The Uncanny Hands of Horror Fiction
by Michael Arnzen ~ September 6th, 2008. |
I’ve just posted an annotated list of “Classic Dismembered Hand Stories” on my creative writing weblog, The Goreletter. (This “hands” list was originally scheduled to appear in The Book of Lists: Horror, but was cut for space — but I do have another article in that book on “Top Horror Colleges”!).
Stories about dismembered hands that “act on their own accord” (Freud) are a rich symbol of the Uncanny, and movie makers have especially employed it to great — if not corny — effect. In chapter two of The Popular Uncanny, I present a cultural history of the changing function of this genre icon in horror cinema — from one of the earliest films (Vitagraph’s one-reeler, The Theiving Hand) to the present day (Flender’s stoner comedy, Idle Hands). |
