History Main / EvilHand

* One episode of ''Literature/TheConditionsOfGreatDetectives'' involved the murder victim having had brain surgery as a child and having a split personality, which controlled his left hand. Eventually the left-side got angry and tried to kill him/take over. One attempt involved the left hand strangling him.

* Happens with a possessed ''leg'' in ''Fim/CradleOfFear''. Nick Holland is an amputee who is unable to engage in sexual activity with his girlfriend Natalie due to his frustration with the loss of his left leg in a prior accident. Nick visits his old friend Thomas and shoots him in the head. He then removes Thomas' left leg, puts it on ice and has it transplanted to himself by his doctor overnight. Nick goes through rehabilitation and eventually becomes able to move his transplanted leg. One night, while driving with Natalie, Nick loses control of his leg which steps on the accelerator, resulting in a crash that instantly kills Natalie.

* ''ClawTheUnconquered'', a BarbarianHero from Creator/DCComics, had a deformed, claw-like right hand (the result of a curse placed on his family) that would sometimes fight against him.
** A different version of Claw appeared in the comic ''PrimalForce''. John Chan became the Claw after buying an ancient suit of armour and sword. The Claw of Pytharia, which had been dormant in one of the gauntlets, cut off his hand with the sword and grafted itself in place. The demonic spirit of the claw increased his fighting skills, but made it difficult for him to control his anger

* In Creator/TheodoreSturgeon's "Bianca's Hands" Bianca, who happens to be severely retarded, has hands which are more attractive than the rest of her and move by themselves. Ran (who isn't very bright himself) marries her after falling in love with the hands, only to be strangled by them during the wedding night.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', [[spoiler: when Wormtail had to cut off his hand to revive Voldemort, his service was rewarded with a replacement arm -- one which unfortunately for him was booby-trapped to kill him if he ever helped Harry, since Voldemort never trusted him. The fact that Wormtail didn't actually help Harry at all, but only ''hesitated to kill him for just an instant'', didn't stop it from killing him]]: [[YouHaveFailedMe Voldemort takes some tropes]] [[UpToEleven to a whole new level.]]

* Okabe pretends to have one of these in VisualNovel/SteinsGate. Of course, in reality [[spoiler: [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex it's all an act part of his mad scientist persona]] he created when he and Mayu were kids to prevent her from leaving after her grandmother dies that has carried on into present day. (He states in the game that it felt as though she would join her grandmother in the afterlife if he didn't hold onto her and find a reason to make her stay.) So he held/hugged her and pretended to be a mad scientist holding her hostage so she couldn't leave,and Mayu agreed to it.]]

** It's also implied that the arm is possessed by Vergil ''himself'' (or at least strongly connected to him, which raises all sorts of [[LukeIAmYourFather other implications]]), and he helps out during Nero's Devil Trigger. Notable in that Nero does ''not'' gain a SuperpoweredEvilSide, for after the initial awakening where Nero is clearly under the control of the AloofBigBrother (which in and of itself wasn't even that bad), Vergil seems content to lay back and enjoy the fireworks.

* The 1935 Creator/PeterLorre film ''Film/MadLove'' in which the famous pianist Orlock suffers an accident and needs to have his hands amputated. The doctor gives him the hands of a recently executed KnifeNut, the hands remember their old skills after the operation. This was actually the second of three versions of the same film, the first being ''The Hands of Orlac'' in 1924 starring Conrad Veidt and again in 1960 as ''The Hands of Orlac'' with Creator/ChristopherLee.

* ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'': Arthur's left arm is the first bit of him possessed and shoves his friend Lewis do his death, the entity is only prevented from taking over him entirely because his arm was then torn off before it could.

* ''Film/DrTerrorsHouseOfHorror'': In the "Disembodied Hand" segment, artist Eric Landor has his amputated after he was run over by critic Franklyn Marsh. After Landor commits suicide, his hand returns to exact revenge on Marsh.

* In an episode of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Hook wants his hand restored before his date with Emma. Mr Gold turns out to have kept the hand for all these years, but warns that it's the hand of the man he used to be, and its reattachment could lead to him reverting from LoveableRogue back to ruthless killer. [[spoiler: After Hook thinks this has happened and demands Gold returns the hook, Gold tells him that nothing of the sort occurred; Hook subconsciously took the presence of the hand as a ''licence'' to act as a ruthless killer again.]]

