Severed Ties

My review was written in September 1991 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.

Lip-smacking performances by Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer lift the horror film "Severed Ties" above the pack of low-budget shockers. Columbia TriStar Home Video should have good results with this third entry from Fangoria's film unit.

Tongue-in-cheek effort has Sommer as an extremely possessive mother who has her son Billy Morrissette imprisoned to work on perfecting the gene-bonding regeneration experiments left unfinished by her late husband.

Morrissette comes up with the solution, but it's imperfect, resulting in a severed arm that becomes a lizard-like creature with a life of its own.

Film fits into the grotesque horror genre dominated by Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case"). Combo of grotesque gore effects and over-the-top acting is a winning one.

Oliver Reed as Sommer's partner in evil, planning to exp;loit the son's formula, is a superior villain and Morrissette delivers as the young antihero.