Fingers of Fate

There are many, many awful horror movies out there these days, especially with the dominance of DVD technology, 'direct-to-video' releases and the new Renaissance of 'microbudget' horror movies. Not since the days of the triple bill dusk-to-dawn drive in have there been so many craptastic movies clamoring for the viewer's attention. Still, even in this new era of "Troma" productions and legions of "Z" level horror movies, "Manos" is the champ. Sure there are worse written and directed and performed horror movies available ("Rock And Roll Nightmare II: The Intercessor" and "Existo" come to mind immediately), but "Manos" is special. "Manos" is different. "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" isn't so much a "bad" movie as it is an "anti-movie". Not one scene, not one shot, not one line of spoken dialog, works as cinematic entertainment. To put the metaphor another way, it isn't even that the photography, writing, costumes, etc are "incompetent"...it's more like the whole film was done by people who didn't seem to realize they were supposed to be making a *film* instead of an 8th grade dramatic production of "Helter Skelter". Again, there have been flatter performances and worse actors captured on film; Roger Corman alone is responsible for 30,000 lines of dialog that ring more false than what we hear in "Manos". But there is a decent, spooky film trying to get out from under the ruins of the screenplay here, and that dissonance makes the experience even worse for the viewer. For instance: the actor playing Torgo truly looks emotionally damaged, like someone you'd find on the floor of a bus station rest room, but his speeches are circular, exasperating and delivered in a shaky, badly mixed alto that makes me wish he'd just SHUT UP. There's a nasty little moment where Torgo is sacrificed so his master can create a totem device called the "Hand Of Glory"...but it's staged with all the panache of a salon wash-and-set. The whole movie is like that. I feel badly for the director - he obviously had a nice little Lovecraft/Derleth style horror story he wanted to tell, and some evocative Satanic ritualistic vibes he wanted to convey. But every single artistic judgment he made here - how long to hold the shots, how to pace the speech rhythms of the actors, how to stage the lingerie wrestling scene with the wives, how to mix the dubbed vocals, how to end the film...every single aspect of the film was wrong-headed and bad and irritating. Every student and connoisseur of bad horror films should see "Manos" and get their horizons broadened about how wrong-headed and ill-advised it is possible to be when it comes to making a film. You may see films that are technically worse, but I can guarantee than it is "Manos" that sticks in your memory long after you've forgotten the others.

This film might very well be the worst film ever made, and is one of the all-time great entertainments. Not to be missed by any true film buff.

Often called "the worst movie ever made", Manos: the Hands of Fate is a surreal excursion through the depths of underground cult cinema. Filmed on a less-than-shoestring budget in my hometown of El Paso, Texas, I've had more than one run-in with this picture and I even finally acquired it on DVD. Over the years, this has been a piece that I go back to as a foundation for low-budget film anomalies. Shot in what looks like my grandfather's super 8 camera, Manos is the story of a family of three lost in a desert maze in search of a vacationing area. They end up shacking down for the night with a strange cult that worships hands or "manos". Memorable characters include Torgo, a spastic underling of "the Master"(the ashen, mustached leader of the cult), Michael,the father/husband of the family who may well be the worst actor in history aside from being the director of the film. Some highlights include a dead dog, a fight amongst chicks in togas, a crazy 1960's bebop jazz soundtrack, and a strange but smart ending. Most people who regard this movie at all have only experienced it on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. However, I find that it is also very fun to watch on it's own. Fans of extremely cheesy cinema (ala' Ed Wood) should not miss out on this cult curiosity.

