Manos: The Hands of Fate is a 1966 American independent folk horror film written, directed, and produced by Harold P. Warren. It stars Warren, Tom Neyman, John Reynolds, and Diane Mahree. It was released on November 15, 1966. The film follows a family getting lost during their vacation road trip through the Texas desert and becoming stranded at the lodge of a polygynous pagan cult led by the Master who decides their fate. Warren was an insurance and fertilizer salesman from El Paso, Texas, who made the film as a result of a bet with screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Most of the remaining cast and crew had little or no background in filmmaking. The theatrical debut was poorly received, playing only at the Capri Theater in El Paso and some drive-ins around West Texas and New Mexico.
Manos: The Hands of Fate remained in obscurity until 1993, when it was featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a television series based around mocking B movies, which became the show's most iconic episode. This developed its cult reputation as one of the worst films ever made. The film has been criticized for continuous deficiencies in editing, continuity, audiovisual synchronization, pacing, acting, and several inexplicable and disconnected scenes, such as a nameless couple repeatedly shown kissing in a distant car and the Master's wives breaking into catfights. Its MST3K appearance resulted in several home video releases of the original film and the MST3K episode.
The original 16 mm workprint was discovered in 2011, from which a new, remastered version of the film was released on Blu-ray by Synapse Films on October 13, 2015. Manos: The Hands of Fate has also been adapted into other media. Manos: The Search for Valley Lodge was a sequel that ended up getting canceled in 2014. It was followed by a prequel, Manos: The Rise of Torgo (2018), and a sequel, Manos Returns (2018). A video game based on the film for iOS was developed and published in 2012 by FreakZone Games. A TV series titled The Manos Chronicles was made in 2023.
Plot
While on vacation near El Paso, Texas, Michael, Margaret, their young daughter Debbie, and their dog, Peppy, drive through the desert in search of the Valley Lodge. Margaret insists they are lost, and Michael claims they are not. They are stopped by a local deputy for a broken taillight, and released because Michael asks him for mercy on their "first vacation". After driving through farmland and the desert, the family reaches a house. The satyr-like Torgo is caretaker "while the Master is away". Michael and Margaret ask Torgo for directions to the Valley Lodge, which Torgo denies knowing. Frustrated, Michael asks Torgo to let him and his family stay the night, despite objections from both Torgo and Margaret.
Inside the house, Michael and Margaret find a painting of the Master and a dog with glowing eyes. A howl frightens Margaret; Peppy breaks away from Debbie and runs outside. Michael investigates with a flashlight and revolver from his car and finds Peppy lying dead on the ground. Michael buries the dog in the desert and returns to the house. Meanwhile, Torgo reveals his attraction to Margaret and wants to keep her, defying the Master's desire to marry her. Margaret threatens to tell Michael of Torgo's advances. However, Torgo convinces Margaret not to say anything by promising to protect her. Michael cannot start the car. Torgo tells them there is no phone in the house, so the family decides to stay the night.
Torgo secretly watches Margaret changing her clothes. Michael and Margaret find Debbie is gone and start looking for her, going outside and shouting Debbie’s name. Debbie returns, holding the leash of the dog from the painting. Following Debbie, Michael and Margaret stumble upon the Master and his wives, sleeping around a blazing fire. The wives are dressed in nightgowns, the Master in a robe with two red hands on it. Margaret and Debbie run back to the house to get their things and escape. As Michael runs behind them, Torgo uses a stick to knock him out and then ties him to a pole. The Master awakens and summons his wives, announcing that Michael must be sacrificed to the deity Manos, and that Margaret and Debbie will become his new wives. He leaves.
The wives argue with each other about whether Debbie should become one of them or also be sacrificed. This turns into a catfight, where the wives tumble around in the dirt. The Master returns, breaks up the fight and decides to sacrifice Torgo and his first wife instead. Meanwhile, Michael wakes up, unties himself and returns to the house to collect Margaret and Debbie. The family runs off into the desert to escape. The Master summons Torgo and hypnotizes him, ordering the wives to kill him. Two of the wives attack Torgo with their hands, causing him to fall to the ground, seemingly dead. However, he later regains consciousness and stands up.
The Master severs and burns Torgo's left hand. Torgo runs off into the darkness with his stump of a wrist in flames, and the Master sacrifices his first wife. As Michael, Margaret and Debbie run through the desert, Margaret falls and says she cannot go any farther. A rattlesnake appears and Michael shoots it, the noise attracting the attention of the deputies, who assume the noises came from Mexico due to the large desert echoes and leave it at that. Margaret convinces Michael to return to the house, as the cult would never think to look for them there. They go back and find the Master and his dog waiting for them. The Master steps towards them, and Michael fires his gun in shock, to no effect.
Some time later, two women starting their vacation drive through a rainstorm, searching for shelter. When they find the Master's house, the entranced Michael greets them, saying "I am Michael, I take care of the place while The Master is away." Margaret and Debbie have become wives of the Master, and all are asleep.
