The Severed Arm (1973)

• Year: 1973
• Released: 20 Jul 1975
• Country: United States
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070673/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_severed_arm
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Horror
• Runtime: 91 min
• Writer: Tom Alderman, Larry Alexander, Kelly Estill
• Director: Tom Alderman
• Cast: Deborah Walley, Paul Carr, David G. Cannon
• Keywords: murder, slasher, cave, axe murder, proto-slasher,

4.8/10

The Severed Arm Storyline

Jeff Ashton recoiled in horror after finding a severed arm inside a package just delivered to his door. It immediately reminded him of what happened five years ago, when he and five of his pals were trapped in a cave inside a desolate mine they’d been exploring. After two weeks and facing starvation, their only option had been to resort of cannibalism in order to survive. Reluctantly they agreed to draw straws and Ted sacrificed a limb so everybody could have a meal. Seconds after cutting off their friend’s arm they were rescued and blamed the amputation on the rockfall. The five men swore never to tell anyone what had really happened. Ted said he’d never foget what they’d done to him and vowed revenge.

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The Severed Arm Movie Reviews

Why didn’t you wait for a few more minutes?

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!

Nothing special

Despite the ghastly allure of the title, THE SEVERED ARM plays out as more of a long-winded and understated thriller than a proper full-on horror flick. The idea is a good one and the scenes of the cave-in and subsequent events inside the cave, portrayed in flashback, are as horrifying as they come. But the modern day murder sequences are performed by rote without any kind of suspense, surprise or horror whatsoever. They just happen, and when the characters involved are so underwritten and played by such underperforming non-actors as the assembled cast members here, you simply don’t care.

An extremely dull and sub-par 70’s low-budget horror revenge stinker

Six starving, desperate geologists are trapped in a cave for two weeks. Five of these guys cut off the arm of a sixth luckless dude and eat it. Shortly after the limb hacking incident, the men are saved by a rescue party. Five years later the understandably embittered fellow who got his appendage severed vows revenge. He begins killing the other five guys by cutting off one of their arms with a hatchet. While the sound premise certainly has plenty of potential, it’s unfortunately undermined by a very dull and uninspired execution. Thomas S. Alderman’s drab, listless direction and hideously talky’n’tedious script suck all the fun and vitality out of the solid story. The tame, unconvincing gore f/x, Philllan Bishop’s shrill, unmelodious droning synthesizer score, the sluggish pace, Bob Maxwell’s dark, bland, ugly cinematography and a real groaner of a would-be startling surprise “twist” ending are all likewise uniformly awful. Familiar 70’s B-feature faces Deborah (“Benji”) Walley, Paul (“The Bat People”) Carr, John (“Outlaw Blues”) Crawford, Vince (“The Candy Snatchers”) Martorano, and Marvin (“Fangs”) Kaplan sleepwalk through their insipid parts, thereby failing to bring any energy or conviction to their boring and flatly drawn characters. Early in the film one character gravely intones, “Something’s really rotten.” I wholeheartedly concur; that something really rotten is this incredibly feeble and worthless chunk of atrocious cinematic offal.