The Crawling Hand story
The hand of an exploded astronaut takes on a life of its own. Near a spacecraft crash site, a naive young med student discovers a disembodied hand and takes it home as a grisly souvenir. He is not aware that the hand is possessed by a strange, murderous alien who gradually begins to take over the hapless med student. One by one, townsfolk are found mysteriously strangled to death. In the end, a heroic and hungry cat saves the rest of the town.
9 total · 5 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| extraterrestrial being | major | The astronaut's (Mel Lockhart) hand was possessed by a strange, murderous alien who gradually began to take over Paul Lawrence's body. |
| incorporeal being | major | An incorporeal alien first possessed the astronaut's hand and later Paul Lawrence's body. |
| romantic love | major | Paul Lawrence and Marta Farnstrom. |
| teen romance | major | Paul Lawrence and Marta Farnstrom. |
| what if a loved one became possessed by another being | major | Marta Farnstrom's boyfriend Paul Lawrence became possessed by a malevolent alien. |
| grandfather and granddaughter | minor | Prof. Farnstrom and Marta Farnstrom. |
| interplanetary space travel | minor | There was a manned mission to the Moon. |
| master and pet | minor | Mrs. Hotchkiss and Jackson the cat. |
| super accelerated Darwinian evolution | minor | It was speculated that the astronaut had underwent rapid evolution, owing to the natural conditions in outer space, before he exploded. |