View Full Version : mandolin horror films
billkilpatrick
May-13-2009, 4:39am
some people like horror films - i don't - but since taking up the mandolin i've become acutely aware of fingers ... all ten of 'em - and the horrible, wince making things that can happen to them in hollywood.
topping my "wiggly appendages black list" at the moment are:
1. "syriana" - george clooney film
2. "body of lies" - latest ridley scott film
... any others to (a) avoid or (b) be thrilled and horrified by?
- bill
Bertram Henze
May-13-2009, 4:58am
You're not planning to make a challenge of this, are you? Featuring mandolinists with hammers in front of webcams? :))
Bertram
Mike Bromley
May-13-2009, 5:04am
The "Gallon of whiskey before break-fingers" challenge?????:disbelief:
Then there's the scene from "Escape from Alcatraz" where the hapless old feller lops 'em off after the Warden confiscated his oil paints....
...typical Malpaso (Clint Eastwood) scenery...:popcorn:
billkilpatrick
May-13-2009, 5:17am
is another film to keep at arm's length is "braveheart."
Dan Johnson
May-13-2009, 5:21am
memba' Mad Max? A certain scruffy little desert rat-boy with a boomerang?
tstackhouse
May-13-2009, 5:25am
Willem DaFoe loses his thumbs in "The English Patient"; In "Finding Private
Ryan", there is a moment wherein a nameless soldier has his arm blown off, he looks around the beach, finds it and picks it up in the middle of the battle.
TMitchell
May-13-2009, 5:39am
Don't forget Harrison Ford's tete-a-tete with Rutger Hauer in "Blade Runner."
blacksmith
May-13-2009, 5:56am
Recalling the scene in Runaway Train where a hand gets caught in the frozen coupling always makes me wince. One of my favourite movies.
Dan Hoover
May-13-2009, 6:27am
hey bill,first thing comes to mind is "The Beast with Five Fingers" with peter lorre...more of a mind trip,suspense flick..but theres something creepy about a disembodied hand walking around like a tarantula...theres a piano scene that gets me,then the scene with the hammer and nails...great movie to watch on a rainy late night..
second mention would be the bathroom scene in "The Tingler" with vincent price..i just love B/W movies..
Mike Bromley
May-13-2009, 6:28am
Recalling the scene in Runaway Train where a hand gets caught in the frozen coupling always makes me wince. One of my favourite movies.
The railroad buff in me can't get by Hollywood's convenient oversight of the deadman's pedal in that one. Like beeping computers in CSI, when they find the fingerprints......
JEStanek
May-13-2009, 6:37am
The movie The Hitcher (the 80s one. Another Rutger Hauer film) has a nice finger scene. Syrianna was tough to watch... ranks up there with Misery for knowing what's coming and not being able to avoid it.
Blade Runner is one of my all time favorite films. The Phillip K. Dick novel it was based on was a pretty good read too. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Jamie
Jamie
The movie The Hitcher (the 80s one. Another Rutger Hauer film) has a nice finger scene....
Jamie
Nice? Dude it took me years to get up the courage to eat french fries again after watching that one. ;)
Wesley
May-13-2009, 11:21am
I don't play very well when I have a toothache so I'll mention Dustin Hoffmans "Marathon Man".
billkilpatrick
May-13-2009, 11:23am
"man on fire" - denzel washington has a disjointed encounter with a member of a mexican gang of kidnappers.
Mike Bromley
May-13-2009, 11:25am
I don't play very well when I have a toothache so I'll mention Dustin Hoffmans "Marathon Man".
Interesting paired observation....
...."My sciatica is acting up....think I'll recite some poetry....":mandosmiley:
mrmando
May-13-2009, 11:59am
The Piano
The Fly
Darkman
Any of the Saw movies, or others of that ilk
Have you ever noticed that somebody loses an arm in every single blessed one of the Star Wars films?
Santiago
May-13-2009, 12:19pm
Let's not forget Seth Green's repulsive flick "Idle Hands," or for that matter "The Pope of Greenwich Village," where the mob takes the guy's thumbs in retribution.
billkilpatrick
May-13-2009, 12:27pm
i detect a thesis brewing here for some film major ...
"eastern promises" - david cronenberg film with vigo mortensen and naomi watts - a shearing experience.
Jim MacDaniel
May-13-2009, 1:27pm
Recalling the scene in Runaway Train where a hand gets caught in the frozen coupling always makes me wince. One of my favourite movies.
Great movie, but regrettable title -- it arguably may have done better in theaters with a more creative title.
