By Richard Winters
My Rating: 7 out of 10
4-Word Review: A one-armed killer.
Five men (David G. Cannon, John Crawford, Marvin Kaplan, Paul Carr, Ray Dannis) go cave exploring only to find themselves trapped during an unexpected cave-in. After 7 days and with no other food around, they begin to discuss cannibalism. No one is keen on the idea, but realize that if they want to survive, they have no other choice. They decide to draw straws, and Ted picks the longest one meaning his arm gets cut-off by the others, who will then eat it. However, once this is done and much to their surprise, they’re immediately rescued. Ted is still alive and taken to the hospital. The other men come up with the alibi that Ted’s arm was already injured during the cave-in, and they amputated it in order to save his life and the authorities believe them. Now 5 years later some mysterious stalker is attacking these same men one-by-one and cutting-off one of their arms.
This compact horror film, that was a pre-cursor to the slasher flicks that became popular in the 80’s, is surprisingly effective with an original music score and dark, shadowy lighting that helps to keep things murky and intense. The beginning though looks almost like someone’s home movie. The faded color and grainy stock are one thing, but the scene inside a morgue where the arm of a cadaver is cut-off and falls to the ground looks like it came directly off a mannequin and is tacky. It also ruins the suspense as you see the faceless assailant packaging it into a box and then mailing it. Instead, it would’ve been more suspenseful had the viewer not known the contents and then shared the same shock as the victim when he opens it.
The scenes inside the cave could’ve been improved too by having close-ups of the men’s faces with sweat glistening down their foreheads as they nervously draw the straws versus the mid shots which aren’t as emotionally impactful. The idea that a man could have his entire arm cut-off and not go into shock or suffer severe blood loss that would kill him is hard to believe but for the story to be intriguing I get why it was important that he survive so I was willing to overlook that issue.
The killings, which take up the bulk of the film, is what really sets it apart. While not gory they still have a riveting effect. Crawford’s death in which he collapses towards the camera is probably the best. I did like Kaplan’s too, which is shot inside a radio studio and features the killer smashing through a plate of glass in slow motion. My only caveat was the size of the ax which is small and appears almost like a toy. For proper visual affect it should’ve been a large one even bigger than normal.
The acting is good. Walley, who gained fame in the 60’s for playing sweet, all-American types like Gidget, is given an interesting change of pace. She’s a bit sterile at first but comes on strong later. I did though have reservations with David G. Cannon as the lead who also served the co-producer and apparently used that leverage to give himself a plum role, but his delivery and inflection are weak, and the part better suited to a more experienced professional.
Spoiler Alert!
The surprise ending succeeds even though I had started to guess that the daughter and son were the actual culprits and not the father who turns out to be stuck in a wheelchair. While I liked that they trap Cannon, the last of the men whose arm they have yet to cut-off, inside a make-shift prison there is unfortunately no sufficient conclusion. They give him a choice; either severe his arm or starve to death but then it cuts to the closing credits.
In retrospect I think after going so many days without food that he’d be too weak to cut off his arm even if he had wanted to. It would’ve been better had the sister offered him food if the brother, with ax in hand, was allowed to do the chopping. The final shot could’ve had him being tricked by begrudgingly allowing the brother to hack off his limb only to then be told that the ‘food’ would be the arm itself.
My Rating: 7 out of 10
Released: November 18, 1973
Runtime: 1 Hour 31 Minutes
Rated R
Director: Tom Alderman
Studio: Media Cinema Group
Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video. Fawesome, Plex, Tubi, YouTube
