This film is the bottom of cinematography. And the director was proud of him anyway [RECENZJA]

There are quite a lot of fans of bizarre cinema. . Monika Stolat, director of Splat!FilmFest and organizer of the nationwide “Best of the Worst” series, is behind the new initiative. Last year, the latter event celebrated the 20th anniversary of the film “The Room” directed by Tommy Wiseau, which is considered by many to be the worst film in the world.

On the other hand, those who appreciate old cinema more will say that the weakest film production is “Plan 9 from Outer Space” by Ed Wood from the late 1950s. I thought so too for some time. After all, the director of a film about extraterrestrial beings is a cult figure, and thirty years ago a production about him was made by Tim Burton himself. However, I changed my mind when I saw “Manos – The Hands of Destiny”, which was only 70 minutes long and lasted forever.

Worst director in the world? Ed Wood made films out of passion. Harold P. Warren wanted to win a bet with a famous screenwriter

This American film is known among fans of poor cinema around the world, who often point out that it deserves to be called the worst production of all time. The film’s average on IMDb is only 1.6/10 stars with 38,000 ratings. ratings. That’s quite a lot of votes for a 1966 production. However, few people in Poland have heard about this film. Maybe that’s because its official premiere in Poland took place only in November 2022, when the production began to be shown by the niche TV station Filmbox Arthouse.

Anyway, after the screening, I also joined the group of people who point out “Manos” as the worst of the worst films. Why? Let’s start with the fact that the film was made for the plant. The Texas director, Harold P. Warren, was a fertilizer salesman who also performed in local theater. This led to a small role in a television series, where he met screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, who in 1967 received an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for the film “In the Heat of the Night” directed by Norman Jewison. Warren bet him that he could create a feature-length horror film with no experience and a limited budget.

Summa summarum, the director of “Manos” won the bet, but his story about a stray family that falls into the trap of cultists is rubbish in every respect. Even down to the title! Well, “manos” in Spanish means “hands”, so if we also translated the first part of the title, we would get “Hands – hands of fate”. In addition, the production was recorded with a 16-mm camera that did not record sound and allowed to shoot a maximum of 32-second sequences. Therefore, in the first ten minutes of the film, we watch various shots in which the family is driving a car through the Texas wilderness. To make matters worse, there is a loop of cheesy – even for those times – music in the background, and the characters practically do not talk.

The director plays one of the main characters and dubs at least several of them. But the star of the movie is someone else

The director himself played the nervous head of the family. However, the silly mother was played by a hired model, and the role of the daughter went to a girl whose father plays the production’s antagonist, who will appear approximately halfway through the film. All characters are wooden and their voices were added in post-production. The end result is disastrous, because around the third minute of the film the family is stopped by the police. Then one of them is voiced by Warren, who also dubs the character played by himself, so when both characters talk, we hear as if one person was talking to himself. The voices of other characters also leave much to be desired. The several-year-old girl playing Debbie reportedly burst into tears during the film’s premiere when she heard the mutter coming out of her mouth on the screen.

Anyway, from the conversation we learn that it is approaching dusk and the family is going on vacation. The cop turns a blind eye to the lack of a rear light, and we can continue to admire the Texas wilderness. Neither Michael nor Margaret – that is the name of the main characters – came up with the idea to ask the policeman for directions, so they finally end up in a dilapidated cottage in the middle of nowhere, where the undoubted star of this film, Torgo, lives. He is the physically disfigured and drugged host of this “residence”. In the interesting facts about the film, we read that the actor, 25-year-old John Reynolds, was said to have been under the influence of LSD during filming, according to the cast and crew. “This explains his disoriented behavior and constant shaking in virtually all scenes,” we read. The tragic news is that the actor shot himself a month before the film’s premiere.

It is Torgo who warns the entire family that there is no return from this place, but after a while, to everyone’s delight, he agrees to host the stray family for the night. Inside, the most eye-catching item is a portrait of an elderly man dressed in red robes with dark hair and a mustache, accompanied by a Doberman with glowing eyes. There are several hand figures placed under it. However, the whole situation does not initially cause any concern for the characters. And later, when they discover that behind the cottage there is a mausoleum of cultists who use human hands as offerings to their god, it is too late to save them. Soon, the figure in the painting called the Master wakes up from his sleep. It turns out that Torgo is his servant, and the women in unfinished makeup standing like pillars of salt around him are his wives. Throughout the rest of the film, we watch the family unsuccessfully try to save themselves, and Torgo’s rebellion against the Master turns out to be disastrous for him.

Apart from the story in the middle of nowhere, we also have a pointless and unnecessary plot of policemen who keep reprimanding the same couple who stopped their car on the side of the road to kiss. The actress playing this character was initially supposed to play one of the Master’s wives, but she broke her leg during filming and Warren created these scenes especially for her. Interestingly, none of the actors apart from the daughter who played the role received any remuneration, so it is quite possible that the cast counted on the film to simply promote them. However, this did not happen, and the film remained forgotten for over two decades. It was only in the 1980s that it was noticed on local American television and made available in cassette rental stores.

The film’s budget was PLN 19,000. dollars. Warren won the bet, but he became famous only posthumously

A screening of “Manos” is an almost transcendental experience. I’ve never seen such a bad movie before. It lasts just over an hour, goes on forever and everything is done wrong. Apparently, when restoring the film, many of the director’s mistakes were corrected anyway. Before the film’s premiere, he told the actors that all the mistakes would be corrected in post-production, but in fact he even forgot to cut out the director’s stunt that viewers had been able to see in the film for years. However, the restored version does not change the fact that this is one of the most poorly made films I have ever seen and I would recommend it to anyone to watch to see what the bottom of cinematography looks like.

From today’s point of view, the film also has a controversial ending. Torgo disappears, and the enslaved Michael takes over as the host of the tabernacle. The Master’s wife is Margaret, but also the young Debbie. On the Internet, you can find many opinions from viewers that the idea of ​​making a little girl the wife of an adult man is inappropriate, scandalous and disgusting. The production ends with a question mark, which left the creator open to creating a sequel that was never made. After the film’s release, Warren reportedly said it was the worst film ever made, but he was proud of it and suggested it could be re-dubbed into a passable comedy. Apparently he was so full of himself that he put on the Master’s robe every Halloween. This was all he had left, because despite his attempts, he never made another film. He died in 1985, nineteen years later after the film’s premiere.