JvH48
Saw this at the IMAGINE film festival 2015 in Amsterdam. Contemporary issues with freedom of speech, and how far one can go as a journalist or cartoonist, are very well scripted into a coherent story. The blood and gore is a bit over-the-top and could have been less, but it fits the story and is not far fetched. Apart from the humor that is included to provide for some relief, there is even a bit of romance. The odd couple Travis and Amy are the perfect candidates to live happily ever after, if (a great if) they succeed in surmounting all the obstacles raised by business man Mr Fong, who is not very amused with their publications.A nice find is the Text-to-speech software we saw installed on Travis' computer in the beginning, as it got an important role later in the proceedings. Apart from "talking" to Travis via the keyboard by means of this software, the detached hand proves very capable all along the story. It certainly has a will and mind (?) of its own. Actually, the hand can be considered the main star here, though that may do injustice to the other special effects where we see the most incredible things happen with severed human body parts.According to Mr Fong, the villain in this story: Nothing is greater than the profit. This pun on profit/prophet is not the only fun as icing on the cake, however, and a lot of humor is interwoven in the proceedings. It takes our mind away from the horrible things that Mr Fong has in mind when people do not listen to his friendly "advice".All in all, a remarkable film due to the mix of humor, romance, horror, and incorporating the contemporary theme of journalistic freedom and how far one can go in insulting others, exposing secrets, or bringing wrongdoings to light. My company who is usually not very keen on Horror films, had no regrets to have seen this one, due to the Horror elements fitting the story and were not there only for the sake of it. And we got sufficient relief, needed to alleviate the blood and gore induced by Mr Fong and his assistants.