Equaled in clarity of vision and flawless execution only by the greater works of Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, brilliant independent film auteur Hal Warren's ‘Manos: The Hands of Fate' transcends its genre to do everything that it should and even more. Not only is it riveting edge of your seat entertainment, it also boasts a psychological depth unequaled by any other horror movie, achieved mostly through John Reynold's Oscar-worthy, divinely subtle performance as the tormented, tragically misshapen caretaker Torgo. Part Quasimodo, part Hamlet, this gentle soul's noble end, in which he is massaged to death by a group of terrifying succubae in luscious robes, is unarguable one of the most poignant in motion picture history – it is both a tragedy and a triumph of the human spirit. Oh, was I alone with a tear in the eye at the end! Indeed, Hal Warren's masterpiece achieves the perfect balance between the heartrendingly sad, the refreshingly sardonic, and the chillingly satanic. The Master and his hellbeast are as much evil personified as Margaret is the embodiment of goodness and chastity. In a way, this is the definitive modern-day equivalent of Goethe's Faust, though even more sublime in the simple poetry of its dialogue. When Torgo describes his master as being `not dead the way you know it' and `with us always' he is speaking for all of us, how we truly live on through the memory of our words and deeds in the minds of those who follow us, be they righteous or malevolent. Hal Warran not only changed the face of the Texan film industry by encapsulating such a grand story in less than 75 minutes, it also helped usher in a whole new perspective of looking at film, discovering different forms which never would have been conceived. Also, it's obviously a very personal film for Warren, who allows us to share his love and devotion to the project, and it is a truly moving, cathartic experience. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and maybe – just maybe – you'll learn a little bit about yourself.

Well, I can actually understand why some would actually think of this as the worst movie ever. But you know, in a mad world.. this is a wacko masterpiece. I happened to love it. The amount of errors in this movie was actually enjoyable. The bad editing, the frequently inaccurate dubbing, the lazy underacting and the stereotyped acting... it actually sets a mood that is fascinating .. It was so weird in many ways, but you can't grasp if its supposed to be like that or not. I just fell in love with this movie... The ending I'm not sure about though. It kind of has this twist, that is OK in a way, but it is not as unique as the rest of the movie. I especially love it when the husband tells his wife to go into the house THREE times after another because of bad cutting(and she's about to enter the house in all of them). And Torque.. what a guy. He makes love to women by stroking their shoulder.... You have to watch it yourself to believe it.

I should note here that I sort of like bad movies. If it's amusing and campy, I'll cut it a break. But Manos is different. My god. What can I say about a movie so bad that it makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Casablanca? What can I say about a movie that has endless looped scenes of driving, the worst evil henchman in movie history, the lamest dialouge this side of my first grade hebrew school play, a movie that seems to have put together by people with utter contempt for the audience's intelligence? All I can say is this: it seems The Master's prayers to Satan have been answered. This movie is pure hell.

I watched Manos last night. Oh, I was the cocky one, intrigued by all the attention Manos receives, even though it is, after all, 40 years old. Sure, I thought, it'll be a laugh to investigate the claim that this might be the worst film ever made. Why, if its that bad, there must at least be comedy value in its awfulness? And in consolation, it is only an hour long. No, the warnings are true and serious, this is bloody terrible. After twenty minutes, I had stopped sniggering at the unimaginable ineptitude. I only realised that twenty minutes had passed when i flicked on the timer on the DVD; I honestly thought it was closer to forty-five. After forty minutes I was shifting uncomfortably in my chair and I wanted to cry. After an hour, I was submerged in despairing, pointless anger. I was angry with everyone involved in the film, angry with my cup of tea, my flat, the world, even God Himself (or Herself). You will lose faith in humanity watching this film. Imagine any conceivable measure for any possible aspect of film-making, and Manos still gets zero out of whatever. This "film" fails so utterly in every way, you'll wonder if anyone involved in its creation had ever seen or even heard of films or television. No, more than that, you'll wonder if they'd ever even spent a day on this planet. There isn't one single moment that you forget that these people are standing in front of a camera, ineptly executing one of the most awful scripts ever imagined. I've never been so insulted by any form of "entertainment". I lost count of the number of times I was beaten over the head with a totally obvious point. I lost count of the number of times completely random stuff just *happened* with no genesis or consequence. I certainly didn't lose count of the number of locations used, or the number of musical cues, you could count those on one hand, after a circular saw accident. It baffled me that they never realised that you can't shoot film at night without some form of lighting. And the music itself... oh God. I don't need to warn you about spoilers, there's plenty to complain about without resorting to inconsequential detail. Like the way that every time it cuts to the family, they're just standing, for no reason, in the same spot, waiting to talk to the camera. Like the absolutely shocking and disgraceful editing. People jump from awake to asleep and back, from one spot to another, from happy to sad, instantaneously. The awful acting... I don't know, its like everyone was given a piece of paper with some emoticons for happy, sad, scared and angry, and told to learn them off. The dialogue... well, technically it *is* dialogue, in the same way that McDonalds is food. Well, some people might enjoy McDonalds. See, I can't think of a parallel awfulness; "Manos" is to "bad" as... you can't finish that sentence. Good Lord, I could go on, and on, and on, but I won't. This film cannot warrant anything but a 1/10 on IMDb. I haven't seen any of the other bottom 100 as of today, but i'm willing to bet that they are at least a rough approximation to what we call a "film". This is not. Seriously, you really, really need to be in a masochistic kinda mood to see this out. I had to leave the screen timer on after 45 minutes just so I could keep reminding myself that, second by second, it *would* end. Because Hell itself might just be never-ending Manos.

