History Main / HandOfDeath

* ''WebVideo/UnwantedHouseguest'': the hand hasn't actually killed anyone, but instead has [[CutPhoneLine cut the phone lines]] and pulled a RoadSignReversal on the Houseguest.

* ''WebVideo/UnwantedHouseguest'': the hand hasn't actually killed anyone, but instead has [[CuttingThePhoneLine cut the phone lines]] and pulled a RoadSignReversal on the Houseguest.

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Used in ''Film/{{Psycho}}'''s infamous shower scene. Creator/AnthonyPerkins wasn't on the set while it was filmed; he had an engagement elsewhere.
* ''Film/AShotInTheDark'' does this with several botched attempts at killing Clouseau.
* ''Film/{{Clue}}'' is full of these. Everyone seems to wear black gloves at one point or another.
* ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' does a fair amount of this.

* Subverted masterfully in ''Film/TheSting''. The audience knows that an assassin named "Salino" has been assigned to kill Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford). From that point on, there are numerous shots of a pair of hands in purple gloves doing various things. In the final shot they are loading a revolver. It turns out that they ''aren't'' Salino's hands at all. [[spoiler:They are the hands of the bodyguard that Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) hired to keep an eye on Hooker. He shoots Salino.]]
* Gloved in proper classic black in ''Film/TheRadiolandMurders'' before some (but not all) of the titular hits. Appropriate since this was a homage to the radio era.
* Modernized in ''Film/RedDragon'' gloved in latex. Traces of talcum powder imply the murderer removed the gloves at the crime scene. Sure enough, a partial print is found.
* Used in ''Film/StrangeDays'', since we see the murders through a recording of the killer's perspective.
* Used for all the murders in the slasher parody ''Film/StudentBodies''.
* For most of ''Film/CircusOfFear'', the killer is only seen as a gloved hand.

* ''Film/PrivateDetective62'': Bandor is chortling about tricking Janet into thinking she shot him (her gun was loaded with blanks), when a hand extends out from the curtain with a gun, and shoots and kills him for real. It's revealed later that the hand belongs to Whitey, the cocaine addict who was acting on Hogan's orders.

* Until the closing scenes of ''Film/TheInitiation'', the killer only appears as a gloved hand holding a weapon.

* During Cropsy's murders in ''Film/TheBurning'', often the only part of him shown is his hands holding the [[ShearMenace gardening shears]].
* Combined with MurdererPOV to conceal the killer's identity in ''Film/KillerWorkout''.
* ''Film/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles1983'': When the killer sneaks into the Lyons' home, the camera focuses on the gloves being drawn on to his hands, and then on the gloved hands closing around Laura's throat and strangling her before planting evidence in her hand. His face is not shown.

* ''''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'': "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E04AManAlone A Man Alone]]", the victim is relaxing in the holosuite when a black-gauntleted hand plunges a knife into his back. The investigating officer Constable Odo becomes the prime suspect for the crime, as he had a grudge against the victim. [[spoiler:However, this trope is not to conceal the fact that Odo is the killer, but that the 'victim' had cloned himself and then killed his clone to fake his death and frame Odo for it.]]

Common in slasher films. Even more common in {{Giallo}}.

* Frequently used in the first season of ''Series/BronBroen'', with many shots of the killer's gloved hands driving a car or committing acts of violence. The later seasons used it much less.

* ''Series/DeepSpaceNine''. In "A Man Alone", the victim is relaxing in the holosuite when a black-gauntleted hand plunges a knife into his back. The investigating officer Constable Odo becomes the prime suspect for the crime, as he had a grudge against the victim. [[spoiler:However this trope is not to conceal the fact that Odo is the killer, but that the 'victim' had cloned himself and then killed his clone to fake his death and frame Odo for it.]]

Not to be confused with the TouchOfDeath or FingerPokeOfDoom.

** Heavily overused in "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" for the person responsible for bringing everyone to the Death Zone, until their identity is revealed.