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‘MANOS: The Hands of Fate’: The worst movie ever made is now the best coloring book ever made!


The cover of the ‘MANOS: The Hands of Fate’ coloring book.
 
I’m not going to waste my time schooling you low-budget-movie-loving Dangerous Minds readers on the 1966 cult film, MANOS: The Hands of Fate. Even if you weren’t around when the film made its debut in and around Texas (following which director Harold P. Warren proudly dubbed his movie as “the worst film ever made”) you were probably hipped to its existence by the popular television series, Mystery Science Theater 3000. MST3K hilariously dissected MANOS: The Hands of Fate during their fourth season in 1993 while simultaneously exposing another generation to the mythical theatrical flop that only came to be as the result of a bet between Warren and screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. The film has since been immortalized with a documentary in 2008, a video game in 2012, and a stellar Blu-ray restoration by Synapse Films from the original 16mm Ektachrome camera workprint in 2015. Then, in 2016, Horrid Coloring Books created a 200-page coloring book/tribute to the fucked-up flick that even The Master would approve of.

Since I’m guessing this unique coloring book was probably not under your Christmas tree this year (and if it was, marry the person who gave it to you immediately) I have good news for you. The book, which is currently in its third edition, can be had for $17.95 here. Now, enough talk! MANOS will be served!
 

 

The trailer for ‘MANOS: The Hands of Fate.’

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘MANOS: The Hands of Fate’—the video game!
Sleaze up your crib (almost free) with this treasure trove of worldwide classic B-movie poster art
‘Psychomania’: Black leather bikers in B-movie zombie occult insanity!
Peek inside Cecil B. DeMille’s bizarro 1930 master-flop, ‘Madam Satan’

Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.27.2017
09:21 am
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‘MANOS: The Hands of Fate’—the video game!
08.11.2015
01:53 pm
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Pop culture is so strange. Things catch on and end up in places that couldn’t have been foreseen at the time of creation or release. Think of Ed Wood’s career, gleefully cherished by film buffs, then turned into an object of derision in movies like It Came From Hollywood but THEN transformed into an occasion for authentic poignancy by Tim Burton.

Or consider MANOS: The Hands of Fate, a schlocky occult/horror movie from 1966 that hardly made any waves when it came out (it failed to recoup its $19,000 budget).
It was directed by Harold P. Warren, an insurance and fertilizer salesman from El Paso, Texas. He starred in it as well. It played only at the Capri Theater in El Paso and a few drive-ins in West Texas and New Mexico.
 

 
In the movie, a vacationing family loses their way on a road trip and ends up trapped at a lodge in which a polygamous pagan cult has taken up residence. It’s worth reading Wikipedia’s account of the movie’s demerits: “The film is infamous for its technical deficiencies, especially its significant editing and continuity flaws; its soundtrack and visuals not being synchronized; tedious pacing; abysmal acting; and several scenes that are seemingly inexplicable or disconnected from the overall plot, such as a couple making out in a car or The Master’s wives breaking out in catfights.”

In 1993 Mystery Science Theater 3000 ran an episode about MANOS, and it’s become one of their most popular episodes: On this vote taken on a MST3K message board, the episode in which the gang riffs on MANOS clocked in as the second-best MST3K episode of all time, behind only the deliriously funny Space Mutiny episode.

In 2012 FreakZone Games released a Nintendo-ish adaptation of the game—it’s in the familiar Mario Bros. style and uses set pieces from the movie. It’s not every schlocky horror movie that gets transformed into a video game FIFTY years later, but if you get lucky, even weird things like that can happen. This year saw the release of MANOS: The Hands of Fate—Director’s Cut, an improved version of the game with cut screens—you can buy it here.
 
Here’s some gameplay from the 2012 version:

 
The full movie of MANOS: The Hands of Fate:

 
And the MST3K treatment of MANOS:

 
via Kill Screen
 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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08.11.2015
01:53 pm
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