Monster of the Day #3027

Updated on May 11, 2020 By Ken Begg 23 Comments

The Cult Cinema Classics channel on YouTube has been on a vintage schlock run lately. In the last week they’ve post Fog Island (with George Zucco and Lionel Atwill), the previously mentioned They Saved Hilter’s Brain, The Corpse Vanishes and Jabootu subject Invisible Ghost (probably the daffiest of the Lugosi poverty row pics), Bride of the Gorilla and, as you may have guessed from today’s feature, Manos Hands of Fate. A distinguished panel of experts once deemed that Torgo is in fact a monster, and who am I to disagree.

Stay safe, everyone.

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  • Gamera977

    A double-feature with ‘They Saved Hitler’s Brain’ and ‘They Saved Torgo’s Hand’?

    I used to think this was the worst movie I’ve ever watched- after seeing ‘Winterbeast’ I’m not so sure…

  • Ericb

    “I’ve got some poodle meat in the freezer for ya.”

  • Ericb

    ‘Monster A-Go-Go’?

    As far as badness rating goes at a certain point some films have to stop being considered “films” and have to be put in the “home movie” category. Because, ultimately, there is no bottom.

  • Ericb

    I mean, when I first read about ‘Monster A-Go-Go’ I was curious to see how bad it was so I rented it from Netflix. And while, yes, it certainly was bad and unwatchable the “feature” it shared the disk with was … well I don’t know what it was. Evidently someone got hold of a movie camera, a bunch of colored lights and a kilo of weed and tried to make what I assume was supposed to be a movie about the supernatural. I lasted about 5 or 10 minutes and that was it and gave up. I forget the title but it showed me the there was a “beyond of bad” that I had never imagined before.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I don’t know…Winterbeast’s biggest problem was that it was simply too long. Edited down to, say, 20 minutes and it might have been at least passable. The only way to improve Manos would be to edit out the entire movie.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, ‘home movie’ is the right term!!!

    And ‘Monster A-Go-Go’- is right up there!

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Looks like the second feature might be “Psyched by the 4-D Witch.”

  • Ericb

    Yeah, I think that was the title.

  • zombiewhacker

    From a technical standpoint (you know, the basics — camera, sound, lighting, editing — things like that) Manos certainly scraped the bottom. Storywise, I think I’ve seen tons worse.

  • bgbear_rnh

    I recently watched “Blood Freak” and I can’t imagine it ever being released in theaters.

  • I’ve yet to see Manos. I have, however, played the video game based on the movie. It’s not bad. Probably the best video game adaptation of a movie, if what I hear of Manos is correct.

  • Ken_Begg

    Man, those claymation monsters, though. It will play at T-Fest someday…assuming we can hold them again in the future.

  • Ken_Begg

    Well, that’s more Things or Weasels Ripped My flesh. Monster A-Go-Go is actually, by comparison, a ‘real’ film. Sort of. Kind of.

  • Ken_Begg

    Ha, that used to be on Amazon.

  • Ken_Begg

    Drive-ins, though, definitely.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    You mean it’s really boring, has no gameplay, the controls don’t work, and you end up right back where you started (because you haven’t moved at all)?

  • bgbear_rnh

    Funny, growing up we had two drive-ins and they were generally more popular than the “walk-ins” and as a result they mostly showed the better first run big studio films.

    Robert Lippert had one his theaters in town that showed the a lot of drive-in stuff, but it was closed before I had a good memory of it.

  • Gamera977

    I was wondering what’s the player character? The hard-headed husband, the screechy wife, the little girl, Torgo? The poodle was the only character I found even remotely likable. I guess you could play The Master and collect wives for his harem.

  • It’s actually not a bad little game, done like the (original) Nintendo games. You’re the husband trying to rescue his family, and you go through various stages until you reach the end. Each stage ends in a boss battle inspired by a Bad Movie. There’s a fight with Plan Nine‘s Tor Johnson and Vampira, one with a monster the size of a battleship, and so on. When you beat the game it unlocks a new mode where you play as Torgo going through the exact same stages.

    Honestly, it’s a far better game than Manos probably deserves.

  • That’s why while I’ve no interest in revisiting Things, it didn’t even make me mad. It would have had to rise to the level of actual movie to inflict pain. It was just sad instead.

  • The Rev.

    Yeah, the monsters will be a hit, although you do need patience in between those scenes. I’m curious what people will think of that one actor and whatever he was doing, though. I personally found him utterly fascinating.

    Also, I don’t like the idea of never having a T-Fest again. I look forward to those so much. I hope that is never the case.

  • The Rev.

    I haven’t played that, but I have seen footage from it, and my first thought was, “Well this looks utterly delightful!” I actually laughed with delight when the monster the size of a battleship popped up.

  • The Rev.

    Yeah, Things isn’t even a movie. It’s just…I don’t know what it is, but it’s not a movie. I felt agony and hatred for Daniel der Zauberer, confused pain for Funky Forest, and I even had feelings on Weasels Ripped My Flesh, but Things I have no feelings toward. Other than the monsters being adorably chintzy. It’s…kind of an interesting phenomenon, honestly.