Cast
Harold P. Warren as Michael John Reynolds as Torgo Diane "Mahree" Adelson as Margaret Jackey Neyman as Debbie Tom Neyman as The Master Stephanie Nielson, Sherry Proctor, Robin Redd, Pat Coburn, Bettye Birns, and Pat Sullivan as the Master's wives Bernie Rosenblum as teenage boy Joyce Molleur as teenage girl William Bryan Jennings and George Cavender as police officers Jay Hall as girl in convertible Lelaine Hansard as girl in convertible Credits adapted from TV Guide.
Production
Manos: The Hands of Fate was written, directed, and produced by Harold P. Warren. He was very active in the theater scene in El Paso, Texas, and he once appeared as a walk-on for the television series Route 66, where he met screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. While chatting with Silliphant in a local coffee shop, Warren claimed that it was not difficult to make a horror film, and he bet Silliphant that he could make an entire film on his own. After placing the bet, Warren began the first outline of his script on a napkin, right inside the coffee shop.
Warren financed it with a substantial but insufficient amount of cash, . He hired a group of actors from a local theater, many of whom he had worked with before, and a modeling agency. Instead of any wages, Warren promised the cast and crew a share of profit.
In mid-1966, it was filmed with the working titles The Lodge of Sins and Fingers of Fate. It was shot mainly on the ranch of Colbert Coldwell, a lawyer who shared an office floor with Warren and who later became a judge in El Paso County. Most equipment was rented, so Warren hurriedly maximized the number of shots before the rental deadline. The 16 mm Bell & Howell camera is wound by hand with up to 32 seconds of footage, creating many unresolved editing problems. Rather than using location sync sound recording, all sound effects and dialogue were overdubbed in post-production by few people, including Warren, Tom Neyman, Reynolds, Jennings, and Warren's wife, Norma. Later during production, Warren renamed the film Manos: The Hands of Fate. Warren's small crew became so bemused by his amateurishness and irascibility that they derisively called the film Mangos: The Cans of Fruit behind his back.During filming, Warren said that presenting Diane Mahree as the Texas Beauty Queen would generate good publicity for his movie. He signed her to a regional West Texas beauty pageant that would lead to Miss Texas and then to the Miss America pageant, but he neglected to tell her about it until she was accepted as an entrant. She complied and appeared onstage as a finalist. Warren contracted with a modeling agency to provide the actresses who would play the Master's wives, including Joyce Molleur. She broke her foot early in production, so Warren retained her by rewriting the script to include a young couple kissing in a car on the side of the road, who are otherwise unconnected to the plot. To portray Torgo's satyr-like character, actor John Reynolds constructed a metallic rigging worn under his trousers. The effect conveyed by his work was to leave his character with oversized knees and difficulty walking. Fake cloven hooves were also made by Reynolds for his costume, but they are difficult to see on screen.
Warren shot night-for-night scenes, because many of the cast and crew also held day jobs. In many of the night scenes, the lights attracted swarms of moths in view of the camera. In the scene in which the police investigate Mike's gunfire, the lights could cover only a few feet forward, so the police stood there to feign a search and leave without any scenery or a panning shot.
Post-production efforts were minimal, though Warren promised crew members that any problems in filming would be fixed in later editing. For example, the clapperboard is momentarily visible. The entire nine-minute opening sequence, which consists of the main characters driving around looking for their hotel with minimal dialogue or plot, was the result of such neglect. Warren had likely intended to include opening credits over these shots, but either forgot or lacked the post-production budget. The soundtrack was composted by Russ Huddleston and Robert Smith Jr.
John Reynolds committed suicide with a shotgun on October 16, 1966, one month before the premiere. He was 25 years old and this was his only film appearance.John M. Reynolds, Jr. certificate of death, Texas state file #72646
Release The film premiered at the Capri Theater in Warren's hometown of El Paso, Texas on November 15, 1966, as a benefit for the local cerebral palsy fund. Warren rented a searchlight, and paid for the cast to be delivered by limousine to enhance the Hollywood feel. The single limousine delivered one group, then drove around the block for another. Jackey Neyman-Jones, the seven-year-old who played Debbie, wept in disappointment at the premiere, particularly when hearing a woman's dubbed voice instead of her own. Mahree laughed throughout the screening at the film's ridiculousness.
Following the premiere, Warren thought Manos was the worst film ever made, but was proud of it, and he suggested that its audio might be re-dubbed into a passable comedy. The film was briefly distributed by Emerson Film Enterprises, with a brief theatrical run at the Capri Theater, and at various drive-in theaters in West Texas and New Mexico, including Las Cruces. The only compensation was Jackey Neyman's bicycle and her family dog's 50 pounds of dog food. Official box office figures are unknown, if they ever existed. Warren won his bet against Stirling Silliphant, proving that he was capable of creating an entire film. Warren died on December 26, 1985, from lung cancer and heart problems.
The majority of the cast and crew never appeared in another film, though Mahree had a successful modeling career as Diane Adelson. Warren pitched another script he had written called Wild Desert Bikers, and then pitched its novelization, but with the failure of Manos, there was no interest.
Obscurity