To celebrate its recent 22nd release anniversary, we look back at 1999’s Idle Hands, which is arguably the best stoner horror, and one of the best ’90s horror films.
The cast is a who’s who of ’90s/early ’00s stars, Devon Sawa (Final Destination), Seth Green (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Elden Henson (Daredevil), Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four). Even the late, great Fred Willard appears as the ill-fated father of our…erm, hero(?), Anton, played by Sawa.
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Anton is a stoner, so lazy and occupied with his bong and TV reruns that it takes him a whole seven days to realize his parents have been even more inanimate than him because he killed them with his possessed hand. Just as he makes his discovery, Anton’s besties, Pnub (Henson) and Micks (Green) come over and end up facing the wrath of Anton’s hand, too. Luckily for Anton, though, Pnub and Micks come back from the dead to help him defeat the evil hand. The ways they died – decapitation and glass bottle to the noggin – stay apparent, for visual comedy cringe value, of course.
The hapless trio must figure out a way to un-possess Anton’s hand, all the while keeping their big secret from everyone, including the girl next door, Molly (Alba).
Irrelevant to the plot, but still mad important when we’re talking about what makes the movie so darn rad, Idle Hands has the PERFECT soundtrack for ’90s kids. It features the likes of Blink-182, The Offspring, The Vandals, Zebrahead, Rob Zombie, Static-X, Rancid, The Ramones, Sublime, and Pantera.
Pop-punk legends The Offspring even make an appearance as the Halloween Dance band. Frontman Dexter Holland falls victim to the hand in a sick and OTT scalping death.
There are also random, and brilliant, cameos, including Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge and Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass as Burger Jungle employees, and an uncredited appearance by the king of Latin pop himself, Ricky Martin.
All of these are definitive elements of the ’90s, and what makes Idle Hands such an iconic and nostalgic movie now. It might not be held in high regard by critics – with a pathetic 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and a crappy 31 on Metacritic – but the kids (who are now full-grown adults, but whatever, shut up) who lived through this era and continue to appreciate it as the best era to grow up in, are the reason why this movie has become a cult classic. And, deservedly so.
