Y’all, if you can afford YouTube Premium with no ads, it is truly a life changer. Unfortunately, not everyone has it, and that can still change your life — in a bad way. My Severed Arm is a 10-minute example of my reasoning, done in Slasher style!
After a brutal encounter with a masked killer leaves her trapped and alone, a woman turns to unconventional methods to survive the night. As she fights back, she begins to realize something far more disturbing may be guiding her fate.
My Severed Arm, IMDB
Straight into the action, My Severed Arm follows a woman running for her life from a massive, scary-looking assailant (weapons, blood, and mask included). As she hides in an abandoned building, her attempts at fixing and using various tools around the room — via a video streaming service — turn awry when she is inundated with ads instead of the vital information she needs. Will she survive, or will the long sponsorships spots and unnecessary intros be her downfall?
My Severed Arm is a horror comedy that gives us all the things us horror fans crave: some cool special effects, an easy-to-follow storyline, and some laughs along the way. Along with the traditional Slasher tropes (woman being chased by a masked killer, featuring weapons like machetes and chainsaws), we get a very modern addition of video streaming being used to help her situation. And because she uses her brain with a tool she knows well — her phone — she is almost punished for it, furthering the Slasher trope along the lines of “car breaks down” or “person trips while running.” Even though it’s a new concept in the world of horror movies, it still fits right into the subgenre.
But even though we include some new takes on old tropes, My Severed Arm also keeps it genuine with lots of blood and gore. Arms get chopped off (obviously), people get stabbed — we still retain the beats we have come to know and love. A woman being chased may be a tired storyline, but what does it matter when the outcome offers so much more? Those ads were hilarious, as was the woman’s (Olivia Rose Prince) reaction to each and every one. It felt very on point and added an instant bout of empathy because, let’s face it, no one likes those ads or the state of instructional videos like these.
I’d also like to point out how cool the video effects were, the videos showing up as a form of hologram instead of just being played on the phone screen. It made the videos so much more part of the main story, and gave the short a ton more dimension. It pays off to bring something from a small screen to our 3-D space. On that same note, My Severed Arm broke the fourth wall and gave us a fake ad as the climax was about to happen — both extremely funny and yet another well-timed piece.
My Severed Arm was so fun to watch. Ten minutes was enough to a big boost of afternoon energy right after lunch. It fed my horror-hungry heart while also bringing pieces of our own lives to the screen, answering the question of what we would actually try to do if we were ever chased by a crazed maniac. 10/10 would watch again!
For more about My Severed Arm, visit writer/director Casey De Fremery on Instagram. For more on Panic Fest, read my Panic Fest 2026: Festival Overview.
