| “ | They say The Muddy Hand is still out there... looking for more Wilderness Explorers... and... revenge! | ” |
| — Fregley telling the story of The Muddy Hand | ||
The Muddy Hand is a disembodied hand coated in mud that stemmed as the main antagonist from a fictional horror movie entitled Hello, You're Dead. In the movie, the Muddy Hand voyages the country looking for victims to strangle, and the last person who sees it is always the next victim. Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson uncover the movie in Rodrick's drawer and watch the movie late at night and become traumatized.
History[]
Dog Days[]
Greg and Rowley look through Rodrick's drawer, while he's off practicing with his band, to see if they could uncover something interesting; they end up unearthing a horror film featuring the Muddy Hand and get exhilarated as they've never observed a horror movie before. Greg and Rowley patiently waited for Susan and Frank to fall asleep and then they began to view the movie; Rowley instantly got frightened before it even began and sheltered his eyes and ears for the entire film. Greg perceives the special effects as cheesy, which prevents him from getting horrified, at least until the end of the movie where the twist arises. After the Muddy Hand throttles its last victim, it creeps to the front of the screen and blacks out indicating that the viewer will be the next fatality. Greg swiftly turns the TV off and chronicles the entire movie to Rowley from beginning to end. Rowley gets flared-up more than Greg and they both hide in the bathroom with the lights turned on. They end up drifting off and have to fess up to Frank about watching a horror movie. Greg realizes there's barely any ground that a hand can traverse in one day, so he still has some time to spare.[1]
Greg imagining the muddy hand appearing at his wedding
Greg's fear of the Muddy Hand seizing him continues when he tries to override his ban on watching TV; he is scared that the Muddy Handy might creep out from under the couch and snatch his leg while viewing TV by himself. To combat the issue, Greg set up a series of his clothes and clutter all the way down to the TV so he could parkour across it without prodding the ground. Greg also dreads that the Muddy Hand is going to ascend his bed and capture him in his sleep, so he shields his whole body with his blanket leaving an aperture for him to breathe. This ends up being backfiring when Rodrick shoves a dirty sock into his mouth.[2] Greg ends up having Fregley and the Muddy Hand to worry about all summer and he states that if he had to choose one to catch him first he'd tackle the latter in a heartbeat.[3] Greg visualizes the Muddy Hand finally gaining on to him and wrecking his future wedding with Heather Hills if his summer prevails as he devised.[4]
Later, Greg and Rowley camp out at Game Hut late at night so they obtain a good spot in the queue for the Twisted Wizard tournament; they end up being the earliest in line and Greg decides to surveil people to ensure that nobody cuts in line. Greg eventually starts getting drowsy so he eats two energy bars to persist without drifting off; Greg gets chocolate all over his hands from the bars and he spots that his hands bear a correspondence to the Muddy Hand. This inclines Greg to frighten Rowley with it and he starts slithering his hand through the tent flap; Rowley swiftly notices it and panics grabbing a mallet and shattering Greg's hand to smithereens. Greg gets vexed not because he smashed his hand with a mallet but more so because he envisioned it combating the Muddy hand.[5]
Dog Days (2012 film)[]
The Muddy Hand is a campfire story told by Fregley instead of a horror movie. It is about an old woodsman who chops off his own hand by mistake while chopping wood in rain and was abandoned by the Wilderness Explorers at the time; his hand is the muddy hand.
Trivia[]
- In the Rodrick Rules film, The Foot is used as a parody of the Muddy Hand, as the writers deemed it as playing a big role in Dog Days and wanted to reserve it for future use.[6]
- If the Muddy Hand wasn't featured in the Dog Days, the plot would have been vastly different as Greg and Rowley wouldn't be petrified and done plot-defining actions (For example: Rowley smashing Greg's hand with a hammer because he perceived it was the Muddy Hand).
- Greg is more fearful of Fregley than the Muddy Hand.
- The Muddy Hand could be inspired by Thing from The Addams Family.
Appearances[]
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (film)
- The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary
Gallery[]
