Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

A family gets lost on the road and stumbles upon a hidden, underground, devil-worshiping cult led by the fearsome Master and his servant Torgo.

Director:

Harold P. Warren

Writer:

Harold P. Warren (screenplay)

Stars:

Tom Neyman, John Reynolds, Diane Adelson

Bottom Rated Movies #3 | See the Bottom Rated Movies as rated by our users.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Neyman	...	The Master
John Reynolds	...	Torgo
Diane Adelson	...	Margaret (as Diane Mahree)
Harold P. Warren	...	Michael (as Hal Warren)
Stephanie Nielson	...	Master's Wife
Sherry Proctor	...	Master's Wife
Robin Redd	...	Master's Wife
Jackey Neyman Jones	...	Debbie (as Jackey Neyman)
Bernie Rosenblum	...	Teenager in Car
Joyce Molleur	...	Teenager in Car
William Bryan Jennings	...	Cop
Jay Hall	...	Girl in Convertible
Bettye Birns	...	Master's Wife
Lelanie Hansard	...	Girl in Convertible
Pat Coburn	...	Master's Wife

Storyline

A family's driving across the country where they stumble across a mysterious house, inhabited by the satyr-man Torgo. When the family decide to stay over at the house, the family's mother is now the object of desire for Torgo and the owner of the house, The Master: a mysterious figure whom dresses in a black robe, decorated with red hands.

---

Plot Keywords:

catfight | peeping tom | luggage | unintentional humor | driving | 

---

Taglines:

No one seated the last 10 minutes! We defy you to guess the ending... and ask you not to divulge it!

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Working titles for the film were "The Lodge", and "Sins or Fingers of Fate".

---

Goofs

When the Master confronts Torgo inside the house, the dog is positioned opposite the Master, with a very visible leash apparently being held by someone outside the shot.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Margaret: We're almost there, honey. Just a little while longer and your vacation starts.
Debbie: I'm getting cold, Mother, and hungry!

---

Crazy Credits

The End?

---

Alternate Versions

Among the scenes edited from the film for its appearance on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993 were a short scene of the family taking a wrong turn en route to valley lodge, more scenes of the family fleeing the cult, and a scene of the Master repeatedly smacking his defiant wife.

---

Connections

Featured in After Tones: Through the Blue Door (2016)

---

Soundtracks

Love Inside the Magic Circle
(uncredited)

User Reviews

Keep Manos at #1 (of the bottom heap, of course)!!!

Frankly, I am outraged to see so many 10s for this movie, being that no sane person would ever give such a grade to this unrelentinly boring piece of ... (man, it's quite hard not to use profanity with a movie like this). If people were giving Manos 10s just so that some rival could snatch the #1 worst movie title then that is truly sad. Manos is morally the true winner here in that respect.

Not much can be said that has not been said already about this movie. I would know, since reading the IMDb comments, getting a load of laughs from them and feeling a complete sense of empathy with other poor souls who dared to watch this movie, knowing exactly where they are coming from, is just about the only good thing I have gotten out of MTHOF.

Yes, the movie was an eyeopener. I had no idea how bad movies could be before Manos. Ed Wood movies at least provide laughs and something coherent to look at, even though the realization is shoddy to a humorous magnitude. A so-bad-it's-traumatizing movie is an entirely different league from a so-bad-it's-good movie.

In Manos we basically have: driving; boredom; more driving; more boredom; a feeling of being mentally raped within the first 15 minutes (not many movies can do that, you know!); more driving; some rather purposeless necking; (did I mention the driving?); Torgo, our favorite strange person with deformed knees; a family, in whose creation Darwin's laws of natural selection seem to have been completely ignored, gladly deciding to spend the night in "the master's" house; a touching display of affection through holding hands (or is it?); a bored kid; a dead dog, i think; some melodramatic "hand-waving"; a puzzlingly out-of-the-blue all-out wrestling match amongst the ladies, thoroughly making me question my previous enjoyment in watching such activities; how massaging someone to death would look like and last, but quite least, the absolutely tasteless ending, complete with a subsequent cast introduction to give it a "campy" feel. Oh, humanity.

It is a sheer hilarity people bought into the hype and actually came in doves to see the premiere. The movie poster that advertized MTHOF is just precious.

This stinker is the kind of movie you just can't help but love to hate.

Rating 1/10 (so far only 5 movies have ever received this dubious grade in my book)

Scale:

Positive opinion of a movie: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK

Neutral opinion of a movie: 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre

Negative opinion of a movie: 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 November 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Lodge of Sins

Filming Locations:

Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Norm-Iris, Sun City Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1