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July 17, 2006

'Manos': The Hands of Fate - 1 and 7

The reason behind the odd rating is that this film is in almost every respect, the worst film ever made. The acting, direction, dialogue, cinematography, and art direction are just awful. The general plot is that a family gets lost in the desert and stays at a house that is really a cult. There are also some random scenes of a couple making out and being harassed by the police (I consider this the key to the plot:-). If nothing else viewers of this film are encouraged to make a film, for no other reason than to try to do worse than this. Which would be hard to do, once you intentionally try. You would have already failed by thinking about it. On the other hand, the version I watched with friends, by Mystery Science Theater 3000, which has commentary by some characters in front of the screen, and the fact that the people I was watching it with made jokes as well, made this film fun to watch. As entertainment and a fun activity this film succeeds immensely. So as a film I agree it is really bad, thus the 1 ranking (which is a first), but as something to watch with a group of others, this film is right up there with the other films that I have ranked 7.

4 comments:

Jason said...

MANOS.

~greg said...

I loved it when the mother makes a thorough search for the missing daughter. She barely cracks the door:-). And apparently Tourgo is suppose to be half-goat/half-man. That explains the funky looking legs, but not really the pants.

jaschooley said...

Is this the first 1 you've given? I thought "Monster" got a 1 for its purely nihilistic message.

~greg said...

Yes. I had forgotten about that.
That was more for the story, this is the first that involves all aspects, mostly the technical failure.