The Severed Arm

These five dudes go hiking and then get trapped in a cave after one of them chips away at the fragile structure seemingly holding it all together. Boom, cave-in. They have no food and little water, yet somehow they all survive for a couple of weeks. And then and only then do they draw straws to see who's gonna have to lose an appendage so they can eat something. (Probably raw, since there'd be no sure way for the smoke from a fire to escape the cave.) Anyway, they are quickly rescued after making that fun decision. Five years later, one of them gets a severed arm in the mail. OMG could it be the guy they ate part of? Nice twist at the end, although it won't be a surprise if you've been paying any sort of attention. Protagonists are all kind of stupid.

A group of men exploring an old mine get trapped in a cave in, and after weeks of starvation decide to draw straws, and have the unlucky loser serve up an arm for lunch. After much scuffle the unlucky winner is soon liberated of the offending appendage, and Murphy's law being what it is they are rescued mere seconds afterwards. Fearing for their reputations everyone except obviously the victim agrees to lie and say that they had to cut his arm off because it was crushed in the collapse, but being quite perturbed because he can no longer clap and can only row boats in circles he vows revenge. Things start off a few years later when the man whom first suggested the idea receives a severed arm gift wrapped in the mail, and with few exceptions that's where this movie's creativity ends.

Not particularly bad but overall pretty slow and boring, although there is a little bit of a haunting surprise at the end it's not enough to make it worth while. Be weary of the severely edited 83 minute version missing all the gore, its like the editors took a hacksaw to the film stock and made an already extremely weak movie worse.

3 out of 10, strictly blood and guts, although it doesn't do that all that well either.

although the movie's acting and directing were very amateur, the plot was an amazing concept. the films script was cheesy, but the story in general was genius. the whole time watching the film, i was thinking to myself that if this movie had th chance, it could be very good. again, its not the story that was bad, it was the acting and directing. i mean if u look a the basic idea, a group of people stuck in a cave, fighting one another for each others flesh, thats a winning plot right there, just ready for any big time producer to bite into. if this move is redone today, with a larger budget and a better cast and crew, this could be a very popular film. too bad it just wasn't done right the first time around.

One of the unfortunate heroes hints at the sixty sailors lost at sea;but there's also a French nursery rhyme ("IL était un petit navire" =once upon a time a little ship )which goes like this :

"They drew straws To know who would be eaten.

The lot fell on the youngest, The cabin boy who set to crying Next they ponder with what sauce The poor child will be eaten."

With gore kept to the minimum,the scene in the cave (which follows the plot of the folk song ,so to speak ) ,and the terrifying ending (which will make your hair stand on hair ) make stuff like "saw" almost look like fairytales. Remember it was made in the early seventies!

There's a slight sag in the tension towards the middle of the movie which has a tendency to become repetitive ,but it regains its strength in the final sequences .

A must for horror movies!

I watched this and immediately got a sense of film from my childhood (films appropriate for my age!) with the synthesizer soundtrack and the station wagons. Anyway back to this.

An annoyingly degraded print didn't help my enjoyment neither did the premise. The film begins with a timeline from five years previously. A group of six men go on some caving expedition and predictably get trapped. With ever growing facial hair their chances of survival are of course reducing until one of the six comes up with an idea that may increase their depleted food stocks! Let's cut off the arm of one of us and eat the human flesh. As you do in these situations.

Drawing lots one poor member of the six has his arm severed as in the title. His life when/if he gets out of this cave ruined as such. What makes the situation even worse is a rescue party arrives very shortly after the dastardly deed is committed.

Quelle surprise a mental breakdown and the action returns to five years later the poor guy in total mental breakdown mode and out for revenge on the other five guys. Murder (what method?), fear, retribution. A daughter of the perpetrator joins the film as the others fight for survival.

Predictable suspense but a horrific premise.