyst with a deep distrust of AI discovers it might be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

The Camp Cretaceous gang come together to unravel a mystery when they discover a global conspiracy that brings danger to dinosaurs — and to themselves.

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Movie Reviews

Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘Never Hike Alone 2’

Published

2 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Jacob Davison

There are fewer icons more recognizable than the slasher. Freddy Krueger. Michael Myers. Victor Crowley. Notorious killers who always seem to come back for more no matter how many times they are slain or their franchises seemingly put to a final chapter or nightmare. And so it seems that even some legal disputes cannot stop one of the most memorable movie murderers of all: Jason Voorhees!

Following the events of the first Never Hike Alone, outdoorsman and YouTuber Kyle McLeod (Drew Leighty) has been hospitalized after his encounter with the long thought dead Jason Voorhees, saved by perhaps the hockey masked killer’s greatest adversary Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) who now currently works as an EMT around Crystal Lake. Still haunted by Jason, Tommy Jarvis struggles to find a sense of stability and this latest encounter is pushing him to end the reign of Voorhees once and for all…

Never Hike Alone made a splash online as a well shot and thoughtful fan film continuation of the classic slasher franchise that was built up with the snowbound follow up Never Hike In The Snow and now climaxing with this direct sequel. It’s not only an incredible Friday The 13th love letter, but a well thought out and entertaining epilogue of sorts to the infamous ‘Tommy Jarvis Trilogy’ from within the franchise that encapsulated Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning, and Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Even getting some of the original cast back as their characters to continue the tale! Thom Mathews being the most prominent as Tommy Jarvis, but with other series casting like Vincent Guastaferro returning as now Sheriff Rick Cologne and still having a bone to pick with Jarvis and the mess around Jason Voorhees. Even featuring some Friday The 13th alumni like Part III‘s Larry Zerner as the mayor of Crystal Lake!

On top of that, the movie delivers on kills and action. Taking turns that some of the previous fils never got the chance to deliver on. Most prominently, Jason Voorhees going on a rampage through Crystal Lake proper when he slices his way through a hospital! Creating a nice throughline of the mythology of Friday The 13th, Tommy Jarvis and the cast’s trauma, and Jason doing what he does best in the most cinematically gory ways possible.

The Never Hike Alone films from Womp Stomp Films and Vincente DiSanti are a testament to the fanbase of Friday The 13th and the still enduring popularity of those films and of Jason Voorhees. And while officially, no new movie in the franchise is on the horizon for the foreseeable future, at the very least there is some comfort knowing fans are willing to go to these lengths to fill the void.

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News

New Vampire Flick “Flesh of the Gods” Will Star Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac

Published

2 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Cameron McFarland

80s nostalgia is still going strong in the horror community. As proof of this, Panos Cosmatos (Mandy) is developing a new 80s themed vampire film. However, unlike some of the other nostalgia bait films that have come out recently, Flesh of the Gods is packing some serious talent.

First, the film is written by the legendary Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en). If that wasn’t enough, the film will star Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight) and Kristen Stewart (Underwater).

Variety gives us a glimpse into the story line, stating that: “Flesh of the Gods is set in glittering ’80s L.A., where married couple Raoul (Oscar Isaac) and Alex (Kristen Stewart) each evening descend from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into the city’s electric nighttime realm. When they cross paths with a mysterious and enigmatic figure known as Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, the pair are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills and violence.”

Cosmatos offers his own opinion of the film. “Like Los Angeles itself, ‘Flesh of the Gods’ inhabits the liminal realm between fantasy and nightmare. Both propulsive and hypnotic, ‘Flesh’ will take you on a hot rod joy ride deep into the glittering heart of hell.”

Producer Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) seems to also be excited about The Flesh of the Gods. “This director, this writer, these incredible actors, vampires, choice ’80s punk, style and attitude for miles… that’s the film we’re bringing you today. We think it’s wildly commercial and wildly artful. Our ambitions are to make a movie that ripples through popular culture, fashion, music and film. Can you tell how excited I am?”

Flesh of the Gods is set to begin filming later this year. It will launch at Cannes with WME Independent, CAA Media Finance, and XYZ Films. The Flesh of the Gods does not currently have a release date.

That’s all the information we have at this time. Make sure to check back here for more news and updates.

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