Late at night someone enters a morgue and cuts an arm off of a dead body. The shadowy figure then wraps the arm up and mails it to Jeff Ashton (David G. Cannon). When Jeff receives the package and opens it up, he freaks out. He then calls his friend Dr. Ray Sanders (John Crawford). The two men discuss the arm and what it represents.
Five years ago, Jeff and Ray were two of six men who were cave explorers. The other men in the group were, Mark Richards (Paul Carr), “Mad Man” Herman (Marvin Kaplan), Bill Hale (Vince Martorano) and Ted Rogers (Ray Dannis). During their adventure part of the cave collapsed trapping the six men underground. The men were trapped for weeks. Before they succumb to starvation, they decided that they must cut off body parts from each other to keep themselves alive in the hopes that they would eventually be discovered and saved. To that end they drew makeshift straws to see who would sacrifice first. Ted drew the short straw.
Ted begged for the others to wait one more day. Instead, they held him down and they cut off his right arm. Moments after cutting the arm off, the group was rescued. Ted was in shock, so the others told the rescuers that Ted lost his arm in the cave-in. Ted was committed to a mental hospital. Five years later he was released. Shortly after that the disembodied arm was mailed to Jeff. Soon the men are stalked by a hatchet wielding figure determined to kill each of them, one by one.
“The Severed Arm” was released in 1973 and was directed by Tom Alderman. It is a low-budget American horror and a revenge slasher movie.
The movie was better than I expected. It’s not overly gory or bloody but it has its moments. Besides being one of the earlier films of the genre, one of the differences between this film and many slashers is that the victims are older men instead of teenagers or young adults. The movie has a bit of a twist at the end and a somewhat depressing yet appropriate ending. All of which makes the film more interesting than the usual slasher fare.
One of the draw backs of the film is the execution of it. The premise is a bit forced and the acting is a little stiff. In the cave sequences the actors are trying to look like they are all starving and on the verge of death that but doesn’t quite come off as intended. The scenes in the cave are also lit far better than the above ground night scenes. There’s a lot of suspense, but the script itself is a little whiny. At times the movie is a bit plodding but not enough to bore me.