Manos: The Hands of Fate is a 1966 American independent horror film written, directed, and produced by Harold P. 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.

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.

Manos remained obscure until featured in a 1993 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a television series based around mocking B movies.

While on vacation near El Paso, Texas, Michael, Margaret, their young daughter Debbie, and their dog, Peppy, drive through the desert in search of the Valley Lodge.

Warren was very active in the theater scene in El Paso, Texas, and he once appeared as a walk-on for the television series Route 66, where he met screenwriter Stirling Silliphant.

It was shot mainly on the ranch of Colbert Coldwell, a lawyer who shared an office floor with Warren and who later became a judge in El Paso County.

The 16 mm Bell & Howell camera is wound by hand with up to 32 seconds of footage,[9] creating many unresolved editing problems.

[9] Warren's small crew became so bemused by his amateurishness and irascibility that they derisively called the film Mangos: The Cans of Fruit behind his back.

[9][13] During filming, Warren said that presenting Diane Mahree as the Texas Beauty Queen would generate good publicity for his movie.

She later asserted that Warren urged her to remove her top for filming the window-peeping scene where Torgo observes her before declaring his love but, when she refused, he quickly backpedaled by claiming the suggestion was a test.

[14] Warren contracted with a modeling agency to provide the actresses who would play the Master's wives, including Joyce Molleur.

She broke her foot early in production, so Warren retained her by rewriting the script to include a young couple kissing in a car on the side of the road, who are otherwise unconnected to the plot.

[16] The entire nine-minute opening sequence, which consists of the main characters driving around looking for their hotel with minimal dialogue or plot, was the result of such neglect.

[18] The film premiered at the Capri Theater in Warren's hometown of El Paso, Texas on November 15, 1966, as a benefit for the local cerebral palsy fund.

[20] Jackey Neyman-Jones, the seven-year-old who played Debbie, wept in disappointment at the premiere, particularly when hearing a woman's dubbed voice instead of her own.

[14] Following the premiere, Warren thought Manos was the worst film ever made, but was proud of it,[5] and he suggested that its audio might be re-dubbed into a passable comedy.

She criticized some elements, such as the "hero" Torgo being "massaged to death" by the Master's wives and Margaret's claim of "it's getting dark" with a bright midday sun.

Because it is such a pure slice of Warren's brain – he wrote, directed, produced and starred, and brooked no collaboration – Manos amounts to the man's cinematically transfigured subconscious.

[4] The scene in which the seven-year-old Debbie becomes a wife of the Master, played by her real father, was included in a list of "The Most Disgusting Things We've Ever Seen" by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew.

[25] On January 30, 1993, the film was featured on the fourth season finale of the Comedy Central series Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show about a crew held captive in outer space by two mad scientists, and forced to watch bad movies.

Manos was far worse than the usual fare, with the long uneventful drive used by the hosts to sarcastically repeat its title numerous times, in lieu of any action to heckle.

Conniff was generally in charge of pre-screening and selecting films sent to them by Comedy Central, the show's network at the time, and Manos was a random tape that he had pulled from a recent batch they had been sent.

[40] After raising funds with a Kickstarter campaign in May 2013, Manos – The Hands of Felt was performed again in Seattle by Vox Fabuli Puppets in August 2013 and filmed for DVD release.

[43] In March 2015, the murderers on the Elementary episode "T-Bone And The Iceman" used the physical features of Torgo (portrayed by John Reynolds) to compose a fake facial composite to get the NYPD off their trail.

[48] Manos: The Hands of Fate is in the public domain because director Harold Warren failed to include a copyright notice in the film.

Others engaged to appear included World Wrestling Entertainment star Gene Snitsky, former WWE diva and Playboy centerfold Maria Kanellis, and UFC fighter Ryan "Big Deal" Jimmo.

David Roy (producer of the 2014 film Cheeseballs) was announced as the writer and director, and cast members were to include Neyman-Jones (playing Manos, the evil deity).

[56] Jackey Neyman-Jones, who played Debbie in the original film, launched a Kickstarter campaign in February 2016 to make a sequel titled Manos Returns.