poolandrews Review of The Severed Arm

The Severed Arm (1973)

Generally terrible, but not entirely worthless.

[4/10 · 12 November 2004]

Like everyone else who've seen this and commented on it here I will be reviewing an obviously cut version, as there wasn't a single drop of blood in the entire thing, but all of the boring stuff was still there, unfortunately. The film opens in a morgue. A one armed man picks up a surgical saw and saws off a dead body's arm. Next we cut to a parcel. A long box, just big enough for say, an arm! After the credits the parcel is delivered to Jeff (David G.Cannon). It turns out that it is indeed a severed arm. He heads straight for his friend, the local Doctor (John Crawford). They discuss the situation. The Doctor talks of a nightmarish five years, the film then goes into flashback. Six men, Jeff, Doc, police man Mark (Paul Carr), a radio DJ 'Mad Man Herman' (Marvin Kaplan), Bill (Vince Martorano) and Ted (Ray Dennis) are trapped in a cave-in when 'Mad Man Herman' starts to hit the wall with a hammer, idiot. Doc states "we have no food and little water". Two weeks pass and the men are starving. Jeff tells them a story of sailors trapped on a raft out at sea and how they survived by eating one of their dead, and he suggests they must do the same to survive. But non of them are dead yet, so Jeff (who put him in charge?) helpfully says they draw straws and the loser has to give a part of his body up for the survival of the group. Ted is the unlucky loser. They cut his arm off and ate it, apparently anyway as I didn't actually see it happen, as I've said the version that seems to be available at the moment appears to be censored, mine certainly was. However, not long after the men are rescued, Jeff (once again) convinces the men to lie and say Ted's arm was trapped under rocks during the cave-in and that they had to cut his arm off to save his life. They all agree, except Ted obviously. As Ted is lifted in an ambulance he states "I won't forget!". Both Jeff and Doc are sure Ted sent the arm and decide to call a meeting at Docs house later that night. Everyone turns up, they decide not to go to the police for fear of their careers. Meanwhile outside a one armed man with an axe is watching them through a window. Is it Ted? What does he want? Who will survive? Watch it to find out. Directed by Thomas S.Alderman this is a pretty awful film. Technically poor on every level, the 'electronic music' as it's described in the opening credits becomes very annoying, acting is poor as is the photography. But I liked the idea and thought the script was OK, don't forget that this was made way before many highly regarded slasher films, the central idea was neat, the killer actually had a decent motive this time. I also really liked the twist ending (I just about made it that far!), even if it's a little silly, it's entertaining. With all the gore supposedly cut out the film drags badly, lots of padding like people walking and driving around, it gets very boring incredibly quickly. It's a terrible film as it is, but I liked the ending and the idea behind the film. Still impossible to recommend though.