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.
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.