Jim MacDaniel
May-13-2009, 1:34pm
The tips of pinkies are cut off via the Yubitsume ritual in the following American movies, and likely in countless Japenese Yakuza movies as well:
Black Rain, starring Andy Garcia and Michael Douglas
Showdown in Little Tokyo, starring Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee
Chris Keth
May-13-2009, 1:44pm
Easy. Four Rooms or, what it was alluding to, an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode called The Man From The South.
Mike Scott
May-13-2009, 2:15pm
Ahh, the Road Warrior when the feral kid tossed the boomarang and one of the "humongous" crowd tries to catch and loses all his fingers-much to the delight of all his pals too! Ouch!
mrmando
May-13-2009, 2:21pm
Easy. Four Rooms or, what it was alluding to, an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode called The Man From The South.
Based on a short story by Roald Dahl...
There's always the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
drewgrass
May-13-2009, 10:24pm
Django. Old spaghetti western. They smash his hands up with the but of a Winchester at the end. Has that great 60s orange blood
mandozilla
May-13-2009, 11:27pm
first thing comes to mind is "The Beast with Five Fingers" with peter lorre
Dan, me too. I didn't think anyone would remember that creepy little gem. The hand playing the piano was sooo creepy and wierd. :grin:
~o):popcorn:
desaljs
May-14-2009, 11:26am
Good call on "Blade Runner"! I just got the new version of that. Very cool film. I wish Ridley Scott would return to SciFi. The first Alien was a creep fest............
Dan Hoover
May-14-2009, 5:15pm
yea,peter lorre was a creepy little gem,wasn't he?good movie though...every now/then it pop's up on tv,i just have to watch it...
mandozilla
May-15-2009, 1:33am
I believe "The Beast with......" is on DVD Dan. :grin:
Another oldie that comes to mind in the mangled hand department is "Mad Love" also with Peter Lorre. About a concert pianist who loses his hands in a train accident and gets the hands of a murderer grafted on the stumps with the obvious results...also a creepfest. :disbelief:
~o):popcorn:
mrmando
May-15-2009, 12:56pm
How could we forget The Goonies? Greatest near-digit-loss scene in the history of film.
Dan Hoover
May-17-2009, 8:11am
I believe "The Beast with......" is on DVD Dan. :grin:
Another oldie that comes to mind in the mangled hand department is "Mad Love" also with Peter Lorre. About a concert pianist who loses his hands in a train accident and gets the hands of a murderer grafted on the stumps with the obvious results...also a creepfest. :disbelief:
~o):popcorn:
i might just look for that one on netflix?sounds really familiar?:popcorn:they don't make movies like they use to..
billkilpatrick
May-17-2009, 9:44am
"edward scissorhands" - tim burton film with johnny depp - bg chopissimo:
Dan Hoover
May-17-2009, 12:43pm
"The Godfather" Luca Brasi gets stabbed in the hand by Bruno Tattaglia in the bar...his hand is literally nailed on to the bar...ouch....then he gets garroted...this scene always got me??poor Luca,now he sleeps with the fishes....
journeybear
May-17-2009, 1:06pm
"edward scissorhands" - tim burton film with johnny depp - bg chopissimo:
But what they didn't show in the final cut (ouch!) of this film was his extraordinary skill on the dulcimer. Both plectrum and slider are built-in ... :grin:
Surprised no one has mentioned "the Departed" yet. Leonardo Decaprio's hands get several whacks with a steel toed boot. I could swear there's a scene in "Casino" where a the pit thugs teach a card counter a lesson by taking using a hammer on his fingers.
Actually, just last night I watched a low budget horror movie in which a comely bartenders fingers were severed. Most of the rest of her got the same treatment, so there wasn't much left to play mandolin with. Had to wince a little when they started with the fingers though.
Yikes! I almost went into shock just reading this thread.
Roger Renfro
May-17-2009, 6:15pm
"The Beast With Five Fingers" has been mentioned. The following is a true story of what happened after I saw this movie.
I was 11 years old & my parents let me attend my first "midnight" movie with three friends. We thought it was so cool that, although we were driven to the movie, we got to walk home about 1:30 AM. Understand, this was a small town in western Kansas (Garden City) &, although it was late, it was perfectly safe. We had to walk about 1 1/2 miles.
The four of us lived within a block of one another & were having a great time scaring one another on the walk home. About 3 blocks from where we lived, we had to walk under a street light. Just as we walked past, one of the guys look down on the pavement & there was a glove lying there. He yelled "Look, it's the Hand!". Then the rest of us screamed & took off for home. We flew -- screaming all the way.
At that point, none of us cared about the others -- we just wanted to get home -- and, we did, quickly. I learned about mass hysteria that night. <grin>
[I]The Piano
most definitely "the piano"--i swear i could feel that.....