* The 1935 Creator/PeterLorre film ''Film/MadLove''in which the famous pianist Orlock suffers an accident and needs to have his hands amputated. The doctor gives him the hands of a recently executed KnifeNut, the hands remember their old skills after the operation. This was actually the second of three versions of the same film, the first being ''The Hands of Orlac'' in 1924 starring Conrad Veidt and again in 1960 as ''The Hands of Orlac'' with Creator/ChristopherLee.

* Not entirely 'evil', but when Claire transplants Irene's arm in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' it seems to have a mind of it's own until she learns to control it.

* ''ClawTheUnconquered'', a BarbarianHero from Creator/DCComics, had deformed, claw-like right hand, the result of a curse which has been placed on his family that would sometimes battle with him.

* Dr. Strangelove from ''[[Film/DrStrangelove Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb]]'' is a famous example. He was able to help start a nuclear war despite the small setback of having a hand that obeyed his subconscious urges, such as punching himself in the face and giving Nazi salutes. His notoriety is such that the common name for the aforementioned real life brain condition "alien hand syndrome" is "Dr. Strangelove Syndrome".

* ''Film/TheHand'' (1981), which is about comic book artist (Creator/MichaelCaine) who loses his hand in car accident and it starts to attack his objects of frustration.

* Due to certain circumstances, Martin in ''Film/DeadSnowRedVsDead'' ends up in a hospital, where he gets a zombie-arm crafted into the place of his lost one. This arm is very prone to killing people when he doesn't want to, but it also gives him super strength and [[spoiler:an ability to raise the dead as zombies loyal to him]].

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', [[spoiler: when Wormtail had to cut off his hand to revive Voldemort, his service was rewarded with a replacement arm -- one which unfortunately for him was booby-trapped to kill him if he ever helped Harry, since Voldemort never trusted him. The fact that, Wormtail didn't actually help Harry at all, but only ''hesitated to kill him for just an instant'', didn't stop it from killing him]] [[YouHaveFailedMe Voldemort takes some tropes]] [[UpToEleven to a whole new level.]]
* Creator/MichaelMoorcock's character Literature/{{Corum}} had the "Hand of Kwll," which originally belonged to an ancient god. It acted as a PoisonousFriend, killing several people who posed a threat to Corum, but who Corum himself had no intention of killing.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Lindsey, having (awesomely) had his hand cut off by Angel in Season 1, gained a mystical replacement with the unfortunate tendency to write [[RoomFullOfCrazy "Kill kill kill"]] on its own due to a psychic connections to the previous owner. Other than that, though, it was pretty harmless. It turns out that it's original owner is still alive and conscious while being slowly taken apart by demonic surgeons for organ replacements, and is begging to be killed. Once they did [[MercyKill what it wanted]] the hand stopped acting on its own, though that didn't stop Lindsay using it as an excuse to cause havoc in a board meeting.

* Parodied in the Creator/{{BBC}} series ''Series/DeadRingers'', in which Michael Howard - who was leader of the Conservative Party at the time - channeled all of his evil into his left hand, which later defected to the UKIP. This forced him to cut it off, resulting in his right hand becoming evil, and subsequently defecting to the British National Party.

* The patient of the week in an episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' had an arm that had a mind of its own that would act of its own accord and often without his knowledge. It threw things at people, filled his trolley with items he didn't want and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking liked playing air guitar]].

** Not ''quite'' fulfilling the trope, but close, is the title body part in "The Hand of Fear". It's a hand, it's evil, and it takes people over, but it isn't grafted on to anyone.

** It's also implied that the arm is possessed by Vergil ''himself'' (or at least strongly connected to him, which raises all sorts of [[LukeIAmYourFather other implications]]), and he helps out during Nero's Devil Trigger. Notable in that Nero does ''not'' gain a SuperpoweredEvilSide, for after the initial awakening where Nero is clearly under the control of the AloofBigBrother (which in of itself wasn't even that bad), Vergil seems content to lay back and enjoy the fireworks.