...... I was age 16 back in 1966 attending Andress High School in El Paso, Texas and heard about the WORLD PREMIERE of the movie "Manos: The Hands of Fate" .... there were write-ups about it in the two major papers and coverage on the local TV stations. I did not attend the WORLD PREMIERE, but I checked the newspaper listings and went on a Saturday afternoon.... I thought it was going to be a scary movie, and after about ten minutes or so I started to giggle a little. I noticed others at the downtown El Paso theater were laughing a little too. Well, I can't recall what the exact scene was, but suddenly it was so funny I had tears rolling down my face! The movie was worth the ticket price (probably a Dollar) but I thought I was going to see a scary movie and it turned out to be a comedy. Long before the media called it the worst movie, I knew it was the worst for me even before the movie was over! People were laughing and smiling as they left the movie; and, I and they did not know that years later it would be famous -- but not in a way the cast and crew would have ever envisioned. Perhaps the movie was too misunderstood my many. God Bless all of those -- living and dead -- who were involved with the movie "Manos: The Hands of Fate" back in 1966.....

From reading the reviews for this movie (which is right now #12 on the bottom 150 films), I can tell that less than 1% of the people who reviewed this have even seen the complete un-MST'd "Manos the Hands of Fate". Well, I may stick out like a sore thumb, but I liked this movie. Not enough to watch it over and over and over again, but I think that the fact that its low budget helped it be a little creepy. It has a documentary-like quality that makes it look eerily like a snuff film. The bizarre music, the bad lighting, the average acting, Torgo's sickening costume, and the strange dubbing help make it one of the more intriguing low-budget films of the 60s. That's right, I liked this movie, it didn't bore me very much, and I would watch it again. You can watch the MST3K version of "Manos", but you'll lose a great deal of the movie and its atmosphere. Give it a try without MST3K (who also ruined "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", "Revenge of the Creature", "Squirm", and several other underrated classics), you just might be surprised. Given that I have actually SEEN the original "Manos", I think I deserve a bit more credibility than those who have relied on MST3K's judgment, not their own.

There are not words that can describe how bad that movie was. Luckily we watched the MST 3000 version. I honestly do not know if I could survived it otherwise. That was without question the movie I have ever seen. The plot was horrendously constructed. Without the possible exception of the family, the writer poorly conceived his characters. I think many people gave it a 10 for its vintage quality. For some including myself, bad movies (particularly during the sixties and seventies)have more aesthetic quality than many good movies. Make no bones about it, however, anything more than a 1 is too much and is quite deceiving. Having said that, Please watch it.