Second Hand, From The Devil: Idle Hands Remake Is Coming!
Not long ago, we wrote here on the website about horror films starring… Hands. The fact is that, surprisingly, there are quite a few such films; some of them are excellent, and others have even reached cult status. “Idle Hands” is a beautiful example of a silly comedy that was entirely slaughtered then and did relatively minor at the box office. Still, today, many horror films consider it a cult film.
Perhaps for this reason, and mainly because someone in Sony Pictures just read our article, we got the news about the planned “Idle Hands” remake, with some talented names behind it. Hands down, we are super excited about it!
Who Will Make The Idle Hands Remake?
Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk may not mean much to the average viewer, but if you look at their horror careers, you can see they are up-and-coming names. Wolfard is a very young Canadian actor and musician (21) who has already taken part in some of the most significant horror works of recent years. He played Mike Wheeler in Netflix’s “Stranger Things,“ Richie in both “It“ movies, and Trevor in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,“ the next-gen version of and the fourth film in the hit franchise.
The 25-year-old Bryk is Wolfard’s best friend and, often, his creative partner. The two collaborated in 2020 when Bryk starred in the short film “Night Shifts,” which Wolfard directed and wrote, and also in a relatively minor role in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,“ alongside the same Wolfard.
In 2023 came their most significant collaboration, in the low-budget horror film “Hell of a Summer,“ which they co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred. It is a slasher with a masked killer who attacks the participants in a summer camp. The film gained little resonance among the general public but was screened as part of the 2023 Toronto Film Festival and received positive reviews. Following this relative success, Neon – the indie film distributor that in recent years has brought us several significant films such as “Immaculate“ with Sidney Sweeney, the beloved “It Lived Inside“ and the acclaimed “Longlegs“ – announced that it plans to release the film in theaters during the summer of 2025, it is not yet clear in what distribution.
A couple of days ago, we got the news that the young duo will write the reimagining of “Idle Hands.“ We are yet to know whether the duo will also direct or be part of the cast of the new “Idle Hands” movie, but based on their careers, it indeed can happen.
The film will be produced by the Canadian Jason Reitman, behind him a long line of successes – for example, “Juno“ (2007), “Jennifer’s Body“ (2009), “Up in the Air“ (2009), “Tully“ ( 2018), “Ghostbusters: Afterlife“ (2021) and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire“ (2022) – As a writer, director, producer and sometimes all three.
We have yet to know anything about the plot or the release date of “Idle Hands,” but we will surely get more updates soon.
Back To Idle Hands: Super Silly And Funny
“Idle Hands“ from 1999 presented the somewhat disturbed story of Anton (the excellent Devon Sawa, “Final Destination,” “Black Friday,” “The Exorcism of Molly Hartley”), a bored and relatively stagnant guy. The film revives the phrase “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” and shows for the umpteenth time that a passive lifestyle can kill – others, in this case.
One day, the lazy Anton discovers that his parents are dead, and according to the evidence at the crime scene, he is the one responsible. After he also kills his best friends (Seth Green and Elden Henson), he realizes that his right hand is to blame. Or rather, a monstrous possession has taken over his hand, probably because it’s idle and makes him kill everything that moves.
At first, Anton tries to keep his devilish hand busy, partly by knitting. When that doesn’t work, he tries to destroy her in various ways, including cutting her off with a knife, running a running iron on his hand, or heating her in the microwave. When all this does not help, the picture gets complicated. Especially there is a sexy neighbor that Anton is secretly in love with (Jessica Elba, in one of the roles that made a lot of horror fans fall in love with her, not really secretly), and that he wants to invite to the dance without her knowing that he has a devilish hand. Or a priestess looking for the hand to dispel the possession and other bad guys.
The result is a super silly black horror comedy with sex, drugs, rock and roll, and some excellent jokes that are primarily suitable for watching together with friends.
Does Idle Hands Reserve A Remake?
“Idle Hands“ was quite a failure at the box office at the time (only about $4 million, compared to a budget of about $25 million. Still, it had pretty good reasons: a few weeks before its release, the terrible shooting at Columbine High School took place, in which two students murdered 12 other students and a teacher in a killing spree, in one of the most memorable shootings of recent decades. When “Idle Hands“ hit the screens, it received mediocre reviews at best (on Rotten Tomatoes, for example, only 16% of critics gave it a positive score).
Despite this, many horror fans – including the writer of these lines – grew up on this stupid film and even saw it more than once. The announcement of a remake raises expectations for something silly but fun.
Devon Sawa, by the way, posted an amusing post on the social network X after the news regarding the “Idle Hands” remake. He described his 10-year-old son’s reaction to the news: “Awesome!! Finn Wolfhard from the coolest show “Stranger Things“ is making a new movie called Idle Hands!!“. When Sawa replied to him, “I was in “Idle Hands”! I am the original Anton!“ the kid allegedly replied: “Sure, Dad. Whatever you say. Can I have a snack?”.
In one of the responses to the tweet, Sawa replied that the remake “will be fun“ and that he was excited about it. The truth? Oddly enough, so do we.
