Every movie that has been written and filmed does not always turn out to be a blockbuster box-office smash or even a decent movie for that matter but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them.
“An Ode to Bad Reels” is our homage to movies that are so bad that they become cult classics to enjoy and are worth watching at least once. We begin our series off with the legendary cult classic Manos: The Hands of Fate, a movie so bad it will bring tears to your eyes from either uncontrollable laughter or unimaginable frustration, either way, it is fantastically horrible.
Manos was the brainchild of Harold P. Warren who wrote, directed and starred in the picture because of a bet he made with a fellow screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. He had his crew film the movie in El Paso, Texas in 1966, all throughout several nights after everyone had gotten off their day jobs. He had a very limited budget. Tensions grew high on set with the crew working extremely late into the night due to ‘on the spot’ script rewrites, false financial promises and the “preparation time” Warren took to get into character before every scene. The crew quickly figured out the movie was not even coming close to the quality of other big screen films of that era but they stayed dedicated to the project until the end.
Manos premiered in El Paso later that year in a very anticipated screening where even the mayor came to check it out. The world was introduced for the first time to Manos: The Hands of Fate.
Once you press play on this movie you are instantly treated with extremely horrible elevator-like music and random landscape visuals that drag on entirely way too long. You then hear the first piece of dialogue in the film and can right away sense something is not right. That is because the movie was shot on a 16mm camera, which was only able to record 32 seconds at a time with no sound. The voices and sound effects for the film were dubbed in during post-production, which resulted in bad lip syncing and a lot of the same voices used for multiple characters in the movie. The movie is an audible mess and has some dialogue that can’t even be understood even after the many revisions the film has undergone in recent years.
The story follows Michael (Harold P. Warren), Margaret (Diane Adelson) and their daughter along with the family dog as they drive around, for a very long time, while on their vacation. Or at least I believe they were on vacation, not much is explained in the beginning of the film. They take an odd turn and end up in a strange barn in the middle of nowhere where they meet the crowd favorite character, Torgo (John Reynolds). After realizing they do not know where they are or how to get back to the main road, they beg Torgo to stay the night in the barn. Torgo warns them that his “Master” would not approve of this and thus begins one of the strangest film sequences in movie history. Michael, Margaret, and Torgo engage in the longest and most awkward staring scene that seemed to last an eternity before any of them utters a word. I do not know how this was left in the film at the length it is but this is the first of many strange and awkward scenes the actors exchange during the film.
After some strange and confusing events happen throughout the night in the barn we get to meet the “Master” (Tom Neyman) dressed in the most epic robe in film history. Not only is the movie titled Manos: The Hands of Fate, which yes, manos is Spanish for “hands” so the title is really “Hands: The Hands of Fate” but when the “Master” raises his arms under his black robe it reveals two giant bright red hands that go down the full length of the outfit. This is probably the most recognizable object from the movie and has fueled many fanboys Halloween costume ideas.
This movie is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. This movie is filled with choppy editing, horrible acting, weird musical choices, bad lighting, a terrible story and the longest make-out session and stare down scene. Even though it has all those negatives somehow it is still 100% worth at least seeing once in your life.
I would recommend, if you are going to watch this by yourself, to watch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version showcased below just to get some extra laughs out of your viewing. The MST3K version is also the reason this movie grew in popularity since it was relatively unknown until they featured it in an episode of theirs helping it gain a huge cult following.
The way I would prefer to watch it, however, is to grab a group of friends with some snacks and alcohol experiencing this horrible masterpiece together, cracking jokes throughout the one hour run time.
