production that the severed hands their characters  would discover inside the abandoned Royal Crescent Hotel would be  real cadaver hands. He made them follow strict protocol when  handling the "real" corpse hands on set, and even had the props  department take great pains to maintain the illusion. And they did  not in fact see the hands until they shot their first take. So the  reactions you see in the film are real, even if the hands arent.