Movie From the Past - Manos: The Hands of Fate - 1966

Manos: The Hands of Fate is a 1966 American independent no-budget supernatural folk horror film written, directed, and produced by Harold P. Warren. It stars Tom Neyman, John Reynolds, Diane Mahree, and Warren. The film follows a family getting lost during their vacation road trip through the Texas desert and becoming stranded at the lodge of a polygynous pagan cult led by the Master who decides their fate.

Warren was an insurance and fertilizer salesman from El Paso, Texas, who made the film as a result of a bet with screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Most of the remaining cast and crew had little or no background in filmmaking. The theatrical debut was poorly received, playing only at the Capri Theater in El Paso and some drive-ins around West Texas and New Mexico.