* Okabe pretends to have one of these in VisualNovel/SteinsGate. Of course, in reality [[spoiler: [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex it's all an act part of his mad scientist persona]] he created when he and Mayu were kids to prevent her from leaving after her grandmother dies that has carried on into present day. (He states in the game that it felt as though she would join her grandmother in the afterlife if he didn't hold onto her and find a reason to make her stay.) So he held/hugged her and pretended to be a mad scientist holding her hostage so she couldn't leave,and Mayu agreed to it. ]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}} 10'' year old Ctyx has [[ItMakesSenseInContext his hand replaced by the evil wizard Faden's]], and he finds it is very evil.

* Inverted in the climax of the 1996 remake of ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor'': When {{Jerkass}} Buddy Love [[spoiler: pulls back his arm to punch his colleague, Jason, his right abruptly becomes swollen and blubbery and refuses to budge, shortly after reaching over to strangle Buddy and distract him. This is an inversion because the arm's split personality is NiceGuy Sherman Klump, the original personality who is reasserting control of his body.]]

* ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'': Arthur's left arm is seen moving about on its own and gaining a sinister eye in its palm after it was torn off of him when he was possessed through by something through it.

* An unusual variation in ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars''. BigBad Sador replaces his damaged arm with a limb from one of the Nestor clones (whom he captured and tortured to death). Not a true EvilHand, as it is not independent, but still telepathically controlled by Nestor.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Lindsey, having (awesomely) had his hand cut off by Angel in Season 1, gained a mystical replacement with the unfortunate tendency to write [[RoomFullOfCrazy "Kill kill kill"]] on its own due to a psychic connections to the previous owner. Other than that, though, it was pretty harmless. It turns out, that it's original owner is still alive and conscious while being slowly taken apart by demonic surgeons for organ replacements, and is begging to be killed. Once they did [[MercyKill what it wanted]] it stopped acting on its own, though that didn't stop him using it as an excuse to cause havoc in a board meeting.
--->"Stop it, evil hand, stop it!"

* In ''{{Exiern}} 10'' year old Ctyx has [[ItMakesSenseInContext his hand replaced by the evil wizard Faden's]], and he finds it is very evil.

* Creator/MichaelMoorcock's character {{Corum}} had the "Hand of Kwll," which originally belonged to an ancient god. It acted as a PoisonousFriend, killing several people who posed a threat to Corum, but who Corum himself had no intention of killing.

[[folder:Videogames]]

* ''Film/TheHand'' (1981), which is about comic book artist (MichaelCaine) who loses his hand in car accident and it starts to attack his objects of frustration.

* ''The Hand'' (1981), which is about comic book artist (MichaelCaine) who loses his hand in car accident and it starts to attack his objects of frustration.

* Inverted in the climax of the 1996 remake of ''TheNuttyProfessor'': When {{Jerkass}} Buddy Love [[spoiler: pulls back his arm to punch his colleague, Jason, his right abruptly becomes swollen and blubbery and refuses to budge, shortly after reaching over to strangle Buddy and distract him. This is an inversion because the arm's split personality is NiceGuy Sherman Klump, the original personality who is reasserting control of his body.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', whenever Razputin Aquato gets close enough to deep water, a supernatural hand called the Hand of Galochio will emerge and try to submerge him.
* The HauntedHouse level in ''VideoGame/{{CarnEvil}}'' has dangerous hands that pop out of holes in the walls to swipe at the players when they try to pass on through.

* GoldenAge ComicBook/CaptainAmerica for the Black Talon was an artist named Pascal Horta whose right hand was crushed in an automobile accident, leaving him unable to paint. His doctor arranged to have African-American killer "Strangler" Burns donate his hand for a transplant before being executed in the electric chair for his crimes. Desperate to once again be able to paint, Horta agreed to the operation and had the criminal's hand transplanted onto his arm. Soon, Horta began painting images of death and violence. Believing that the hand of "Strangler" Burns was effecting his mind, Horta snapped and began calling himself the Black Talon. He then began targeting local artists. After murdering his victims he left a painting of their moment of death as his calling card to the authorities.