The Severed Arm

From the archive

No, this isn’t about one of Thing’s relatives. A group of friends is trapped by a cave-in. Fearful of starvation, they eventually hack off one guy’s arm. But wouldn’t you know it…they’re all rescued just minutes later! Flash ahead five years. The original victim has vanished – and a mysterious someone is killing the other survivors by lopping off their arms in a similar fashion. Who is behind it? And who is next…? “From the opening moments involving an arm getting hacked off by a burglar in a mortuary, it's clear that this won't be a happy ride for anyone involved. The Severed Arm piles on the atmosphere by taking place mostly at night, with lots of shadowy lighting and isolated characters suffering from paranoia; furthermore, the eerie synthesizer score seethes almost nonstop for the entire running time, creating a constant sense of doom and unease similar to Messiah of Evil. “The exposition scenes are indisputably a bit monotonous and pokey at times, but the suspense set pieces are actually quite effective including two standout bits involving a disc jockey attacked in his radio station and a pre-Dressed to Kill blood-spattered murder in an elevator. Also, the creepy and claustrophobic twist ending is just fantastic.” http://www.mondo-digital.com/severedarm.html “The Severed Arm” is available from Desert Island Films, which offers “the oldest, largest and highest quality public domain film library in the world” to clients such as A&E, Warner Brothers, Time-Life and Viacom; as well as from The RetroFilm Vault, “the original and definitive one-stop source for public domain movies and television for broadcast programing or stock footage use. From the heart of movie land, The RetroFilm Vault has the largest virtual catalog for broadcast quality public domain films on the planet.”