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Fate Saves Workprint of Manos: The Hands of Fate

Posted by samzenpus on from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-torgo? dept.

SEWilco writes "One of the worst horror movies, Manos: The Hands of Fate, has come back from the grave. The work print was rediscovered during a move, and an attempt has begun to transfer it to digital HD medium." If you've never had the joy of watching MST3K's treatment of Manos: The Hands of Fate you're missing out on 90 mins of magic.

5 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. yay! by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This film is the only movie ever to make me physically ill (except maybe ones that cause motion sickness).

    It was literally made by a manure salesman.

    It was made with a wind-up camera that could only take a shot for about 60 sec. or so (which is why there is constant jump cuts).

    Several people involved with the shoot (including the guy who played Torgo) later committed suicide.

    You can go on and on. It's a bit of cinematic history.

    (I think Tarantino owns one of the prints of this, however...)

    1. Re:yay! by hag3r · · Score: 5, Informative

      Several people involved with the shoot (including the guy who played Torgo) later committed suicide.

      AFAIK, the only one from the cast who committed suicide was John Reynolds (Torgo). It is speculated that the things he wore on his legs permanently injured his knees during the shoot, and that the pain later on drove him to commit suicide.

      That anyone else involved in the shoot killed themselves afterwards is most likely just a myth.

  2. The original thread by ConaxConax · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Manos find was documented on the Something Awful forums, here is a link to the original thread if anyone is interested, it is an interested work. May be NSFW. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3450845

    1. Re:The original thread by ConaxConax · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I should probably note that the thread was made by the guy who is doing the restoration work, and he created the website in TFS and has a load of cool pictures and stuff.

  3. Re:Why buy it alone when you can watch the MST3K? by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you look at TFWebsite, you'll see that part of the reason for doing this transfer to HD is that the original theater print was made by taking the original 16mm print, making a 35mm negative from that, and then making positives from that for theatrical distribution. In essence, the footage seen in theaters and on MST3K was two copies away from the original, and they skimped on the transfers, resulting in horrible film quality.

    But the guy doing the restoration found an original 16mm work print, and he's doing the HD transfer from that.

    In terms of cinematic quality, this will be a huge improvement. On the other hand, in terms of entertainment quality, this movie was so god-awful that Joel and the Bots were only barely able to salvage it. What I'd love to see happen is for someone to transfer the silhouettes, audio, and sketches from the old MST3K version into the new HD release of this movie, so we could all enjoy (or run screaming from) both versions in HD glory.