Severed Ties

If you like Brain Dead, or The Return of the living dead movies you're in for a ride. This one although a bit light on the gore part features a funny cast and a, although silly, interesting plot. The director and/or writers of this were not aiming for an Oscar by any means. They just wanted to give a funny gore fest, and I for one, appreciate their effort. BTW, the girl that plays the mute girl... Is so freakingly amazing hot... Too bad She hasn't been in anything besides this movie. Does anybody know if there's a DVD version of this film? And if thats the case... Would you happen to know where I could get It? Or maybe Download it, I don't know.. Help me out guys. I am looking for the unedited version if possible.

"When scientific madness gets the upper hand... and arm!" Young but somewhat crazy scientist Harrison Harrison (yes, you read that right) is experimenting with human limb regeneration. When he loses his right arm in an accident he injects it with a plasma, a new arm does indeed grow but it is part reptilian, it can detach itself and has a mind of its own ("Part lizard, part psycho, part me" Harry says). This film reminded me of the likes of "Basket Case" (1982), "Brain Damage" (1988) and "Re-Animator" (1985), only they are classics and "Severed Ties" most definitely is not. Made by Fangoria Films, unfortunately their skill at producing horror magazines did not translate to making movies, this is a horror comedy that overall is a disappointment. Oliver Reed stars as some kind of Nazi and is Harry's reluctant step dad. He is one of my favourite actors, sadly the 1980's and 90's saw him appear in plenty of bad movies. This is far from being the worst but even so it rates as one of the poorer movies on his filmography. Elke Sommer plays Harry's mother, she was still looking great at 50 plus but I'm afraid here her acting doesn't match her looks. The plot does have a few eccentric characters,Stripes (Garret Morris) being one of the better ones, but it's not enough to make this a riveting watch. At least the special effects, courtesy of KNB, are good. There's not a great deal of gore, apart from a man having his face ripped off and a woman having a finger sawn off, I had hoped for more. This appears to be a little known movie, I have it on VHS but to the best of my knowledge it has never had a disc release. A blu-ray release would certainly make it look better, maybe one day it will happen and peoples' generally low opinions of it may improve. This movie had good ingredients but sadly the end product was disappointing,

A young scientist is trying to carry on his dead father's work on limb regeneration.His overbearing mother has convinced him that he murdered his own father and is monitoring his progress for her own evil purposes.A young doctor uses reptilian DNA he extracts from a large creature and when his arm is conveniently ripped off a few minutes later,he injects himself with his formula and grows a new murderous arm...Admittedly the special effects in "Severed Ties" are pretty good and grotesque,but the rest of the film is awful.The severed arm is behaving like a snake and kills few people.Big deal.The acting is mediocre and the climax is silly.3 out of 10.

Take a Barker concept ("Body Politic") & mix it with a dash of latter-day Herbert West - the results would in all probability resemble this dumb gore movie. Perhaps seasoned veterans (in this case Sommer & Reed) need a trash backdrop such as this to really let loose - and do they ever! The kind of film, that if your attention wavered (or you needed to go to the toilet...) , by the time you "came back", you'd swear you're watching a collection of out-takes from SOCIETY, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR & RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART 3 (apologies to Brian Yuzna). What the hell; Sommer is GREAT (a performance that would make Tim Curry look like a master of understatement), Johnny Legend's voice would seem more at home in a DeathMetal outfit - even some bargain-basement Freud thrown in for those of an academic bent. Unfortunate proof that a sincere love of horror movies doesn't automatically = superior product; probably a project that should have been produced by those who actively hate the genre in order to gain a degree of perspective.

I recently watched the Fangoria horror-comedy Severed Ties (1992) on Tubi. The storyline follows a young scientist whose mother sells his lab and experiments to fund her extravagant lifestyle and upcoming marriage. When the company takes over, they brutally attack him, leaving him mutilated and armless. Using his own experiments, he regenerates his arm-but it turns into a lizard arm. Determined to get his life back, he creates an army of mutants like himself to challenge the corporation and his ruthless mother.

Directed by Damon Santostefano (Bring It On: Again), the film stars Oliver Reed (Gladiator), Elke Sommer (The Oscar), Garrett Morris (Cooley High), and Billy Morrissette (Vegas Vacation).

I'm one of the few who really enjoyed this movie-it does a great job of not taking itself too seriously. It reminded me of Re-Animator mixed with Frankenhooker in tone. The costumes, sets, and props are a lot of fun and pull you into its quirky universe. There are some fun reptile transformations, and the arm effects are both hilarious and impressive. The random gore and kill scenes are entertaining, and while the comedic elements are hit-or-miss, there's enough going on to keep you watching. The makeup, creature effects, and kills are all well-delivered, and the cheesy, fun ending is a perfect wrap-up.

In conclusion, Severed Ties is a lighthearted sci-fi horror-comedy that's a fun watch for fans of the genre. I'd rate it a 6/10 and recommend it with the right expectations.